2021 Season Chilli Growing
- Thread starter pooey
- Start date
It sounds like you're going to get a decent harvest this year, nice one!
Apologies, I'm a bit late with updates!
My exotic chilli plants have been growing like crazy, only a couple of flowers though and a single baby chilli on one.
The sainsburys kids are doing much better:
That's a handsome chilli right there. What type is it?
My progress report:
Hungarian Black - I didn't water it for a while, but have resumed now I have seen a few lovely purple flowers popping up
Naga Viper - She has shot up since the mega clip I gave her. Plenty of flowers and she seems to have caught up to the standard level of my chilli plants
Aji Mango - The floppy days of this plant are history - some flowers showing and generally looking healthy
Mushroom Bonnet - This gets the award for best looking plant in my collection. A good size, well proportioned and has formed this lovely canopy of leaves at the top. Some flowers
Choc BBG - This is the one we gave some serious pruning to, and despite our lack of knowledge on plants, paid off really well. Three chillies so far. Two quite small but one the size of my thumb. Really looking forward to seeing them take shape and colour. Maybe I should start snipping "useless" branches and leaves off the others to promote chilli growth. I assume it's on the same principle as what @pooey does when pruning to get that one mega-beast chilli from a plant.
Anyone reading this may notice I am only repeating the names of my plants as based on what the lady wrote on them when I bought them. Hopefully when chillies grow I can get a real ID and proper names (in case any are wrong) from users on this thread.
How are everyone else's chillies looking? @Rathian haven't heard from you in a while.
@Cadder it's from a Sainsbury's chilli, one of the bags of green or red ones, I forget which and still am unsure which colours they all go through!
That's as much as I know. I ate a green one last week, and it was about as hot as milk. Cold milk. I'm hoping yellow means hotter. Or is it a prelude to red?!
That's as much as I know. I ate a green one last week, and it was about as hot as milk. Cold milk. I'm hoping yellow means hotter. Or is it a prelude to red?!
Feels like I've been waiting forever for this pepper to ripen! According to the label, pollinated 18th April..
Decent number of seeds but a lot of them looked a bit strange, thrown some direct in the germination station so hopefully I can get something out of this cross
[/spolier]
Decent number of seeds but a lot of them looked a bit strange, thrown some direct in the germination station so hopefully I can get something out of this cross
[/spolier]bleh, all my pots have tiny insects crawling in them :'/
I think some are black fly and IDK what the others are like tiny white stripes moving around.
had some diatomaceous earth from last year still though so sprinkled it on top of the pots.
hopefully it kills them all off
I think some are black fly and IDK what the others are like tiny white stripes moving around.
had some diatomaceous earth from last year still though so sprinkled it on top of the pots.
hopefully it kills them all off
Associate
Hey guys, it's been a while!
Please to say all is going pretty well my end, everything in flower and most plants setting fruit.
A bit of leaf yellowing happening from the heavy rain we have had here plus pots with a but less drainage than would be ideal.
Pics below of the current state of play:
Please to say all is going pretty well my end, everything in flower and most plants setting fruit.
A bit of leaf yellowing happening from the heavy rain we have had here plus pots with a but less drainage than would be ideal.
Pics below of the current state of play:
It appears there is some good progress!
3 chillies growing on my Choc BBG, although the plant itself is getting really tall and the lower 1 foot is just thick stalk with no branches. I am no expert but I'd imagine I can't trim it down shorter...
Quite a few really small emerging chillies on my Hungarian black, I am so impressed with this one. It went from 5th place - collapsing/uprooting and being incredibly leafy, to 2nd place with chilli growth.
The rest are showing good signs but no chillies yet.
@Rathian I thought I was doing good but you've shown me what real progress is!!
@pooey is that some type of bell pepper? It almost looks tomato-ey!
@arknor it's a shame about those insects. I had a bit of a mare with aphids early on and had to lop the Naga to get rid. They're awful. I hope you get sorted. After all the back and forth about pesticides I have just resorted to a drop of fairy liquid in a 200ml spray bottle to get rid of the aphids.
3 chillies growing on my Choc BBG, although the plant itself is getting really tall and the lower 1 foot is just thick stalk with no branches. I am no expert but I'd imagine I can't trim it down shorter...
Quite a few really small emerging chillies on my Hungarian black, I am so impressed with this one. It went from 5th place - collapsing/uprooting and being incredibly leafy, to 2nd place with chilli growth.
The rest are showing good signs but no chillies yet.
@Rathian I thought I was doing good but you've shown me what real progress is!!
@pooey is that some type of bell pepper? It almost looks tomato-ey!
@arknor it's a shame about those insects. I had a bit of a mare with aphids early on and had to lop the Naga to get rid. They're awful. I hope you get sorted. After all the back and forth about pesticides I have just resorted to a drop of fairy liquid in a 200ml spray bottle to get rid of the aphids.
