Growing Peppers in Texas

We love your curated selection of heirloom and native seeds and making them available to people like us! We live in Zone 9a near Galveston,Texas. Our homestead garden is where we test and grow food for ourselves. We grow transplants naturally from seed to sell at markets and have recently started to offer to local nurseries! We are placing an order soon, just wanted to ask if you have any recommendations of varieties that do well in Texas or are favored for markets. Currently we have selected- Corno di Toro Yellow Bull, Padrón, Fushimi, Cow Horn, Aleppo and Anaheim.

Those are all excellent picks, in zone 9a you can grow a lot of great peppers! Gee, it's hard to pick just a few, but here are some of our top recommendations for more great peppers to grow in Texas:

Big Jim Legacy Chile
A long-time customer favorite, these plants produce huge tasty pods with thick flesh, great for chile rellenos and chile

Hatch Mild Green Chile - NM 6-4
Our most popular green chile to grow because of its mild heat, great flavor and it matures early. While these are from New Mexico, you can easily grow these well in Texas, too!

Hatch Green Hot - Doublecross Chile
A perfect chile for those that love Big Jim but want a little more heat.

Jalapenos
Nothing beats a jalapeno, we also have extra hot yellow and orange varieties which are fun. Most of our jalapeno varieties are also extra fast growing so customers can enjoy pods sooner in the season so you can enjoy a nice long Texan jalapeno harvest!

Habaneros
The classic Orange or Red Habaneros are super delicious and hot, another favorite of heat lovers. We think habaneros make the best tasting salsas and hot sauces, with their fruity unique flavor, especially when combined with carrots, lime juice and garlic – try out this Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe »

Pimento peppers
These are great flavored sweet peppers that go great on everything! We like to roast and peel them and then marinate in olive oil to put on top of sandwiches, pizza, burgers, you name it.

Carolina Reaper
A tasty super hot that heat-lovers love to grow. People love these for making wickedly-hot Carolina Reaper Salsa and hot sauces.

Chiltepin / Tepin pepper
This tiny pepper is perfect for Texas gardens, it also grows wild and is perennial in some parts of Texas! The tiny peppers are great for making pico, spicy vinegars or hot sauces and for hot pepper flakes. 

Ghost Peppers
Super hot peppers, Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers are great for making salsas, stews, hot sauces.

This Japanese heirloom sweet pepper is very popular and in great demand at farmer's markets! It has great flavor and is easy to prepare, just fry it in a cast iron pan with some olive oil and enjoy as a tasty side dish. These are almost always mild and savory, but once in awhile you may get one with some heat. The pepper plants are LOADED with pods, so you can harvest early and often to keep them coming all season long.

Know that if you're growing peppers in Texas, the sky is the limit, you can grow pretty much any of our 100+ pepper seeds.

Thanks for ordering our seeds and happy growing!!

 

The best time to plant peppers in most areas of Texas is around mid-March through mid-July when the soil temperature is at least 70 degrees. It's best to start them indoors under lights (or in a greenhouse) to get them started and growing for about 6-8 weeks before planting outdoors in the garden. Because peppers are adaptive to heat, many Texans can typically grow peppers for almost ten months out of the year!

Read our top 12 tips for growing peppers from seed »