By Best Selling - Seeds for the Tower Garden

The first thing you should know about the Bird’s Eye Chili Pepper is that it is ... HOT! That’s also the third and fifth things you should know. Small 1"-2", tapered fruit grows on a compact bush and ripens through all the showy colors of a painted bunting, green to purple to orange to red. Pungent with fruity, tropical notes and a serious blast of heat. Use this little Thai chili to add fiery flair to everything from Asian stir fries to Indian curries to South African peri-peri sauce.

• Hot
• Fruity, tropical flavor
• Good for planting in containers & small spaces
• Harvest any color

SEED PLANTING TIPS

• Botanical name: Capsicum annuum
• Pepper length: 1"-2"
• Scoville heat units (SHU): 50,000-100,000/hot
• Plant support: None
• Depth to plant seeds: .25" deep
• Spacing between plants: 12"-18" apart
• Spacing between rows: 18"-24" apart
• Days to germinate (sprout): 7-21 days
• Germination soil temps: 75F-85F
• Soil needs: 6.0-7.0 pH
• Sun needs: Full sun
• Frost hardy: No
• Planting season: Spring, summer
• # of plants per sq. ft.: Appx. 1 plant per sq. ft.
• Days to maturity: 100+ days

Good companion plants: Basil, Carrot, Cucumber, Eggplant, Okra, Rosemary, Sage, Squash, Tomato

• The Birds Eye pepper is the official wild pepper of Texas. A very hot, often 7x – 8x hotter on the scoville scale than jalapenos!

• This is a Perennial pepper variety which means that if the soil doesn’t freeze hard in your area, you'll most likely be able to grow these peppers all year round.
  

• Easy to grow from seeds.

• Can be used in place of any hot peppers in many culinary recipes. 

• The commercial hot sauce brand Cholula lists bird peppers as one of its ingredients.

• Thomas Jefferson first obtained seed of the Bird's Eye Pepper in 1812 from Captain Samuel Brown, who was stationed in San Antonio, Texas.  Jefferson recorded planting this pepper in pots and in the kitchen garden in 1814. [source]
  
  

Red Shiso (Perilla frutescens), also called Perilla Leaf and Japanese Basil, is an herb in the mint family with large, deep purple, wrinkled, serrated leaves. Much stronger and spicier than Green Shiso, the crunchy leaves are used mainly in salads, for pickling, and as a natural food coloring. Used extensively in Japanese cuisine, it has a fresh minty-basil flavor with notes of clove and cumin, and a bitter, astringent finish. Pairs well with fish, rice, noodles, and vegetables, especially cucumbers. Also a medicinal herb with antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic properties. Its rhizome root can become invasive, so best grown in a container.

• Mint-basil-clove-cumin flavor
• Full sun
• Days to germinate (sprout): 7-21 days
• Days to maturity: 80-85 days

Good companion plants: Arugula, Basil, Bok Choy, Parsley, Tomato

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