Plant Care Library

Group/Class:  Ornamental-Culinary

Description:

This compact dwarf variety produces 4-6" long fruit that range from hot to sweet; upward facing fruit that emerge light green with purple blush transform into bright scarlet when ripe; great for containers and gardens; adds a mild kick to any dish

Edible Qualities

Alter Ego Hot Pepper is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. It produces small scarlet oblong peppers (which are technically 'berries') with red flesh which are typically harvested when mature. The peppers have a spicy taste and a crunchy texture.

The peppers are most often used in the following ways:

• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking

Planting & Growing

Alter Ego Hot Pepper will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 22 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 18 inches apart. This vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Alter Ego Hot Pepper is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the larger thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.