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For what ever reason, the seed industry has chosen a very misleading way to inform potential customers how long it takes a pepper plant to grow. The Carolina Reaper plant is no exception to this pattern. Its original cultivator lists days till maturity at between 70 and 90. This is industry standard and it is wildly misleading at both ends of a plant’s life cycle.

First off, like many super hot peppers, the Carolina Reaper plant takes much time to germinate. I have seen some seeds not show themselves for as long as a month, so tack 30 days on to that days till maturity. Now we are at 100 – 120 days.

Next, what the seed companies are not fast to tell you is that their days till maturity estimates are from the time of transplant out doors. Practically all of the super hots must be started indoors. If the seed seller says you must start them indoors a month before your last chance of frost, tack on another 30 days to the days to maturity. Now we are at 130 to 150 days till maturity.

Next, we have to consider the word ‘maturity’. The term is most often used to mean the onset of sexual maturity. Not when the plant fruits, but when it is capable of producing fruit. You could have another 90 days or more before you have ripe pepper pods. Some strains might take 120 days or more to fully mature. So now we are at 220 to 250 days between planting a seed and having a fresh and mature Carolina Reaper pepper to eat. That is eight or nine months and I did not mention these are all guestimates based on optimum growing conditions and a very favorable season.

Źródło: http://www.peppersbymail.com/reference/ ... per-plant/