Associate
@Cadder Great to hear how well your plants are doing!
On the Choc BBG at this point I would personally just let it run it's course for the rest of the season.
Trimming lots foliage now might deprive the plant of energy it needs for flowering & fruit growth. Having said that you can take off any old tatty foliage and lightly trim new growth to keep it in check without too much negative impact. One option at the end of the season is to cut it right back to about 3 inched above the soil and bring it indoors. It will then grow back form scratch much lower and you can keep it and shape it as a house plant before next season
I have been growing for quite a few years and I started out with plug plants on windowsills just like yourself.
Each year you learn a bit more and get the chance to experiment! Biggest game changer for me in the last few seasons have been getting my potting mix & nutrients right plus using the self watering tubs. Next step is to try some crossing and more over wintering & indoor growing Always something to try / learn!
On the Choc BBG at this point I would personally just let it run it's course for the rest of the season.
Trimming lots foliage now might deprive the plant of energy it needs for flowering & fruit growth. Having said that you can take off any old tatty foliage and lightly trim new growth to keep it in check without too much negative impact. One option at the end of the season is to cut it right back to about 3 inched above the soil and bring it indoors. It will then grow back form scratch much lower and you can keep it and shape it as a house plant before next season
I have been growing for quite a few years and I started out with plug plants on windowsills just like yourself.
Each year you learn a bit more and get the chance to experiment! Biggest game changer for me in the last few seasons have been getting my potting mix & nutrients right plus using the self watering tubs. Next step is to try some crossing and more over wintering & indoor growing
Always something to try / learn!@Cadder Great to hear how well your plants are doing!
On the Choc BBG at this point I would personally just let it run it's course for the rest of the season.
Trimming lots foliage now might deprive the plant of energy it needs for flowering & fruit growth. Having said that you can take off any old tatty foliage and lightly trim new growth to keep it in check without too much negative impact. One option at the end of the season is to cut it right back to about 3 inched above the soil and bring it indoors. It will then grow back form scratch much lower and you can keep it and shape it as a house plant before next season
I have been growing for quite a few years and I started out with plug plants on windowsills just like yourself.
Each year you learn a bit more and get the chance to experiment! Biggest game changer for me in the last few seasons have been getting my potting mix & nutrients right plus using the self watering tubs. Next step is to try some crossing and more over wintering & indoor growing
At this stage I feel like "breeding" these plants is way beyond me. I suppose with baby steps I may get there.
I'm interested in learning more about potting mixes and nutrients though. And which self-watering tubs did you get?
So with the Choc BBG, there are no leaves at all at the bottom foot. It is literally just stem/stalk whatever. Will it grow from scratch as a 3 inch stump?
yea fairy liquid and cornstarch mix kills most stuff.
I think it's just blackfly and springtails, wouldn't be bothered buy my plants live inside so rather they be bug free.
Diatomaceous earth should kill them anyway, just hope I had enough I could only do a light sprinkle rather than put a decent layer on top of the compost.
it sticks to the bodies of insects and basically cuts into them as they move so they dehydrate and die.
they just have to walk on it first when it's not wet.
Associate
@Cadder Crossing plants isn't that complicated conceptually but just quite fiddly.
You have to take a plant with a flower that is about to but is not yet open, cut the petals off, cut the stamen off (these produce pollen and cutting them off prevents production and self pollination), go to another plant and collect some pollen from a flower e.g. by wiping a cotton bud on the inside of a few flowers then finally rub the inside of the other flower where you performed the surgery (this places the pollen on the stigma). Then get a little nylon mesh bag or equivalent and cover the flower to stop any other pollen getting in and hopefully a fruit will grow.This fruit will produce seeds that have genetic traits from both (the fruit will look normal FYI). the hard work then begins as you have to grow out a whole load of the seeds to the point where you have adult plants that fruit and then selectively harvest seeds from the best plants and then do the same again over multiple cycles. The reason being this generational selection allows you to get the traits you want in a stable fashion. It's pretty cool and serious kudos to people like @pooey doing it to give the rest of us cool new varieties to grow.
You have to take a plant with a flower that is about to but is not yet open, cut the petals off, cut the stamen off (these produce pollen and cutting them off prevents production and self pollination), go to another plant and collect some pollen from a flower e.g. by wiping a cotton bud on the inside of a few flowers then finally rub the inside of the other flower where you performed the surgery (this places the pollen on the stigma). Then get a little nylon mesh bag or equivalent and cover the flower to stop any other pollen getting in and hopefully a fruit will grow.This fruit will produce seeds that have genetic traits from both (the fruit will look normal FYI). the hard work then begins as you have to grow out a whole load of the seeds to the point where you have adult plants that fruit and then selectively harvest seeds from the best plants and then do the same again over multiple cycles. The reason being this generational selection allows you to get the traits you want in a stable fashion. It's pretty cool and serious kudos to people like @pooey doing it to give the rest of us cool new varieties to grow.
