how to plant, grow, and care for cubanelle peppers

Vegetables

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Cubanelle Peppers

Grab your Cubanelle seeds and get ready to grow peppers! This cultivar is a necessary component for many Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban dishes, including sofrito. With sunlight, good soil, and water, your chiles will excel all summer long. Join....

longtime pepper grower Jerad Bryant in learning the juicy details about this unique variety.

Cubanelle peppers are special additions to vegetable gardens throughout the U.S. They add ornamental charm with white flowers and lush green leaves on three-foot-tall stems. Their slight spiciness is less than a jalapeño; it’s perfect for mild spice lovers.

The Cubanelle replaces bell peppers in recipes, adding a bit of spiciness to dishes. It’s a unique kind, with sweetness and heat. Roast these peppers in an oven or over a barbeque for a smoky treat—roasting them brings out their honey-like flavor.

This is an easy crop to grow in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 through 9, though they require a jump start indoors. This is easy enough with a bright window or grow lights. Once mature, they’ll thrive outside under summer heat.
What Is It?
The Cubanelle grows commonly throughout Central and South American gardens. Peppers are perennial in tropical zones 10 and above, and frost tender in zones 9 and below. In grocery stores, this variety is green to yellow, but they turn orange, then red if you leave them on the vine. They look similar to banana peppers with a wrinkly, slightly curved shape.
Native Area

Cubanelle peppers originate from Central and South America. They’re incredibly popular in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and for good reason! They add necessary flavor alongside varieties like ‘Ají Dulce’ and ‘Rocotillo.’

This type thrives in tropical conditions—plants appreciate consistent water, warm temperatures, and plenty of direct sunlight to match their native range. They are now common vegetables throughout the world. They may be annuals in most parts of North America, but there’s a trick to keeping them alive during the winter!

Characteristics
The Cubanelle plant sprouts white and green flowers like most other varieties. These attract bees, as the blossoms provide valuable nectar and pollen aplenty. If there’s a lack of pollinators, gently shaking your flowering plants helps them pollinate themselves. This trick works for eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and most crops with bisexual flowers.

After pollination, flowers morph into Cubanelle peppers. Lime green skin complements wrinkly, five-inch-long fruits. They taste freshest when this color. With age, they’ll turn sweeter and spicier.

Cubanelle plants grow three feet tall, meaning you can easily fit them in amongst your other plants. One plant grows a dozen or more chiles, so plant a few to have enough for canning, sauce making, or cooking.

Planting
Unless you’re in zone 10 or above, you’ll want to start Cubanelle seeds indoors a few weeks before your last average frost date. This type is hard to find as transplants in nurseries, so seed starting is the best way to get a crop going.

How early to start seeds depends on your plant’s hardiness zone. They need eight to ten weeks indoors, and another 80 days after transplanting to produce lots of fruits. Keep seedlings safe from frost, then bring them outside when warm temperatures return in spring or summer.
How to Grow

Cubanelles grow similarly to bell peppers; they’re short, stocky plants with peppers throughout their stems. Tuck them in where you would a bell pepper, or arrange them in rows for organized fruit production. They appreciate some care while they grow—give them what they need, and they’ll reward you with dozens of peppers.
Maintenance
Peppers need little maintenance while they grow. If they lean or fall, you can use a stake or trellis to straighten and support them. When they are young, you may choose to top prune them, encouraging bushy growth. Do this only if you have a long growing season of more than 80 days.

As fall frost approaches, your peppers may stop ripening if cold reaches them. Protect them with row cover on frosty nights, and hard prune them. Hard pruning means cutting stems above ripening fruit and removing flowers along with leafy growth. This encourages the Cubanelle to put energy into ripening their fruits rather than growing bigger.

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