The Hinkelhatz has been grown in Pennsylvania Dutch gardens for more than 150 years, and it’s an easy fit for yours. The plant is compact, about 2 feet tall, and productive, and the pods reach full color about 88 days after transplanting. That timing works almost everywhere in the U.S. The planner below works out your dates from your zip code.
Want to know how hot they get and how they’re used? That’s in our Hinkelhatz pepper profile. This page is all about growing them.
Last update on 2026-10-31. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
- Heat
- 5,000–30,000 SHU
- Start seeds indoors
- 6–10 weeks before your last spring frostGeneral figure for peppers, not specific to this one.
- Germination
- 6–28 daysIn soil around 70–85°F.
- Harden off
- 7–14 days before transplanting
- Transplant
- After last frost, once nights stay at 50°F or warmer
- First harvest
- 88 days after transplanting
- Plant height
- 24 inches
- Containers
- Can be grown in a large container
Where these figures come from
- Start seeds indoors: NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, Growing Tips; Clemson HGIC, Pepper; University of Maryland Extension, Growing Peppers in the Home Garden
- Germination: Nature and Nurture Seeds, Hinkelhatz Hot Pepper Seeds; University of Minnesota Extension, Growing peppers; Nebraska Extension G1879, Garden Peppers; NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, Special Seed Starting Instructions; Utah State University Extension, Peppers in the Garden
- Harden off: UC ANR, Growing Peppers; Penn State Extension (Chester Co. Master Gardeners), Growing Peppers; Nebraska Extension G1879, Garden Peppers
- Transplant: University of Minnesota Extension, Growing peppers; UGA Extension C1005, Home Garden Peppers; NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, Growing Tips
- First harvest: Fedco Seeds, Hinkelhatz Organic Hot Pepper
- Plant height: Nature and Nurture Seeds, Hinkelhatz Hot Pepper Seeds
- Containers: Fedco Seeds, Hinkelhatz Organic Hot Pepper
When to plant Hinkelhatz peppers where you live
Hinkelhatz peppers can’t take frost, and they grow slowly in cold soil. Plant them out after your last frost, once nights stay at 50°F or warmer and the soil has reached about 60°F.
Type in your zip code and you’ll get dates for starting seeds, hardening off, transplanting and your first harvest, all from NOAA frost data for your area, plus a check on whether your season is long enough. For the Hinkelhatz it nearly always is. It ripens before frost in 96% of U.S. counties.
Starting Hinkelhatz pepper seeds indoors
Start the seeds 6 to 10 weeks before your last spring frost. Keep the seed-starting mix warm, between 70 and 85°F, and be patient, since Hinkelhatz seed can take anywhere from 6 to 28 days to come up. Got an older packet? Check how long pepper seeds last before you count on it.
Once they’re up, give them bright light from overhead, and a week or two before transplanting, start hardening them off: set the seedlings outside a little longer each day so they’re used to being outdoors by the time they go in the ground.
Planting Hinkelhatz peppers outside
Where should they go? Your sunniest spot, since peppers do best with 8 to 10 hours of sun a day.
The plants stay compact, so space them 12 to 24 inches apart. There’s more in how much space pepper plants need.
They want well-drained soil with a pH of about 6.0 to 7.0. A soil test tells you where yours stands, and our guide to the best soil pH for peppers covers what to do about it.
Once the plants are in, mulch around them with compost, straw or wood chips to keep the weeds down and hold moisture in, keeping it off the stems. And if you lay black plastic down before planting, it warms the soil, too.
Growing Hinkelhatz peppers in containers
Short on garden space? The Hinkelhatz is compact enough to grow in a pot. Use one that holds at least 5 gallons and has drainage holes, and once the plant is big and setting fruit, expect to water every day. Our guide to growing hot peppers in containers has more.
A pot also lets you keep the plant going. The Hinkelhatz is a perennial grown as an annual, so you can bring the pot inside before frost and grow it again next year. Here’s how to handle growing hot peppers indoors, including bringing an outdoor plant in for the winter.
Watering and feeding Hinkelhatz peppers
They need about an inch of water a week. If the rain doesn’t give them that, soak the soil thoroughly. Frequent light watering leads to weak roots, and uneven watering is tied to blossom-end rot. The planner above shows how much rain your area normally gets each month. Our post on watering pepper plants has the details, and here are the signs of overwatering pepper plants.
Go easy on the nitrogen, since too much of it gives you a lot of leaves and fewer peppers. Test your soil before you fertilize, and unless the test says you need phosphorus, use a low- or no-phosphorus fertilizer. Our guide to fertilizing pepper plants walks through what to use and when.
When to pick Hinkelhatz peppers
Hinkelhatz pods ripen from green to a glossy red, and they reach full color about 88 days after transplanting. It’s a late-season pepper, usually ready by mid-September in Pennsylvania. Grow the yellow strain and they’ll turn yellow instead, and you can pick either one green if you need them early.
Use shears or pruners rather than pulling them off, since pepper branches are brittle. And wear gloves. At up to 30,000 Scoville heat units, these small pods can sting your skin and your eyes, so keep your hands away from your face until you’ve washed up, and know how to treat chili burn before you start.
If frost is coming and you’ve still got green ones on the plant, pick everything. You can try to ripen peppers (somewhat) off the vine, or if yours is in a pot, just bring the plant inside.
Common Hinkelhatz pepper plant problems
- Few new peppers in a heat wave: very little pepper fruit sets once highs reach 90°F. The planner shows when that usually happens where you live.
- Blossom-end rot: a brown rot on the bottom of the fruit, tied to calcium and uneven watering. See calcium deficiency in pepper plants.
- Sunscald: see sunscald on peppers.
- Curling or yellow leaves: see pepper plant leaves curling and pepper plants turning yellow.
- Aphids and spider mites: see aphids on pepper plants and spider mites on pepper plants.
- Plants that won’t grow: start with pepper plants growing slowly.
- A frost on the way: see will frost kill pepper plants?
For the rest, we’ve got a rundown of common pepper plant diseases and problems.
Get the free PepperScale Scoville Heat Chart
A printable, at-a-glance ranking of 25 chilies from sweet to scorching — with the jalapeño and Carolina Reaper as your reference points. Join the newsletter and we’ll send it straight to your inbox.
No spam — just Wicked Wednesday recipes and occasional extra dashes of chili pepper inspiration. Unsubscribe anytime.
Related reading
- Hot Pepper Vinegar: An easy way to use up your harvest, the way the Pennsylvania Dutch use theirs.
- What Are Heirloom Peppers?: What makes a pepper an heirloom, and why gardeners keep saving their seed.
- Pepper Companion Plants: What to plant next to your peppers, and what to keep away from them.