2018 Chilli Growing thread

LewisRaz · 11 Jul 2018 at 19:58

Mine came back within hours of being watered and now look great.

Got my first fruits showing on my scotch bonnets too.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jul 2018 at 09:52

Felix said:
What can cause the leaves to curl? I cannot see any insects but its stopping growth!

i had 1 or 2 do that. the plants are now growing amazingly well now.

the only thing i've changed is i give them less water and been using fertiliser.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 12 Jul 2018 at 12:26

Psycho Sonny said:
is it okay to have more than 1 plant in a pot? as in a very large pot? i think it was the way my kit was designed. 4 seeds in a bit of paper. then put into some compost which had a net around it. so they grey into each other.

of the 4 jalapeno seeds only 3 took to life and 1 is a runt.

of the 4 habanero only 2 did.

i then just moved them together as they were all joined up and they all seem to be doing rather well. grown leaps and bounds. however i'm now thinking they are now vying for each others light. it may restrict them some what. so i rotate the pots daily. so all of them get an equal amount of light.

They will cope, in effect they will both be smaller but they should get along
One may eventually kill the other off if it manages to out grow.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 12 Jul 2018 at 12:34

Curled leaves is normally water, then aphids in that order

It can be ants as well. I have one plant in my poly that the ants are practically living in/under. I know they are trying to seed it with aphids but I haven't actually found any yet.
If ants live under the plant they eat the roots as well, so the plant will struggle with water. Its a tricky one to deal with, if the get the aphids seeded they will ignore ant bait as well.
Its worth looking under the pot (if its in one) for traces of ant activity. The white powder is the best for this scenario

Felix · 12 Jul 2018 at 13:17

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Curled leaves is normally water, then aphids in that order

It can be ants as well. I have one plant in my poly that the ants are practically living in/under. I know they are trying to seed it with aphids but I haven't actually found any yet.
If ants live under the plant they eat the roots as well, so the plant will struggle with water. Its a tricky one to deal with, if the get the aphids seeded they will ignore ant bait as well.
Its worth looking under the pot (if its in one) for traces of ant activity. The white powder is the best for this scenario

I might ease up ont he water then, I didn't want them to dry out!

Street · 12 Jul 2018 at 13:58

Well after leaving my plants outside for a couple weeks, my habaneros have started fruiting. It's just my reapers left but I was expecting that. Unfortunately it looks like it's getting colder so I might have to bring them back indoors now.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jul 2018 at 14:41

Felix said:
I might ease up ont he water then, I didn't want them to dry out!

chillies are usually grown in poor soil in hot and dry countries.

it's best to water them little and only when the soil is really really dry.

i believe in order to get them to flower more and therefore bigger yields you starve them of water. this forces survival mode and more flowers in order to gain more seeds in order to reproduce in case it dies.

so i literally drip feed them a handful here and there during the week. not every day. at the weekend i will give them a boost of fertiliser (tomorite / chilli focus) and then a glug of water to help dilute the fertiliser so they don't get too much in one go. this big glug of water should be enough to do them for 3 days easy. even when i say glug i mean a large glass, maybe half a pint. then a 1/8th of a pint after 3 days then another 2 days before another 1/8th then back to the fertiliser and a half pint 2 days later and keep that going.

too much water is when your soil is constantly damp.

Psycho Sonny · 14 Jul 2018 at 11:38

I just got a moisture, pH level and light gauge off AliExpress for like £3 and its brilliant.

Says I got too much moisture ATM so not going to water for a week

azibux1 · 14 Jul 2018 at 19:27

Anyone able to offer any help please for a first year chilli grower?

The plants are fruiting and as you can see some of the chillis (on one plant in particular) have reached a decent size.

BUT also as you can see the leaves don't look particularly healthy. Normally a plant with curled up leaves means not enough water - but from reading here that seems to be the opposite on chilli plants? We've been watering every day but I've since stopped that after reading here. But I'd like to know what you all think please.

As a judge of the health of the plant, the chillis look decent but I have been pulling (perhaps unnecessarily but gently, it basically crumbles off) the crusty circled bit on the picture when the chillis start to show. I just went to do that to a couple now and with no force at all basically, the whole stem/bud just broke off the main plant totally - so something doesn't seem quite healthy somewhere.

Thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!

Psycho Sonny said:
I just got a moisture, pH level and light gauge off AliExpress for like £3 and its brilliant.

Says I got too much moisture ATM so not going to water for a week

How much is too much? Is it specifically for chilli plants and therefore knows it is too much, or are you comparing an actual figure against some reference?

Psycho Sonny · 14 Jul 2018 at 20:21

azibux1 said:
Anyone able to offer any help please for a first year chilli grower?

The plants are fruiting and as you can see some of the chillis (on one plant in particular) have reached a decent size.

BUT also as you can see the leaves don't look particularly healthy. Normally a plant with curled up leaves means not enough water - but from reading here that seems to be the opposite on chilli plants? We've been watering every day but I've since stopped that after reading here. But I'd like to know what you all think please.

