Hungarian Hot Wax
The most forgiving chilli for a cool Irish greenhouse: early, mild, and perfectly usable at the pale yellow stage before it ever turns red.
Hungarian Hot Wax comes from a continental climate with a short season, and it behaves like it. It is one of the earliest chillies to crop, it sets fruit more willingly in cool conditions than most, and the long tapering fruit are good to eat from the pale waxy yellow stage onwards, which means an Irish season does not have to deliver the extra six weeks of heat needed to turn them red. The heat is modest by chilli standards, closer to a hot pepper than a serious chilli, which makes it useful in quantity.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Capsicum annuum
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Early wax type, mild to medium heat
- Difficulty
- Challenging
- Hardiness
- Tender, no frost tolerance
- In Ireland
- Needs a greenhouse or tunnel
- Germination
- 7 to 21 days at 25 to 30C
- Sowing depth
- 5mm
- Spacing
- 45cm apart, 50cm between rows
- Height
- 60cm
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 18 to 26 weeks
- Harvest
- August to October
- Award
- RHS Award of Garden Merit
Sowing and harvest calendar for Hungarian Hot Wax
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Hungarian Hot Wax chilli seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
- Seedaholic Irish Detailed packet notes, posted from Co. Galway Family run in Clonbur since 2005, deep heirloom range with detailed growing notes on every packet. Visit Seedaholic , Co. Galway
- Quickcrop Irish Sowing and harvest months on every listing Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- The Organic Centre Irish Organic seed from Rossinver, Co. Leitrim Registered Irish charity at Rossinver with a 19 acre demonstration garden behind the seed catalogue. Visit The Organic Centre , Co. Leitrim
- Mr Middleton Irish Posted from Dublin Mail order arm of a long established Mary Street shop, carries the familiar named varieties the organic specialists skip. Visit Mr Middleton , Co. Dublin
Why it suits Ireland
Two things go wrong with chillies here: they will not set fruit when the nights are cool, and they will not ripen when the season ends. Hungarian Hot Wax deals with both. It sets more willingly in cool conditions than most varieties, and because the fruit is worth eating from the yellow stage, the ripening problem largely disappears.
That makes it the sensible first chilli for anyone in Ireland with a greenhouse or polytunnel and no experience. You will get a crop in your first year rather than a lesson.
The other Irish advantage is volume. The fruit are large, around 10 to 15cm, and the plant carries plenty of them, so a couple of plants produce enough to pickle or stuff rather than the handful a hot variety gives.
Growing notes
Sow January to March with bottom heat at 25 to 30C. It germinates a little more readily than the hotter varieties, which are generally slower.
Pot on to a 5 to 10 litre final pot or a greenhouse border, at 45cm spacing. It reaches around 60cm and the fruit are heavy for the branch, so stake it once the crop is setting.
Pinch out the tip at 20cm for a bushier plant, and feed with high potash tomato feed once the first fruit set.
Pick regularly from July at the yellow stage to keep the plant cropping, and leave a few on to colour up if you want the extra heat and sweetness. Fruit left to ripen slow the plant down, so do not leave the whole crop hanging.
Thick walled fruit like these dry badly in Irish air. Pickle them or freeze them whole instead, which works better than it sounds.
Common questions
How hot is Hungarian Hot Wax?
Mild to moderate. Published Scoville figures for it vary widely, commonly quoted anywhere between about 1,000 and 15,000 units, which puts it around jalapeno level at the top of that range and much milder at the bottom. In practice fruit picked at the pale yellow stage are mild enough to slice into a salad, and the same fruit left to ripen orange and red are noticeably hotter. Growing conditions shift it too, so treat the numbers as a rough guide.
When do I pick it, yellow or red?
Whenever you want, and that flexibility is the point of the variety in Ireland. The fruit start pale waxy yellow, pass through orange and finish red, and are edible at every stage. Yellow is mild and good for stuffing or pickling, red is sweeter and hotter. Picking at yellow keeps the plant producing and means you get a crop even in a poor summer, so most Irish growers take some at each stage.
Is it really easier than other chillies?
Relatively, yes. It sets fruit at lower temperatures than many varieties, which is the specific problem an Irish greenhouse creates, and it crops early enough that you are not gambling on a warm October. It still needs bottom heat to germinate and it still needs to be under cover. It is not a chilli you can grow in an open Irish bed, but among chillies it is the one that asks least.
More chillies to consider
Apache F1
AGMF1 hybrid / Compact hot chilli
The best chilli for a windowsill or a small greenhouse: knee high, heavy cropping, and genuinely hot despite the size.
Growing notes and stockistsPadron
Open pollinated / Small green frying pepper
Arguably the smartest chilli choice for an Irish season, because you harvest it small and green and never wait for it to ripen.
Growing notes and stockistsJalapeno
Open pollinated / Medium heat, thick walled
The chilli everyone recognises, and a fair choice here because you pick it green anyway, so the Irish season never has to ripen it.
Growing notes and stockistsCayenne
Open pollinated / Long thin drying chilli, hot
The one to grow if you want your own dried chilli flakes, but it needs a January sowing and a warm greenhouse to finish properly.
Growing notes and stockists