Growing Shishito Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · September 30, 2026
Shishito is the small, wrinkled green pepper that gets blistered in a hot pan and eaten whole. Baker Creek calls it an old Japanese variety with 3 inch fruit, mildly flavored with just a bit of spice.
Picked green, and picked often
Shishitos are harvested green, at 2 to 4 inches. Baker Creek gives about 50 days to green fruit and 80 days to red, and True Leaf Market lists 60 to 69 days from transplant. Picking keeps the plant setting more, so a couple of plants can supply a steady stream through summer.
Heat is low. True Leaf Market and Bonnie Plants both put it at 100 to 1,000 Scoville units. Now and then one fruit in a batch is noticeably warmer.
Plant size
True Leaf Market lists plants at 24 to 36 inches. One per square foot is the spacing the Garden Designer uses.
Start seed indoors about eight weeks before your last frost. The Bell Pepper profile covers shared care, and the companion guide lists neighbors. If you like this style of pepper, Padrón is the Spanish equivalent.
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: True Leaf Market, Shishito; Baker Creek, Shishito; Bonnie Plants, Shishito; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed; University of Delaware Weekly Crop Update.
Companion planting guide for Shishito Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 2-3 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 shishito pepper, by zone
Every zone shishito 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 | Aug 12–Aug 19 |
| 4a & 4b | Mar 20–Mar 27 | May 29–Jun 5 | Jul 28–Aug 4 |
| 5a & 5b | Mar 15–Mar 22 | May 24–May 31 | Jul 23–Jul 30 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 28–Mar 7 | May 9–May 16 | Jul 8–Jul 15 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 13–Feb 20 | Apr 24–May 1 | Jun 23–Jun 30 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 28–Feb 4 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Jun 7–Jun 14 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 21–Dec 28 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Apr 30–May 7 |
| 10a & 10bSpring window | Dec–Feb | Feb–Apr | ~60 days after transplanting |
| Summer window | May–Jul | Jul–Sep | ~60 days after transplanting |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | Jun–Dec | Aug–Feb | ~60 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 60 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 Shishito Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-3 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for shishito 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 shishito pepper →
Where to buy shishito pepper seeds
Botanical Interests · True Leaf Market · High Mowing Organic Seeds (shishito pepper seeds)
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a clear consensus of positive, independent reviews, or ones we bought and use ourselves. Each item on our gear page says which.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing shishito pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
Pin this for later
Growing Shishito Pepper: The Japanese blistering pepper: mild, thin-skinned, and picked green while small.
Save to Pinterest