How to grow chili pepper is no way near as difficult as spelling the name of this hot and pungent plant! So, if after you've read this you are still in search of information, look under chilli, chili, chilly, and chile pepper!

The chilli pepper also has several aliases. Its botanical name is capsicum baccatum although it is commonly those who are on familiar terms with this delicacy also lovingly call it cayenne pepper, jalapeno, long pepper, and perhaps the most descriptive and important name, capsicum pepper plant. The word capsicum is very important when discovering how to grow chili pepper. Capsicum is the genus of all pepper plants and all plants in the genus (except the friendly green bell pepper) contain measurable amounts of capsaicin, which is the stuff that makes them hot. You'll find the capsaicin inside a chilli pepper between the ribs of the fruit. (Yes fruit!) However, you can't see capsaicin, but you'll know you've found it because it burns!

After you've learned how to grow chilli pepper and you're ready to harvest them, take care when handling chilli peppers to always protect your hands and your eyes. Although we laugh about the heat chilli pepper can generate, it's no laughing matter if you should get capsaicin in your eyes or on some other tender body parts.

So now that you know about them, let's talk about how to grow chili peppers. Because chili peppers are a tropical plant, as well as making things hot, they like living in warm temperatures. Chili peppers can be started from either seed or transplants. In either case, you won't want to plant them into your outside garden until all danger of frost has passed.

Once planted in your garden, your pepper plants will need good air circulation, plenty of sun, and well-drained soil that stays at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27C) from planting to harvest. After blooming, you will know if you have been successful at learning how to grow chili peppers by the green chillis, attached to many of the stems of your shrub-like pepper plant. An added benefit of chilli peppers is that they can be used green before they ripen to their rich crimson red.