Hot Pepper 'Aji Dulce'

Aji Dulce
Capsicum: Chinense
Collected in: Bolivia
PI: 543193
Scoville units: 1,000-1500
Blossom...Read More end shape: mixed
Fruit position and shape: pendant, oblate
Fruit size and color: 1"- 2"x 1"-1¼" green > red
Calyx shape: saucer shaped
Flower: stellate, small, bell-shaped
Petals/Spots: white/none
Filament color: purple
Anther color: blue
Habit: small, usually low tree
Stem: smooth
Leaves: large, uneven
Germ. Time: 3 wk. >.3 mo.
Maturity: 90 days
Plant height: 24"
Taste: .
Uses: salads
Aji Dulce has the same shape, size, color and aroma of Habanero, with only a trace of heat. The fruits are highly aromatic and the flavor is unusual and complex, with overtones of black pepper and coriander, and undertones of other spicy flavors. The pods are tapered and mature from pale green to orange and then to red.
History:·This accession was collected 1998 in Bolivia and donated to NPGS the same year as a capsicum ssp and assigned a PI # in 1990, in 1995 it was identified as capsicum chinense.

We grow this as a perennial.
Many local Dominicans use this in a dish called sofrito.

I grew six or eight of these peppers over winter indoors from seed and put them out in the sun all summer in 6" pots. They produced a fa...Read Moreir number of very small but tasty and pretty red peppers -- delicate, just a hint of heat, good taste. A friend who is from New Mexico and thinks of herself as a hot pepper expert was impressed with their look and taste. I actually set them back a bit when I first put them outside this summer -- I hurried them out into full sun too quickly, and some of their leaves got burned. I understand that they're supposed to be perennial, and I'm going to try to winter them over on my sun porch. I hope that they can take temperatures down to the 40s and high 30s F. I plan to cut them back hard when daytime temps start staying below 60 F. My hope is that they will go semi-dormant and revive in the late spring when temps get back in the 70s regularly. I may not cut them all back hard, just in case they aren't able to come back from that, but I think they will -- I cut some of them back a little last spring before they went outside for the summer, and they seemed to sprout new leaves and stems just fine. I'll probably re-pot them in bigger pots next spring. They may produce more and larger peppers with more root room.

Added in November 2011: These plants didn't fare too well after overwintering on my sun porch. A few survived, but many died. As a result, this fall, I've brought them into the house to overwinter. I'm afraid that they're going to get whiteflies or other pests in my house, but if they don't survive, they don't survive.

They didn't produce any peppers this last summer at all (after their tough winter on the sun porch). In fact, they really didn't bounce back from the winter very well at all. We'll see what happens this year.

Added in May 2013: They did poorly again last winter and summer, and I decided last fall to let the frost take them. So, not as perennial as I'd hoped but nice for that first summer.

A mild green to red 2 3/4 X 1 inch pepper.