Green Grass Grove
Connecting specimen records, habitat data, and the living archive.
Pepper / Datil
Capsicum chinensePepper / Datil is maintained as a distinct Northeast Florida hot-pepper landrace type for Green Grass Grove production, seed or clone preservation, harvest records, scouting, and public education.
Botanical Overview
Pepper / Datil is maintained as a distinct Northeast Florida hot-pepper landrace type for Green Grass Grove production, seed or clone preservation, harvest records, scouting, and public education.
Why We Feature This Specimen
Pepper / Datil adds lantern-shaped hot fruit with fruity aroma to the 3G-GroveOS living catalog, with planting dates, harvest stage, flavor or heat, seed purity, and North Florida performance tracked together.
Climate & Protection
Cold protection trigger: Begin cold protection below 50 °F. The cold-damage threshold is the lower temperature where injury becomes likely, not the recommended waiting point.
Sun / Light: Full sun; slight afternoon shade may protect pepper fruit during extreme heat without replacing adequate light.
Pepper / Datil needs warm soil and a long frost-free season. Set transplants only after cool nights ease; use mulch, drip irrigation, and afternoon heat protection where fruit sunscald or flower drop becomes severe. Pungency is genetically determined but can vary with maturity and stress.
Planting & Seasonal Guide
Starting & Germination Methods
Seed Sowing
Seed sowing is the umbrella operational method for placing botanical seed into a germination environment. It includes selection of containers or beds, medium, depth, spacing, moisture, temperature, light,…
Open Full Method ↗Indoor Seed Starting
Indoor seed starting produces transplants in containers under managed temperature, light, moisture, sanitation, and spacing before outdoor or greenhouse establishment. It extends the production season, protects valuable seed,…
Open Full Method ↗Direct Seed
Direct Seed is retained as a legacy identity for placing seed directly into its final production container, bed, plug position, restoration cell, or growing location without first raising…
Open Full Method ↗Pepper / Datil needs warm soil and a long frost-free season. Set transplants only after cool nights ease; use mulch, drip irrigation, and afternoon heat protection where fruit sunscald or flower drop becomes severe. Pungency is genetically determined but can vary with maturity and stress.
Spacing: Space 18–24 inches apart, wider for tall branching chinense, frutescens, or baccatum types.
Planting Depth: Sow seed at crop-appropriate depth or set transplants at the original soil line; avoid burying pepper stems deeply in wet soil.
Pollination: Mostly self-fertile but benefits from vibration, bees, wind, and healthy flower conditions. Tomatoes may need support during humid or protected culture; peppers can drop flowers under stress.
Water, Soil & Nutrition
💧 Water & Moisture
Maintain even root-zone moisture through flowering and fruit fill. Avoid drought swings that worsen blossom-end rot and avoid saturated soil that favors root and crown disease.
Provide deep, even irrigation from transplant establishment through fruit fill. Fluctuating moisture increases blossom drop, small fruit, cracking, and blossom-end disorders.
Stake or cage plants, maintain airflow, and avoid late overhead irrigation. Humid leaf wetness increases bacterial spot and foliar disease.
🌱 Soil & Growing Media
Preferred pH: 5.80 to 6.80
↘ Drainage & Root-Zone Behavior
✦ Nutrition & Deficiency Checks
Use soil-test-based balanced fertility with split nitrogen and potassium. Maintain calcium uptake through even moisture rather than relying on unverified foliar cures.
Confirm pH, root health, nematodes, moisture, and crop stage before diagnosing nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, or micronutrient deficiency.
Growth, Maintenance & Harvest
Maintenance & Pruning
Use only crop-appropriate staking, pinching, trellising, branch support, or removal of diseased tissue. Do not overprune productive foliage.
Harvest or Observation
Clip fruit at the maturity stage appropriate to lantern-shaped hot fruit with fruity aroma, leaving a short stem. Frequent picking supports continued flowering; isolate seed-saving plants from other peppers if genetic purity matters.
Storage & Preservation
Cool fresh pods or fruit promptly. Dry mature seed completely before airtight storage and retain accession labels throughout cleaning.
Harvestable Plant Parts & Uses
Clip fruit at the maturity stage appropriate to lantern-shaped hot fruit with fruity aroma, leaving a short stem. Frequent picking supports continued flowering; isolate seed-saving plants from other peppers if genetic purity matters.
Propagation, Cloning & Tissue Culture
Propagation Methods
Seed
Seed is retained as an umbrella propagation identity for sexual reproduction through mature botanical seed. A seed normally contains an embryo, stored reserves or nutritive tissue, and protective…
Open Full Method ↗Transplant
Transplant is a nursery handling process that moves an established seedling, rooted cutting, division, grafted plant, or tissue-culture plantlet from one container or site to another. It is…
Open Full Method ↗Aquaponics, Hydroponics & Aeroponics
Aquaponics
Use only where root oxygen, potassium, calcium, iron, pollination, pest exclusion, and food-safety controls are adequate.
Hydroponics
- Target pH5.8–6.5
- Target EC1.8–2.8 mS/cm
Possible in supported, well-aerated systems with crop-specific trellising and mineral management. Universal N-P-K recipes are intentionally omitted.
Aeroponics
No profile-specific operating notes have been recorded.
Pests, Diseases, Safety & Toxicology
Scout Pepper / Datil for aphids, whiteflies, thrips, mites, flea beetles, pepper weevil, caterpillars, and root-knot nematodes. Inspect flowers and fruit separately from foliage and roots.
Monitor Pepper / Datil for damping-off, bacterial spot, Phytophthora blight, anthracnose, root rots, powdery mildew, and virus-like symptoms. Use clean transplants, rotation, drainage, sanitation, and resistant material where available.
Grow Pepper / Datil in warm conditions, stake or cage where fruit load requires support, maintain airflow, harvest fruit at the intended maturity, rotate away from solanaceous crops, and sanitize diseased fruit and residue.
Pepper / Datil is most vulnerable to incorrect seasonal timing, poor drainage, heat or cold stress, missed harvest windows, and loss of cultivar identity.
Pepper fruit is edible when correctly identified. Capsaicin-bearing fruit, placental tissue, and processing dust can burn skin, eyes, and airways; gloves and ventilation are required for hot types.
Pepper fruit is edible when correctly identified. Capsaicin-bearing fruit, placental tissue, and processing dust can burn skin, eyes, and airways; gloves and ventilation are required for hot types. Follow pesticide labels, preharvest intervals, protective-equipment guidance, and food sanitation.