Our first attempt at growing Machu Picchu was in 2024 and we did so in a container (see photos). This was a robust  plant that developed solid thick stems. We found it to be slow growing and had only just started to flower in October. We brought the plant indoors into a well lit conservatory and aided pollination of the flowers with a fine paint brush. It did produce, relatively quickly several small to medium sized chilis that looked amazing. Our learning was that we were very late sowing and planting but will be growing again in 2025 using heated propagators for an early start. As an experiment we are trimming the stems down to about 12 cm and will look to over winter, treating as a perennial to see how this will grow (if indeed it does) next year. We will update in time with pictures and comments.

Sow indoors from December to March, in soil 0.5 cm deep, in separate pots or seed trays. Pot on in late spring outdoors when all risk of frost has passed. This variety is ideal for growing in containers on the patio in full sun. Alternatively, grown in the open ground the plants are much larger and very productive, but the chillies ripen fairly late in the season as we found with the pots last year. Peppers can be slow to germinate so allow around 40 days. Compost should not be too moist to prevent the seeds from rotting. All chilli peppers are very sensitive to the cold.

We also sell the popular Hungarian hot wax, Jalapeño, Hot De Cayenne and scotch Bonnet varieties. Orders over £10 receive free seeds. Postage is free and all packaging is plastic free, 100% recyclable with your paper.