Growing Sweet Cherry Peppers: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · September 30, 2026
Sweet cherry peppers are small, round red peppers about 1.5 to 2 inches across. They are the classic pepper for stuffing with cheese or cured meat and packing in oil, and for pickling whole.
Pick them red
Cherry peppers are harvested red. San Diego Seed Company lists its Red Cherry Sweet at 75 days or more, and Burpee lists its Large Cherry at 80 days. Burpee’s Large Cherry is a hot type, so check the packet: sweet and hot cherry peppers look alike on the plant.
A compact plant
San Diego Seed Company gives about 24 inches and Burpee 30 inches. That compact size makes them a good container pepper. One plant per square foot in the Garden Designer.
Start seed indoors about eight weeks before your last frost. The Bell Pepper profile covers the shared 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: San Diego Seed Company, Red Cherry Sweet; Burpee, Large Cherry; NC State Extension, Saving Your Own Seed; University of Delaware Weekly Crop Update.
Companion planting guide for Sweet Cherry Pepper · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 2-2.5 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 sweet cherry pepper, by zone
Every zone sweet cherry 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 27–Sep 3 |
| 4a & 4b | Mar 20–Mar 27 | May 29–Jun 5 | Aug 12–Aug 19 |
| 5a & 5b | Mar 15–Mar 22 | May 24–May 31 | Aug 7–Aug 14 |
| 6a & 6b | Feb 28–Mar 7 | May 9–May 16 | Jul 23–Jul 30 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 13–Feb 20 | Apr 24–May 1 | Jul 8–Jul 15 |
| 8a & 8b | Jan 28–Feb 4 | Apr 8–Apr 15 | Jun 22–Jun 29 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 21–Dec 28 | Mar 1–Mar 8 | May 15–May 22 |
| 10a & 10bSpring window | Dec–Feb | Feb–Apr | ~75 days after transplanting |
| Summer window | May–Jul | Jul–Sep | ~75 days after transplanting |
| 11a & 11bSummer window | Jun–Dec | Aug–Feb | ~75 days after transplanting |
Harvest dates are about 75 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 Sweet Cherry Pepper plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-2.5 ft.
Soil & water: pH 6-6.5. Needs well-drained soil. Amend with lime if soil pH falls below 6.
Good companions for sweet cherry 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 sweet cherry pepper →
Where to buy sweet cherry pepper seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries sweet cherry 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 sweet cherry pepper" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Sweet Cherry Pepper: Round, cherry-sized sweet peppers for stuffing and pickling.
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