Finally got the Datil peppers started.

[chadinclw]

I picked up some Datil pepper seeds on my last trip to St. Augustine, FL. The Minorcan pepper does quite well there and was brought to the region by the Portugese. Anyway, I finally got around to starting the seeds and they are a PITA to start. The germination rate is low and slow, but I successfully got about 10 plants started.

I'll post some pics when they get big enough to see. 

 The pepper are hot but not unbearable and being small sized they are great for pickling to make hot vinegar for greens.

Seeds are available on Amazon as well as locations in St. Augustine.

 

[SmokinAl]

How hot are they compared to a jalapeno?

 

[chadinclw]

Hotter than a jalapeno. Somewhere around 100-300K Scoville units. Up there with habanero but the fruit is sweeter and flavor nicer - in my opinion.

 

[chadinclw]

Here's some pictures from 2008. The large bush with imature fruit provided the seeds (previous year) for the pots.

These pots were all given away and the large bush finally got nailed by frost. Hence the new batch of seedlings!

 

[theoldman]

We live about 30 miles from St. Augustine, and have doctor visits there quite frequently.  Believe it or not, Datil seeds and plants are quite expensive there. I bought 2 plants from a garden store last summer and planted them in the garden.  One of them lived, and had 2 peppers on it. I just found some seeds on line, 25 for 1.79, so am going to start under grow lights.  There's a fresh vegetable stand at the county line going to St Augustine, where they grow many veggies they sell. They sell a catsup based datil hot sauce that is the most flavorful I've ever tasted.  If my datils grow this year, gonna try to make my own.