I grew these last year, also with seeds from Baker Creek. As I recall, the mottling didn't show up until the plants had been in the ground for awhile.

Thanks, people! Esox07, that timeline is really helpful. I may plant one or two in pots to get a few weeks more as it looks like my in-ground season may be a little on the short side for these guys. My frost-free period has historically been May 15th - Sept 15th, and it looks like this variety likes to take its time to mature fruit.

Yah, it will produce peppers on about the same schedule as other pepper plants, but the variegation seems to increase with age.

You should have a longer growing season outside that me and I get my plants outside in late May and don't pull them until early October. I would suspect you can get by to mid/late October in zone 6.

Yeah, zones can be kind of misleading. You'd think so but our climate here is high altitude desert on the wrong side of the Sierras and generally characterized by a short, intense summer. It's pushing your luck to count on anything much past mid September; while we generally have stable autumn weather the night temps start dropping very fast. Generally we have big swings daily from day highs to night lows, which is good for cooling off on those 100 degree days but it doesn't lend itself to warm fall nights. So I think I may get a longer season by using containers that I can move into the garage until nights are warm enough for peppers. Tomatoes don't mind as much but we won't start reliably having 50 degree nights until mid-June.

Yah, those mountains can really make a difference. Well, good luck. I hope you have a great season.

This is my second year of growing Fish... And I think variegation depends on each plant. Last year, I had four green seedlings, and one of them almost had no variegation going on by the time it was time to pull the plant- the peppers still variegated like they should. My other three showed little real variegation till they got big enough to bloom, then they started growing out pretty, and all the peppers were lovely.

This year I only have two seedlings that have really taken- and both of them are already showing nice variegation. Only a few inches tall and around 5-7 leaf sets.

This seems to be a common theme with Fish Peppers. The amount of variegation varies from plant to plant. The year I grew them, I had two and they both wound up with very nice variegation. But others get none and some have plants that are 75% white when fully mature.

I suggest using seed only from the plants that produce the characteristics that you like in coming seasons. It won't guarantee the same result, but will tilt things in your favor. I think growing conditions also play a role.

They very, plant to plant.

It seems to vary a lot from plant to plant. Most of mine show variegation as soon as they pop up as seedlings, or if not then, by the first true leaves. I've had some with just small streaks of white, and some with large amounts.

This is my fish pepper plant this year:

Plants · More Info

If there is absolutely no variegation at this point, I would suspect that they aren't growing true. I did have some seeds from a reputable vendor that were labelled fish and ended up being something completely different.

That is a nice plant. Maybe it is your seed source. Or maybe it is simply due to the growing conditions you expose them to. Lights, nutrients, etc...