How chili peppers are grown
The heat is a defense aimed at mammals. Birds lack the pain receptor, so they eat the fruit and feel nothing.
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The short version
Chili plants need warm soil to germinate and a sunny position to fruit, and commercial growers often raise them in polytunnels. Picking green keeps new flowers coming, while leaving fruit on the plant makes it hotter and redder at the cost of a smaller crop. Harvested pods are used fresh or dried for flakes and powder.
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Germinate in warm soil
Seeds sprout only when warm, close to 21 °C. Growers want a sunny site with moist loam that is not waterlogged, at 21 to 29 °C.
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Tend the small plants
Plants stand 20 to 60 centimeters tall and can pollinate themselves. They are sensitive to cold, and at 30 to 38 °C the pollen loses viability, so very hot spells also cost fruit. Stress such as a water shortage can raise the capsaicin in some varieties.
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Pick green or red
Unripe green fruit picked early leaves the plant to make more flowers and more peppers. Fruit left to ripen can grow hotter and change color, at the price of a smaller harvest.
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Dry them in the sun
Peppers bound for storage are dried, typically on the ground in hot countries. Smaller lots can be threaded on cotton and hung in a warm, dry place.
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Crush flakes and powder
Dried peppers are sold whole or broken down into flakes and chili powder. Heat levels can be measured by liquid chromatography, which reads the concentration of capsaicinoids.
Worth repeating
- Chili peppers were cultivated in east-central Mexico some 6,000 to 9,000 years ago.
- Washing does not efficiently remove capsaicin from skin.
- As of 2023 the hottest recognized cultivar was Pepper X, at over 2.69 million Scoville units.
Where it comes from
2024 world production of green chillies and peppers, 45 million tonnes, as quoted on Wikipedia. The figure covers all Capsicum and Pimenta fruits.
Where it goes next
Chili pepper feeds 3 lines directly.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How chili peppers are grown." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/chili-pepper