Santa Fe Grande Pepper

Be sure to check out ourPepper Growing Guideto learn how to successfully grow peppers at home.

Also known as a Guero pepper, the Santa Fe Grande Pepper offers mild heat with a slight sweet flavor. This is an heirloom, open-pollinated variety that produces heavy yields of 3″ conical fruits with blunt ends. Fruits are initially a pale green to yellow and mature to an orange-red color. These are just as beautiful as they are tasty! In the middle of the growing season, any given plant will be loaded with colors of yellow, orange and red peppers. Plants are easy to manage and reach about 30″ tall. Santa Fe Grande Pepper is the perfect variety for making fresh salsas and other cold pepper dishes. It also works really well as a pickling pepper. It has thick walls and provides a nice crunchy texture to any dish.

Peppers are in the nightshade family along with tomatoes and eggplant. Plants in the nightshade family are susceptible to blossom end rot, which is a result of a calcium deficiency. To prevent or alleviate this problem, apply pelleted gypsum at the base of the plant at bloom set. Peppers do best when transplanted, as the germination time can be longer than most vegetable seed. Peppers grow very well in our heavy-duty seed starting trays. Plants should be started 4-6 weeks before the intended outdoor planting date.

If conditions outside are favorable, transplants may be planted directly from our 162 cell trays. If conditions are still too cold for planting peppers, transplants may be stepped-up to 4 pots to allow more room to grow. Peppers can produce heavy fruits and will require some form of support to keep the plant upright. We recommend using the Florida Weave trellising technique that involves using stakes and twine along the row. This ensures that plants and fruits stay off the ground, reducing the possibility of disease and keeping fruits clean.

Santa Fe Grande Pepper Planting Information

Planting Method: transplant

When to Plant: after last frost

Planting Depth: 1/4

Seed Spacing: 2

Row Spacing: 3-4

Days to Maturity: 75

Disease Resistance: Tobacco Mosaic Virus