The 2010 Chilli growing thread - it's scorching!

[uvarvu]

Yeah it's well worth the visit. I picked up some naga relish from the chilli jam company which had a stand there, your brother in law may have bought the same item!

Also picked up some Aji hot and Friar's Hat seeds to plant next year, I want to start growing my own too

 

[scratch]

Here's my one sole Apache F1 plant:

She doesn't look like much but that's because she's grown more outwards than upwards (that's a 26" telly she's sat in front of). There's around 40 chillis on there at the moment and as you can see she's still flowering like mad! Just about to harvest the red ones so will post back when I decide what to make with them!

Andy

 

[Mark A]

A lot of the leaves on my plants are turning yellow and falling off. Could this be due to lack of sun? Hope they're not dying as I only have 8 or so that have ripened and I don't think you can use cayenne chillies in their green state .

Any tricks to get them to ripen faster?

 

[NickK]

Check it's not getting too cold at night.

I caught mine looking like they were thinking that it was autumn today (the leaves had that "looking at droppin' a few" and broke out the heater for 10 minutes. The weather app said 16degC outside... certainly cooler than it has been.

 

[Spammeh]

Stupid question, but when harvesting your chilli's do you just pull them off, or cut them? I dont want to ruin the plant!

 

[Mark A]

Cheers Nick, It might have dropped to about 8-9oc at night over the last few days. Today has been pretty sunny and a lot of the chillies have started to turn red now. i'll move them away from the window at night and put them back during the day and hope for the best.

My outside chillies have been a disaster. I put 3 plants outside in one of those little plastic greenhouses, but left the flap open all the time, so they didnt get too hot.

There are quite a few chillies on them, i'd say about 30-40 between the 3 plants, but they all have wierd marks on them. Like little abrasions. One of them had started rotting and half the stem it was on was also going soft. I think i'll just bin them all as I have more than enough on my indoor plants.

Same has happened with all my tomatoes, they were perfect when inside and as soon as I moved the plants outside they are covered in abrasions and marks. Might be due to the constant bombardment of rain we have been getting here tho.

If I grow some next year i'm just going to go for 1 type of each plant. Hopefully i'll be able to overwinter this Naga and one of my Cayenne plants then maybe buy a scotch bonnet and jalepeno plug next year. Then fill the rest of the window up with a few Bell peppers.

 

[J1234]

Stupid question, but when harvesting your chilli's do you just pull them off, or cut them? I dont want to ruin the plant!

I cut mine off with scissors, have pulled some off too. Doesn't really matter.

 

[zipp0r]

i just put 10 jalapenos and 2 scotch bonnets in a chilli i made. it seems like you only get the heat from the chillis as you bite into abit, its not like the sauce is hot , ive left it to simmer now for a while in the hope the heat moves about abit. *edit*, it did the trick, im sweating after trying some

anyway i have to say that the jalapenos are boring and plain!! the scotch bonnets had a really lovely fruity sweet smell and quite a nice taste. itsa shame that my plants only netted about 10 chilli's each... maybe i can grow these plants bigger next year and get them bigger and flowering earlier. they look cool as well, kinda waxy and flourescent.

what do i do with the plant after all the fruits are picked? do i chop it back?
where does the new growth come from? from the 1 stem or from after where it splits into a V?

why is my finger hurting if i put pressure on it can i get this stuff off my fingers because it burns!! thnx.

 

[RiPz]

Something's... odd

My chilli plant has now flowered but they only seem to be lasting a few days after blooming then they shrivel up and the flowers fall off... any ideas ?

still no chilli's forming either.. just lots of buds (half of which have bloomed)

lack of light? too much light?, overwatering? underwatering?

any ideas welcome..

 

[VFR_KID]

Something's... odd

My chilli plant has now flowered but they only seem to be lasting a few days after blooming then they shrivel up and the flowers fall off... any ideas ?

still no chilli's forming either.. just lots of buds (half of which have bloomed)

lack of light? too much light?, overwatering? underwatering?

any ideas welcome..

Are you polinating them?

Give the flower a wee tickle with wither an artists paint brush/Cotton bud/ end of a peg you should get some yellow pollen off it and just work youtr way round the flowers doing so going between plants as u do

 

[RiPz]

Are you polinating them?

Give the flower a wee tickle with wither an artists paint brush/Cotton bud/ end of a peg you should get some yellow pollen off it and just work youtr way round the flowers doing so going between plants as u do

Yeah I have been doing.. i've only got one plant though!.. could that be the issue ?

 

[NickK]

No it could be the colder nights, what temps are you getting down to at night?

 

[gumbald]

Few of my plants are getting yellow leaves. Is this down to over- or under-watering you reckon?

Also, these are my best SBs:

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Yeah I have been doing.. i've only got one plant though!.. could that be the issue ?

I had the same problem on the 3 plants I had growing inside on the window sill, all the first flowers dropped off. Very annoying. Moved the 3 outside, and now they've flowered again. This time the flowers are staying put and have fruited, after a little stamen tickling.

The plant I've left outside to rack and ruin is doing the best out of all four, it's bushy where as the the other 3 are taller with larger leaves and it's got loads more flower pods on there than the other 3.

I'm guessing this is down to the amount of light the plants got whilst on the window sill, as all 4 were watered together.

 

[SkeeterUK]

Here's my Apache plant down my mums, she didn't have much at the time so gave her a Apache plant i bought for a quid from a nursery. Its doing really well in the large container in the greenhouse but even tho their are loads of green chillies they don't seem to be reddening.

 

[CHokKA]

I have a quick question about harvesting. Where do you cut the chilli off in order to allow another one to grow in its place? I have harvested only one chilli so far, as it was red, but now the rest have all started to turn red but I don't want to take them all off without doing it properly as I'd like for more chillis to grow.

Thanks

 

[J1234]

Do they grow back again in the same place?

I'm just harvesting mine red/green as I need them (just cutting them off with scissors) and more chillies and growing, but not sure if it's in the same place.

 

[CHokKA]

Do they grow back again in the same place?

I'm just harvesting mine red/green as I need them (just cutting them off with scissors) and more chillies and growing, but not sure if it's in the same place.

I'm really not sure. All I've read is that people have said to harvest the chillies early on to encourage more growth, so I wasn't sure if another stem sprouted at the spot you harvest, or whether it is just new flowers from other areas of the plant.

Also, apparently green chillies will ripen to red very quickly once harvested. I have heaps of green chillies on my plants, so I'm going to pick a few tonight and leave them on a sun-kissed window sill to see how well it works. Then I'll be making some hot pepper sauces. I am really looking forward to this

 

[gumbald]

Also, apparently green chillies will ripen to red very quickly once harvested. I have heaps of green chillies on my plants, so I'm going to pick a few tonight and leave them on a sun-kissed window sill to see how well it works.

Ah, I wondered this. Might do the same with a couple then and see what happens. They've been full size and green for ages!

 

[J1234]

My first batch took aages to go red, after I harvested them all the next lot and the lot after all went red pretty much instantly.