2014 Chilli Growers Thread

I'm in a bit of a quandary as to how to get going. I've never grown chillies before and I've read a bunch of guides and there are so many different ways to start off the plants I’m just plain confused now.

I have an outdoor wooden propagator and also a heated propagator, I have a few varieties of chilli seeds from SDCF, some coir compost plugs, chilli focus and plenty of plastic 4" pots.

Is a mixture of compost and general purpose soil the best to use and also should I be using vermiculite fertiliser, something like gromore or blood,fish&bone or will the chilli focus provide this?

Sorry for the questions but as I said I have information overload and just haven't a clue what is best to do.

Cheers
 
boxman2000 said:
I'm in a bit of a quandary as to how to get going. I've never grown chillies before and I've read a bunch of guides and there are so many different ways to start off the plants I’m just plain confused now.

I have an outdoor wooden propagator and also a heated propagator, I have a few varieties of chilli seeds from SDCF, some coir compost plugs, chilli focus and plenty of plastic 4" pots.

Is a mixture of compost and general purpose soil the best to use and also should I be using vermiculite fertiliser, something like gromore or blood,fish&bone or will the chilli focus provide this?

Sorry for the questions but as I said I have information overload and just haven't a clue what is best to do.

Cheers
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I would suggest from reading your post that you are already pretty knowledgeable. I think it would be wrong to suggest that there is a right way you need to do things, but keeping it simple is important.

Compost/Soil? I can't really say I have found a favourite, and when I do they go and change the recipe! I am going to use Coir with added compost/wormcaste tea, but this will be a first. I have so little faith in MP composts and I want to try something more sustainable.

Food? Stick with a simple approach and probably just use chilli focus. There is information about using this, IIRC... try using half strength, as some people claim it is too strong. Very difficult to judge this as plants tent to take approx 2 weeks before showing good/bad signs from food. Be very patient and don't forget if you use MP composts, these will already have food/nutrient in, so you may need to use additional food/nutrients carefully.

I would use the coir plugs in the heated prop. to get temps of 27-28 ish. and wait a few weeks. You are very late in the season so be careful what you are trying to grow - Chinense will often require long seasons, whereas other types may not. I would not try and germinate chinense now, unless they can be grown under light for the duration.

I might add more later, as I am supposed to be working :D
 
Herman Gelmet said:
I would suggest from reading your post that you are already pretty knowledgeable. I think it would be wrong to suggest that there is a right way you need to do things, but keeping it simple is important.

Compost/Soil? I can't really say I have found a favourite, and when I do they go and change the recipe! I am going to use Coir with added compost/wormcaste tea, but this will be a first. I have so little faith in MP composts and I want to try something more sustainable.

Food? Stick with a simple approach and probably just use chilli focus. There is information about using this, IIRC... try using half strength, as some people claim it is too strong. Very difficult to judge this as plants tent to take approx 2 weeks before showing good/bad signs from food. Be very patient and don't forget if you use MP composts, these will already have food/nutrient in, so you may need to use additional food/nutrients carefully.

I would use the coir plugs in the heated prop. to get temps of 27-28 ish. and wait a few weeks. You are very late in the season so be careful what you are trying to grow - Chinense will often require long seasons, whereas other types may not. I would not try and germinate chinense now, unless they can be grown under light for the duration.

I might add more later, as I am supposed to be working :D
Click to expand...

Great, thanks. Yes I'm a bit annoyed I left it so late really.

I have Cherry Bomb Chilli Seeds (F1) and Chilly Chilli (heatless) as well as various Jalapenos.
 
Wee update on mine, I think they're doing ok, obviously not growing as fast as some with the grow lights etc.

bwkevQ9l.jpg
 
boxman2000 said:
Is a mixture of compost and general purpose soil the best to use and also should I be using vermiculite fertiliser, something like gromore or blood,fish&bone or will the chilli focus provide this?
Click to expand...

I had great results last year by adding a bit of bonemeal in when I potted up some peppers.
 
Well im pretty sure all the scotch Bonnet seeds I have are dead lol 15 days and not a sausage from them.

FINALLY 2 of the 10 Aji Limon have just started to split and sprout roots, 10 days since planted
 
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Roots have started to come out the bottom of the pots on a couple of plants that are about 5-6 inches tall. Don't remember if this is normal or not but I guess I have no choice than to pot on to 6"
 
HybridX said:
Well im pretty sure all the scotch Bonnet seeds I have are dead lol 15 days and not a sausage from them.

FINALLY 2 of the 10 Aji Limon have just started to split and sprout roots, 10 days since planted
Click to expand...

How are you germinating them? What temperatures?


At least you should have 2 healthy Aji Limon plants, which could potentially provide 100 chillies between them, if we get good weather.
 
I have potted 2 of my biggest, most vigorous plants, into final pots. The plants are 9" from the base of the coir compost mix. They were in those bio-degradable pots to begin with (peat?) and then went into 5" pots for a while, before their final move to 10" terracotta pots. The 2 plants are Mesilla, and CAP 253c (quite a rarity these days, but easily in my current top 10!).

Mesilla:


I am using organic coco coir blocks, rehydrated with worm and compost tea, with small amounts of vermiculite, calcified seaweed and epsom salts. I am using the first plants as test subjects, to check how they react. So far so good.
 
Herman Gelmet said:
How are you germinating them? What temperatures?


At least you should have 2 healthy Aji Limon plants, which could potentially provide 100 chillies between them, if we get good weather.
Click to expand...

All's well and good now i think. 5 out of the 10 seeds have now split and stuck out their heads to say hello lol.

I've binned the scotch bonnets as they had almost 3 weeks and nothing, to be honest they didn't look too healthy to start with. I've acquired some new scotch bonnet seeds so I'm waiting to see what happens with them
 
smoove said:
Can anyone tell me how important it is to use perilite / top soil as opposed to just compost and organic manure? i assume thats what those white pellets are above?
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Perlite is the white pellets, made out of some type of volcanic rock I believe. In terms of a chilli plants requirements, perlite is not one of them. Perlite is often used on top of the surface soil / compost, providing total coverage and therefore protection from fungus gnats (sciarid flies aka Sciaridae). These flies love chilli plants and there are various techniques used to kill/deter them, the perlite is one of the latter as it simply provides a barrier which they can't stand. Hydroton pebbles, gravel and stones can be used too. Their breeding cycle involves some time spent under the surface compost.

Perlite in general, makes compost more easily drained. Vermiculite is the opposite, as it absorbs and holds water.

Perlite is bad news for your lungs if you breath in the dust so always work with damp perlite, or use a face mask.
 
I can#t believe how geeky Chilli growing has got, when I took part in the 2011 version of this thread I just scrapped some sead out of a super market chilli into some general purpose compost and got growing the nearest I got to science was a spash of tomato food!
 
So i had an Apache kit for xmas from south devon chili farm. Planted it xmas evening haha. As soon as it started to grow half decent, I kind of got into it and got a load of different chili going.
Habenero
Scotch Bonnet
Jalapeno
Cayenne
Super Chili
Praire Fire

This is my strongest Apache. What you think....?

Click for bigger picture.

Never grown anything before so been googling loads. It started budding about 2-3 weeks ago and pinched the first say 5 off. Theres a load more buds forming now should I just leave it now (thats what im thinking)
 
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