Ata Ijosi

Ata Ijosi is a bird pepper from the Jos area of Nigeria. It is a Capsicum frutescens, which makes it a little different from the annuum, chinense, and baccatum peppers most people are used to growing. The fruit are small and softer, which is pretty typical for a frutescens. Think about the texture of a Tabasco pepper, just on a smaller scale.

Bird peppers usually bring some heat, and Ata Ijosi is no exception. Based on our rough estimate, this one is around 80,000 SHU. Plenty hot, but still very usable.

I do not have any specific Nigerian Ata Ijosi recipes to pass along, but bird peppers have plenty of kitchen uses. Hot sauce is an obvious one. They also work well in salsa or dried and ground into pepper powder.

How to Grow It

Start the seeds in a warm environment with a quality seed-starting mix. I use Burpee seed-starting mix from Menards. Sorry, non-Midwesterners!

Once the plants are established, give them full sun and decent drainage. Final transplant should happen after the threat of frost is over. Better yet, wait until nighttime temperatures are consistently 50°F or higher.

If you started the plants indoors, harden them off before putting them outside full time. Do not take a plant that has spent its whole life under lights and immediately toss it into full sun.

Plants usually reach around 24 to 36 inches tall. Space them roughly 18 to 24 inches apart.

20+ seeds per pack