I grew a few plants each of three types of reduced-heat habaneros: Habanada, Roulette and Primero. This is my review of Habanada. I am also posting reviews of the other two.
Habanada had the best germination of the three. About three-quarters of the seeds came up quickly. The seedlings were smaller, though, than those of the jalapeños.
These peppers are sweet with a good flavor. The catalog description says they have “absolute no heat”, and I agree. These were the most heat-free of the three. And yet, for some reason, while the catalog color coded the other two types as “mild,” and listed them on the “Barely Warm” page, Habanada was color coded as Medium Hot, and listed on the page with the jalapeños. Why?
Habanada is listed as taking 90 days. They took at least that long. Remember that this is more than just a matter of patience. Ask yourself, “Does my climate have warm summer weather for 90 days?” I live in coastal southern California, where our summers start late and end late. It is a good thing that we had a very warm September this year, because that is when the habanadas got ripe, even into October. But, on the other hand, I had good, crunchy Habanada peppers on the vine at least through Thanksgiving.
The catalog says that Habanada fruits “start lime green.” The company must know some very pale limes. My Habanadas started ivory or cream color. I thought they were sick and dying until I check this out on the Internet.