As a judge of the health of the plant, the chillis look decent but I have been pulling (perhaps unnecessarily but gently, it basically crumbles off) the crusty circled bit on the picture when the chillis start to show. I just went to do that to a couple now and with no force at all basically, the whole stem/bud just broke off the main plant totally - so something doesn't seem quite healthy somewhere.

Thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!

How much is too much? Is it specifically for chilli plants and therefore knows it is too much, or are you comparing an actual figure against some reference?

No idea. It's saying it's wet it is a gauge from left to right and it should be in the middle. Left is dry and right is wet.

azibux1 · 14 Jul 2018 at 22:30

Psycho Sonny said:
No idea. It's saying it's wet it is a gauge from left to right and it should be in the middle. Left is dry and right is wet.

Ahh right! Nice

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 15 Jul 2018 at 08:46

Don't touch the "crusty bit" they will come off on their own

Are you feeding the plants?

If they fall off the stem they are not fertilised most likely

Street · 15 Jul 2018 at 16:27

Whoop, while giving my chillies a check over today, I noticed that my Reapers have fruited!

Mark A · 16 Jul 2018 at 00:24

@azibux1 It could be that those pots are a bit too small, especially if growing outside. Mine are in 5l pots and have quite a few chillies, but its reached a point where the plant can't handle any more and the newest chillies have stopped growing and the new buds are just falling off. If I'd have known we'd have had a decent bit of sun i'd have put them in the greenhouse in 10l or bigger pots.

I tried a few of the birdseye demon chillies in a stirfry earlier and they don't half pack a punch! My nose is still stinging from where i scratched it without washing my hands after cutting them up. Just glad I didn't scratch anywhere else...

mid_gen · 16 Jul 2018 at 10:56

Not the best picture...but any idea what the 3rd from left plant with the long green fruits is?

Left to right are 7-pot Burgundy, Red Habanero, Unknown, and Thai.

The mystery one is doing great. Habanero has fruited now, but the 7-pot and Thai are struggling to fruit. Think I need to get the paintbrush out and make sure they're getting fertilized as the flowers are mostly just dropping off em.

azibux1 · 16 Jul 2018 at 11:28

Mark A said:
@azibux1 It could be that those pots are a bit too small, especially if growing outside. Mine are in 5l pots and have quite a few chillies, but its reached a point where the plant can't handle any more and the newest chillies have stopped growing and the new buds are just falling off. If I'd have known we'd have had a decent bit of sun i'd have put them in the greenhouse in 10l or bigger pots.

I tried a few of the birdseye demon chillies in a stirfry earlier and they don't half pack a punch! My nose is still stinging from where i scratched it without washing my hands after cutting them up. Just glad I didn't scratch anywhere else...

Thanks! I assume it's fairly safe to repot them at this stage? Or not?

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 16 Jul 2018 at 12:03

Yeah you will be fine, just try to not disturb the roots too much
If they are badly rooted I would try to gently tease the outermost roots to loosen them

Saying that, I have grown chilies for years in pots like yours and my issue is normally that the plant gets soo big it becomes unbalanced

Last year i grew them in my poly for the first time. They had about 12 inches of peat they could go down into. They went about 3 inches, although I did water daily and the peat was highly nutrient rich (peat itself, plus blood and bone, and also tomatoe feed)

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 16 Jul 2018 at 12:18

mid_gen said:
Not the best picture...but any idea what the 3rd from left plant with the long green fruits is?

Left to right are 7-pot Burgundy, Red Habanero, Unknown, and Thai.

The mystery one is doing great. Habanero has fruited now, but the 7-pot and Thai are struggling to fruit. Think I need to get the paintbrush out and make sure they're getting fertilized as the flowers are mostly just dropping off em.

Looks a little like a cayenne, serrano, anaheim type chilli. There are lots of this sort of thing so its really tricky to narrow it down

mid_gen · 16 Jul 2018 at 12:55

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Looks a little like a cayenne, serrano, anaheim type chilli. There are lots of this sort of thing so its really tricky to narrow it down

Will they loosen up and come free easily when they ripen? First time growing chillis.

Guy at work grows loads and gives some away each spring. Our apartment is great as they live on the east-facing balcony in the sun all morning, then I move them over to the west-facing sill on my lunch break. With these temperatures they've been wilting every day by the time I get home from work to water em, but I've heard that's not a problem? They seem to perk up fine.

Tempted to move them to bigger pots as they've grown pretty rapidly, or is it better to do that after growing season and let them fill out their roots over winter?

azibux1 · 16 Jul 2018 at 14:51

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Yeah you will be fine, just try to not disturb the roots too much
If they are badly rooted I would try to gently tease the outermost roots to loosen them

Saying that, I have grown chilies for years in pots like yours and my issue is normally that the plant gets soo big it becomes unbalanced

Last year i grew them in my poly for the first time. They had about 12 inches of peat they could go down into. They went about 3 inches, although I did water daily and the peat was highly nutrient rich (peat itself, plus blood and bone, and also tomatoe feed)

Awesome. Just repotted and they came out very easily and like you say loosened them up a bit and then watered with tomato feed.

Fingers crossed they perk up a bit.

I've read about over watering... But watering every day in this heat (plants in direct sunlight) is a must surely? They end up looking very dry otherwise.