Associate
@Cadder on the potting mixes front lots of people swear by 10 parts compost, 1 part perlite (for aeration) & 1 part vermiculite (for water retention).
You can then add whatever additions in the form of slow release fertlizers that you like, popular options are fish blood and bone, calcium, epsom salts, sequestered iron.
I personally like 8 parts compost, 2 parts coir (shredded coconut husk), 1 part sand. I then add a generic 1:1:1 ration slow release fertiliser.
For then liquid fertlizing I use a half strength tomato feed that is as close to the 2:1:2 ratio as I can find.
I built the self watering tubs myself from some cheap Ikea storage boxes, some capillary matting and a drill
You can then add whatever additions in the form of slow release fertlizers that you like, popular options are fish blood and bone, calcium, epsom salts, sequestered iron.
I personally like 8 parts compost, 2 parts coir (shredded coconut husk), 1 part sand. I then add a generic 1:1:1 ration slow release fertiliser.
For then liquid fertlizing I use a half strength tomato feed that is as close to the 2:1:2 ratio as I can find.
I built the self watering tubs myself from some cheap Ikea storage boxes, some capillary matting and a drill
@arknor I might have to get some of that Diatomaceous earth. Should be able to get it along with the potting mix @Rathian mentioned.
Interesting points on crossing plants - I will wait a season or two I think. I will be happy if I just get a single handsome chilli from each of these plants.
@pooey have you had one of those Arianne peppers before? How do they compare to supermarket bell peppers in terms of taste and texture?
What was the upshot of my question on the Choc BBG stem - If I cut it down (at the end of this season) to just a stem 3 inch above soil level with no leaves will it recover for next season?
Interesting points on crossing plants - I will wait a season or two I think. I will be happy if I just get a single handsome chilli from each of these plants.
@pooey have you had one of those Arianne peppers before? How do they compare to supermarket bell peppers in terms of taste and texture?
What was the upshot of my question on the Choc BBG stem - If I cut it down (at the end of this season) to just a stem 3 inch above soil level with no leaves will it recover for next season?
It actually didn't have much taste
Pretty subtle but nice and sweet nonetheless, texture was unremarkable which I'm gonna take to mean close to the supermarket chaps I'm used to
Soldato
I'm under attack!
One of my plants has 5 big chillis and some critter has burrowed a hole into the side of my biggest chilli
On another plant which is just starting to grow chillis the same little burrowed hole has appeared!
What can I do to stop them?
Also, can I remove the 4 remaining big green chillis and ripen them indoors?
One of my plants has 5 big chillis and some critter has burrowed a hole into the side of my biggest chilli
On another plant which is just starting to grow chillis the same little burrowed hole has appeared!What can I do to stop them?
Also, can I remove the 4 remaining big green chillis and ripen them indoors?
Associate
@Cadder On the Choc BBG front yes you can cut down to a 3 inches and it will come back to life with new leaves and stems
I did this last year with my best plant and kept it indoors as a houseplant before moving it back out again this year.
Just make sure when you cut it back you give it very little water as it will be using hardly any and too much will cause the roots to rot.
To safe guard against this you can put it in a cheap fabric pot or a pot with lots of drainage.
@bainbridge Nightmare pest situation! Have you cut open one of the chillis with a hole in to see what is living in there?
How you stop is kind of depends on what is eating them and making it their home.
For the chillis that are unaffected you can remove them from the plant but if you want them to continue to ripen you ideally need to take some of the branch they are attached to so that they think they are still connected to the plant, this means cutting off portions of you plant which you may not want to. If you have any fine nylon mesh netting I would wrap the fruits in this to stop anything getting at them. I do this for my gooseberry to stop birds, ants and other insects.
I did this last year with my best plant and kept it indoors as a houseplant before moving it back out again this year.
Just make sure when you cut it back you give it very little water as it will be using hardly any and too much will cause the roots to rot.
To safe guard against this you can put it in a cheap fabric pot or a pot with lots of drainage.
@bainbridge Nightmare pest situation! Have you cut open one of the chillis with a hole in to see what is living in there?
How you stop is kind of depends on what is eating them and making it their home.
For the chillis that are unaffected you can remove them from the plant but if you want them to continue to ripen you ideally need to take some of the branch they are attached to so that they think they are still connected to the plant, this means cutting off portions of you plant which you may not want to. If you have any fine nylon mesh netting I would wrap the fruits in this to stop anything getting at them. I do this for my gooseberry to stop birds, ants and other insects.
