Scottish growing tool

Chillies Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Chillies varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: Best all-round chance in an unheated or barely-heated greenhouse or Short on space, one windowsill or a single growing bag → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

FuegoAGM

The strongest all-round pick: Fuego is more cold tolerant than most chilli varieties, a rare trait for this crop, making it the best bet in an unheated or barely-heated Scottish greenhouse. Its own individual plant page carries the same H1c hardiness rating as the other five AGM varieties, so this cold tolerance comes from prose rather than a distinct formal hardiness class, a caveat worth knowing rather than a reason to discount it.

If: Short on space, one windowsill or a single growing bag → Maximum heat in the smallest footprint

Prairie FireAGM

It has a maximum height of 30cm, smaller than the general 0.1 to 0.5m range for Loco, Fuego and Apache, and it's recommended for a sunny windowsill or patio container as well as a greenhouse border, the smallest-footprint of the six. It's also the hottest by a wide margin, rated up to 1,000,000 SHU against Loco's 20,000 to 30,000.

If: Short on space, one windowsill or a single growing bag → A gentler, more usable everyday heat

LocoAGM

A compact plant, up to 50cm, carrying gentler heat at 20,000 to 30,000 SHU. Where Prairie Fire gives serious heat from minimal space, Loco gives a gentler, more usable everyday chilli in a similarly small space.

If: Want a genuinely mild pepper, not real heat

Hungarian Hot WaxAGM

The mildest of the six, rated 5,000 to 15,000 SHU. Pick it green for a mild pepper or let it ripen for more warmth, hedging against however much sun the season delivers, for anyone who wants a genuinely approachable pepper rather than real heat.

If: Want volume, for drying, freezing or pickling a real batch from one plant

Hot ThaiAGM

It yields up to 200 peppers from a single plant, a specific yield figure none of Fuego, Loco or Hungarian Hot Wax carries. Where greenhouse space is the real limit on how many plants fit in, one high-yielding plant produces more usable crop, dried, frozen or pickled, than several lower-yielding ones sharing the same warmth and light. It's a dense, heavily-fruiting plant, so it needs the airflow and dead-material removal that keeps grey mould down more than a sparser variety needs.

If: Want serious heat and aren't short on room

ApacheAGM

Rated at 80,000 SHU, hotter than Hot Thai and far hotter than Loco, filling the heat gap between Loco's approachable heat and Prairie Fire's extreme end, without Prairie Fire's small-footprint case since its own spread matches Loco and Fuego. Gardener's World rates it as medium heat, a genuine disagreement with the RHS trial figure that isn't resolved either way.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →

Chillies growing guide →Full Chillies varieties comparison →