The Bulgarian Carrot Pepper Planting Guide

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The Bulgarian carrot is a quick, tidy pepper to grow. The plants stay around 18 inches tall, and the orange pods are ready to pick 70 to 80 days from transplant, so they’ll ripen in all but the shortest summers. Put your zip code into the planner below, and it’ll give you the dates.

Looking for its heat, flavor and best uses? Those are in our Bulgarian carrot pepper profile. Here, it’s all about the garden.

Bulgarian Carrot Pepper Seeds

Bulgarian carrot pepper seed for planting. The compact, 18-inch plants ripen their orange, carrot-shaped pods 70 to 80 days after transplanting.

Last update on 2026-11-04. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

Growing at a glance

Bulgarian Carrot Pepper

Heat: 5,000–30,000 SHU
Start seeds indoors: 6–8 weeks before your last spring frost
Germination: 7–14 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: 70–80 days after transplanting
Plant height: 18 inches

Get these dates for your zip code

Where these figures come from

When to plant Bulgarian carrot peppers where you live

Frost kills pepper plants, and cold soil stalls them. So wait until your last frost has passed, nights are holding at 50°F or above, and the soil is around 60°F before you set them out.

Enter your zip code below for your seed-starting, hardening-off, transplanting and first-harvest dates. They come from NOAA frost records for your area, and the planner also checks if your season gives them enough time. With a pepper this quick, it nearly always does. Bulgarian carrots make it before the first fall frost in 98% of counties in the U.S. In another 1%, the timing is tight.

Map of U.S. counties showing where Bulgarian carrot peppers ripen before the first fall frost. Almost the whole country is a fit; the few counties that miss are in the high mountains of the West and in northern Alaska.

Starting Bulgarian carrot pepper seeds indoors

Sow the seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks ahead of the last frost date where you live. They like it warm, ideally 80 to 85°F, so a heat mat under the tray helps, and you can expect sprouts in 7 to 14 days. If your packet’s a few years old, our guide to how long pepper seeds last will tell you whether it’s still worth sowing.

After they come up, keep a bright light close above the seedlings. About a week or two before planting day, begin hardening them off: give them a few hours outdoors, then add a little more time each day.

Planting Bulgarian carrot peppers outside

Pick the sunniest bed you’ve got, since peppers want 8 to 10 hours of direct sun a day.

Bulgarian carrot plants top out around 18 inches, so 12 to 24 inches between plants is plenty, and about 18 is typical. There’s more on that in our guide to pepper plant spacing.

Give them soil that drains well, with a pH between about 6.0 and 7.0. Not sure what yours is? A soil test will tell you, and our soil pH guide explains how to adjust it.

After planting, spread compost, straw or wood chips around the plants, leaving a little space around each stem, to hold in moisture and keep weeds down. And for a head start, lay black plastic over the bed before planting to help the soil warm up faster.

Watering and feeding Bulgarian carrot peppers

Aim for roughly an inch of water each week, rain included, and when you water, water deeply. Light, frequent sprinkles keep roots shallow, and an uneven schedule is linked to blossom-end rot. The planner shows your area’s normal monthly rainfall, and there’s more in watering pepper plants, including how to spot overwatering.

Hold back on nitrogen, since too much means lots of leaves and not many peppers. Test the soil before you feed, and choose a low- or no-phosphorus fertilizer unless the test calls for more. Fertilizing pepper plants covers the timing and what to buy.

When to pick Bulgarian carrot peppers

Bulgarian carrot pods turn from green to orange about 70 to 80 days from transplant. A ripe pod is glossy and about 3 inches long, and the color can stop at golden orange or go on to a deep orange. Need some early? They’re fine to pick green, too.

Cut them with pruners or scissors instead of tugging, since pepper branches snap easily. Wear gloves as well. At as much as 30,000 SHU, these pods can burn your skin and sting your eyes. So wash up before you touch your face, and read up on chili burn ahead of time.

When frost is in the forecast, harvest every pod left on the plant, green ones included. Some will still color up indoors, and our guide to ripening peppers off the vine shows how.

Common Bulgarian carrot pepper plant problems

Flowers but no new peppers in midsummer: once daytime highs reach 90°F, very little fruit sets. The planner shows when that heat usually arrives in your area.
Blossom-end rot: dark, sunken spots on the bottom of the pod, linked to calcium and irregular watering. More on the cause in calcium deficiency.
Sunscald: pale, papery patches on pods left exposed to strong sun. Here’s how to prevent sunscald.
Leaves curling or turning yellow: see our posts on leaf curl and yellowing leaves.
Aphids and spider mites: here’s how to get rid of aphids and spider mites.
Stunted plants: see why pepper plants grow slowly.
An early frost: here’s what frost does to pepper plants and what to do about it.

Seeing something else? Our guide to pepper plant problems and diseases covers the rest.

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