How to Start a Boonie Pepper Plant From Seed
Sometimes called bird's eye chili, the boonie pepper (Capsicum frutescens) is a strain of hot pepper widely grown on the island of Guam. The nearly 6-foot-tall plants take up to four months to produce a crop of slender, 1-inch-long fruit, so they perform best in warmer areas with long, hot summers and mild winters. Boonie peppers reproduce best from seed, which must be sown indoors. The seeds germinate quickly if kept under warm, moderately moist conditions.
Start boonie pepper seeds indoors approximately six to eight weeks before the last spring frost so the plants will be well-established by planting time. Soak the seeds in a bowl of water for one hour. Plant only the seeds that sink to the bottom.
Fill 2.5-inch starter pots with a moistened growing mix made up of 4 parts sterile potting soil to 1 part perlite. Sow one boonie pepper seed in each starter pot at a depth of 1/4 inch.
Arrange the starter pots on a slat-bottomed nursery tray to make handling them easier. Position the tray on a warming mat near a large, south-facing window. Cover the pots with a propagation dome or a sheet of plastic wrap.
Maintain a daytime temperature of 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Lower the temperature on the warming mat to 68 F at night to mimic the natural warming and cooling of the soil outdoors. Do not let the temperature drop below 60 F since the seeds might go dormant.
Water the boonie pepper seeds whenever the soil feels barely moist just beneath the surface. Add water with a spray bottle until the soil feels moderately moist in the top half inch. Do not saturate the soil since the seeds will rot if kept too wet.
Watch for germination in approximately two weeks. Leave the propagation dome in place until the seedlings grow to 1 inch in height. Slowly acclimate the seedlings to normal conditions by lifting the dome for an increasing length of time each day.
Adjust the frequency and method of watering after the boonie pepper seeds germinate. Add water whenever the soil feels mostly dry in the top 1/2 inch. Drizzle the water directly onto the soil rather than spraying from above to eliminate excess moisture buildup among the leaves.
Transplant the boonie peppers into the garden once soil temperatures have warmed to a minimum of 65 F and nighttime air temperatures stay reliably above 55 F. Plant them in a sunny bed with slightly acidic, fast-draining soil. Space the plants approximately 18 inches apart.
- Wash your hands thoroughly after handling boonie pepper seeds since they contain capsaicin, the oily component responsible for the peppers' spiciness, which can irritate skin.
Samantha McMullen began writing professionally in 2001. Her nearly 20 years of experience in horticulture informs her work, which has appeared in publications such as Mother Earth News.