My 2026 Hot Sauce Production - From The Beginning

[58limited]

I decided to post this year's hot sauce production from seed to finished product. I grow some, not all, of the peppers used in my hot sauces. The main one that I grow is not commercially available and when I tried to google substitutions there weren't any except for a few even harder to find varieties. I posted some of these in the Show Us What You Are Growing thread.


This year, instead of using Jiffy pellets and trays to start the seeds, I bought these seed trays with humidity lids and some 6 plug seedling pots. I planted 24 of these pots for 144 plugs total - I planted two seeds per plug. Several plugs ended up with two seedlings so I divided them and wound up with a lot more plugs of seedlings. What really amazed me is that a large percentage of the seeds sprouted within 1 - 1 1/2 weeks and they have grown robustly ever since. The Jiffy pellet method I've used in the past was never this fast and never had this rapid vibrant growth. I used Ferti-Loam seed starter soil and Ferry Morse heating mats and grow lights.

These will all go into above ground planters that I have.

Planting day:



Week 1



Week 2



Week 3



Week 4



Week 4 1/2, I started repotting into 4" paper pots with Happy Frog potting soil.




I also planted several other varieties: Scotch Bonnet peppers, the 10 I planted last year are still alive, I might be able to make a limited edition Scotch Bonnet hot sauce. Jalapenos, I have about 18 that sprouted. Serranos - about 8 sprouted. All of these are used in my hot sauce.


These varieties will be pot grown, they are not used in my hot sauce. My plan is to have two of each:

Aleppo
Peter
Zia Pueblo
Antep Aci Dolma
Leutschauer Paprika
Szegedi 179 Paprika
Alma Paprika
Sugar Rush Stripey
Fushimi
Prik Chi Faa
NuMex Nematador
Piment d'Espelette

[Hulagn1971]

Very cool, especially for something that will be hot!

[CaptainMike]

You do have a couple of fans out on the left coast!

[Jerod Broussard]

You think those fans are strong enough to provide a good breeze for those plants?

[yakima]

12 non hot sauce peppers. I have heard of 1. Holy Moly, what a project.

[DavidNorcross]

Excellent job!

[Sweaty Paul]

Very cool!

[STEbbq]

This is a good idea and deserves its own thread as I didn't see the discussion on the other one.

[Steve B]

I’m jealous Dave.

[captainlee]

Very nice! We use Happy Frog for starting our tomato seeds.

[58limited]

Week 5

Finished repotting the peppers, except for the jalapenos (18) and serranos (10) which are 2 weeks younger.

Total: 168 peppers in 4" pots. Most for the hot sauce but some will be in 5 gallon pots for cooking and salsas.

The peppers will stay in these 4" pots for about a month, maybe a month and a half, before I plant them in the ground.

[Steve B]

Did I say I was jealous? 😁

[58limited]

Week 9 and the last cold snap has passed (I hope) - time for planting. I set up one more 1" X 4" X 12" above ground planter. It took 1 1/2 pickup loads of dirt to fill it, I used the other 1/2 load to fill 25 five gallon pots for other peppers I'm growing for fun. The peppers are in 4" paper pots right now. I bought this tool to make planting easier and faster than using a regular small shovel - time (and back) saver for sure.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BG2KHJMW

One load of dirt already in the planter, here is the second load.




This is the planter at the side of the house, there are 66 pepper plants in this one.



This one is the new one next to another planter. It is by the side fence and an old storage building. The new bed has 30 peppers. To the right in the older bed are 10 Scotch Bonnets that survived winter. I didn't think that they would survive so I planted more seeds, there are now an additional 11 Scotch Bonnets in the bed. At the back of the bed are 3 Chile Petines.



I still have a lot more to plant: about 18 jalapenos, 10 serranos, and 35 Shishitos along with the ones I'm putting in 5 gallon pots. I have two 2" X 4" X 8" planters at the back of the house, they should hold 40-50 plants.

[RonB]

It looks like they are coming along nicely.

[dpearce]

Cool! We always had a huge garden growing up. I want to put some raised beds in the backyard for peppers and some veggies. When I mentioned it to SWMBO last year, she wasn't too keen on the idea.

Maybe this will be my year! Probably should do it pretty soon though...

[58limited]

You probably are a couple of weeks behind us for planting so you have time, I'm on the SE Texas coast. Show your wife my pics, and you can make decorative wood planters too.

[58limited]

4' X 8' X 2' planter in the back, 22 pepper plants. While I was working on this project there was aloud BOOM - apparently there was an explosion at the Valero plant 3-4 miles away. No injuries reported so far but I can see the smoke cloud from here.

There are 17 five gallon pots in front of the planter with several different varieties that I'm growing for fun. If this hot sauce thing really takes off, I own that vacant lot in the background which should grow a lot of peppers.