Growing Pimento Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · September 30, 2026
Pimento (also spelled pimiento) is a heart-shaped or squat sweet red pepper with thick, juicy walls. It is the pepper in pimento cheese and the red strip in a stuffed olive.
Grown for the red stage
Pimentos are picked red. Hudson Valley Seed lists its Sweet Pimento at 80 days from transplant, so this is a mid-season pepper rather than an early one. Some heirlooms run faster: Baker Creek’s Ashe County Pimento, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, is listed at 52 days and described as a little more cold tolerant than most peppers.
A tidy plant for small beds
Plants stay compact. Hudson Valley lists about 24 inches and Baker Creek describes its pimento plants as 24 to 30 inches, which makes this one of the easier peppers to fit into a container or the front of a bed. One per square foot in the Garden Designer is plenty.
Start seed indoors about eight weeks before your last frost. Roast the ripe fruit and slip the skins, or chop it raw into cheese spreads. The Bell Pepper profile covers shared pepper care, and the companion guide lists neighbors.
Hot nights and dropped flowers
Pepper flowers fall off without setting fruit when nights stay above about 75°F, per the University of Delaware’s Weekly Crop Update. In zones 9 and up, expect a midsummer gap in fruiting; our zone pages flag it.
Growing it next to other peppers
Different pepper varieties cross-pollinate easily, hot ones included. NC State Extension notes that when hot and sweet peppers cross, the heat shows up in later generations grown from saved seed, and suggests keeping varieties 20 to 30 feet apart if you plan to save your own. Baker Creek, which grows seed for sale, isolates varieties by at least 500 feet. If you buy fresh seed each year, you can plant sweet and hot peppers side by side.
Sources: Hudson Valley Seed, Sweet Pimento; Baker Creek, Ashe County Pimento; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed; University of Delaware Weekly Crop Update.
Companion planting guide for Pimento Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 1.5-2.5 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant pimento pepper, by zone
Every zone pimento pepper grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Apr 4–Apr 11 | Jun 13–Jun 20 | Sep 1–Sep 8 |
| 4a & 4b | Mar 20–Mar 27 | May 29–Jun 5 | Aug 17–Aug 24 |
| 5a & 5b | Mar 15–Mar 22 | May 24–May 31 | Aug 12–Aug 19 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 28–Mar 7 | May 9–May 16 | Jul 28–Aug 4 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 13–Feb 20 | Apr 24–May 1 | Jul 13–Jul 20 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 28–Feb 4 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Jun 27–Jul 4 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 21–Dec 28 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | May 20–May 27 |
| 10a & 10bSpring window | Dec–Feb | Feb–Apr | ~80 days after transplanting |
| Summer window | May–Jul | Jul–Sep | ~80 days after transplanting |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | Jun–Dec | Aug–Feb | ~80 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 80 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Pimento Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1.5-2.5 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for pimento pepper
- Basil: Reputed to repel aphids and improve pepper growth nearby, but a controlled garden trial testing this same claim on a related crop found no pest-reduction benefit from basil, and found higher pest counts on the basil-companioned plants. Treat this pairing as unproven, not as a working pest deterrent.
- Onion: Reputed to deter many common pepper pests, though this specific pairing hasn't been tested the way onion/carrot pest-masking has. Treat it as garden tradition.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from pimento pepper →
Where to buy pimento pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries pimento pepper seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing pimento pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Pimento Pepper: The squat, thick-walled sweet red pepper behind pimento cheese and stuffed olives.
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