The first and most obvious items you are going to need are the seeds. You can get seeds from just about any grocery store, hardware store, big box building store or even by drying out your own seeds. If you want to grow common varieties such as Cayenne, Jalapeno, or Hungarian wax, you can pick them up at the places mentioned above. If you are looking for the hard to find at your grocery store types such as Habanero, Bhut Jolokia, Thai varieties, or other exotic species, look no further than mail order companies on the Internet.

There are several sites that you can purchase seeds from online all over the world. Here are just a few;

http://www.pepperjoe.com (highly recommended)

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/ (BJ, baby! Bhut Jolokia that is)

http://www.reimerseeds.com

Pepper Joe has been my main source for pepper seeds, they have about 5 different varieties of the Habanero (white, pumpkin, golden, spicy mustard etc) along with some really gems such as heirloom peppers (golden nugget new this year). Every seed I have purchased so far from Pepper Joe has germinated (that is an amazing product).

The Chili Pepper Institute is the Institute. This is where most of the scientific research goes into the chili pepper. It is a part of the University of New Mexico but also about one of the most reliable sources for Bhut Jolokia seeds (mine are already on order, $5 for 10 seeds). The also offer many hybrid and genetically engineered varieties that are changing the boundaries of the chili pepper industry.

Reimer Seeds is another, well known source for a wide selection of hot pepper seeds including the Chocolate Habanero, Red Savina Habanero and many more.

If you haven’t ordered your seeds, get those orders going! You are going to need them to be ready to get a good head start on our First Weekend in March Seed Planting Day!!!

– Jay