2019 Chilli Growing thread

Caporegime
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at this rate I don't think my pepper plants will be giving anything until next year, only a few buds that look like they are nowhere near flowering and they will probably fall off anyway.

hardly any sun recently either just wet all week :/ decided to star putting them under lights again in the evening.

pruned the hell out of the runt so it's basically a pencil with a couple of side shoot leaves, going to experiment with it and see how much I can get it to bush out since I'd given up on that one any giving anything back this year.
 
Soldato
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Actually a little worried about mine. I seem to be loosing a lot of leaves the last few days - and perfectly healthy one too.

I've read that this might be a case of overwatering. As most of my leaves haven't curled up. Although I wait till the soil has gone dry before watering again, so I'm sure they can't be getting that over watered.
 
Soldato
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I declare my first attempt at growing chilies a success :). Unexpected as the few times I've tried to grow things its been unsuccessful.
First one picked while orange and is plenty hot enough for me. Made the mistake of slicing a tiny piece of the very end which was fine, no heat. Sliced up some more then touched tongue on knife which had a small piece on (blunt side of course) to check and it was blimmin' hot. Added the slices to some mushroom rice kind of patties. Nice and tasty too and plenty of heat.

Look forward to the rest of the harvest this year and will definatley be repeating next year.

OrangeReaper.jpg
 
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Caporegime
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45,169
Actually a little worried about mine. I seem to be loosing a lot of leaves the last few days - and perfectly healthy one too.

I've read that this might be a case of overwatering. As most of my leaves haven't curled up. Although I wait till the soil has gone dry before watering again, so I'm sure they can't be getting that over watered.
yea I over watered mine, it's really stunted them for the last few days and you can't remove the water lol...
I need to get a propagator heat mat or something.... it was nice and sunny and my pots were getting pretty dry every 2-3 days then the weather went crap but I still watered the same :(

all the new leaves are deformed and some of the younger ones the edges curled up.
some of the big leaves edges are just totally crisped away as well but I think that might be from where the touch the curtains in the window over night :S

my tomatoes are okay though, one is about 1.5metres tall and has like 16 or so little tomatoes on the main stem, pulled all the shoots as they appeared.

only germinated them like 2.4 months ago so guess technically it's not the end of the world.

I'm trying to boost their daylight hours by sticking them under 2 regular led lights in the evenings (highest watt ones I could find in wilko)

also decided to try regrowing a leek for the hell of it :D
It was one from tesco without any roots at all but the middle bit seems to have grown up a lot and it appears to have 2 new shoots popping out after only 3 days
YTiKRW4.jpg

That's basically how big oregano grows in 2months lol (did trim the top leaves off them earlier though since I read you're meant to get them to bush out)

the pepper plant I trimmed back to hell and topped again was only like 3-4 leaves 4 days ago somehow it managed to grow back stupid fast but I guess it has a pretty good root system going on.

8jdzA50.jpg

0QfSRCV.jpg

lol will the leek survive do you think, I wasn't even intending to try and regrow one so I cut it really short as well then had to fish it out the bin and clean it under the tap when I had the idea to do it :eek:

I think my peppers I can fix them tomorrow actually, since they are pretty deep in the pots I can just carefully take them out of the pots without doing any harm to the rootball, stick a few inches of fresh compost in the bottom and place them back in.
seems like a good idea.

btw those big leaves on the romano pepper plants are 6 inches in size (9 counting stem they are on) makes the plants seem smaller than they are. I guess chilli plants have smaller leaves?

I think when I grew cayenne chillis the plant had much smaller leaves and was way more attractive to look at
 
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Caporegime
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Found a few spider mites on my plants yesterday so used some BugClear on them and this morning my greenhouse has turned in to a blood bath. There are dead spiders, flies, a snail and loads of ants all over the place and it's apparently toxic to bees so I'll snip the few flowers that have appeared so far.
 
Caporegime
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I pulled mine out the pots and put a few inches of fresh compost in the bottom to try and fix the over watering fast.

all the roots look healthy so meh, definitely way too wet though.

also wrapped a piece of string around the top of the pot on one just under the lip to use as an anchor and tied a bunch of long side shoots so they are mostly horizontal like so
cuvdtD5.jpg

lets more light penetrate to the lower leaves and gives a larger canopy.
mine were all growing towards the same place and covering each other which isn't exactly efficient at harvesting the energy of the sun

hopefully the other smaller shoots grow a bit faster since they aren't in the shade anymore.
 
Soldato
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I was checking my plants over tonight and found a few aphids on a couple of them. I'm hoping I've caught it early enough that I can keep them under control as my plants were devastated by them towards the end of the season a few years ago! I've taken them outside and blasted them with water and I'll repeat that every day for a few days. If the weather was nicer, I'd leave them outside for the time being, but it's miserable at the moment.
 
Soldato
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I pulled mine out the pots and put a few inches of fresh compost in the bottom to try and fix the over watering fast.

all the roots look healthy so meh, definitely way too wet though.

also wrapped a piece of string around the top of the pot on one just under the lip to use as an anchor and tied a bunch of long side shoots so they are mostly horizontal like so
cuvdtD5.jpg

lets more light penetrate to the lower leaves and gives a larger canopy.
mine were all growing towards the same place and covering each other which isn't exactly efficient at harvesting the energy of the sun

hopefully the other smaller shoots grow a bit faster since they aren't in the shade anymore.

In theory the plant should be intelligent enough to drop leaves that are at the bottom of the stem if they're not getting much light.

Arty? Reminds me of The Thing.
OrangeReapers.jpg

Looking good! I've got some Chilli Numex Twilights that have just started to grow, i think it'll still be a good couple of weeks before they get to a good sized chilli.

I was checking my plants over tonight and found a few aphids on a couple of them. I'm hoping I've caught it early enough that I can keep them under control as my plants were devastated by them towards the end of the season a few years ago! I've taken them outside and blasted them with water and I'll repeat that every day for a few days. If the weather was nicer, I'd leave them outside for the time being, but it's miserable at the moment.

I actually find having them outside makes them more prone to picking them up - which is kind of obvious seeing as the pests live outside. You do need a very good eyesight to see them though, especially the green ones - the black ones stand out on the green leaves etc. I think mine have actually gained some intelligence :D they used to congregate on the leaves, and they've now cottoned onto the fact i go on a killing spree, so very rarely hide under the leaves - now they hide amongst the buds and new shoot tips which makes it extremely hard to look for!

Will try and get a few pics of mine up.
 
Associate
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These are mine now, really chuffed that I grew them from seed

oIpfYhgl.jpg

got my first chilli :D:cool:

TiagsWHl.jpg

Not sure what variety it is though, bought a kit from South Devon Chilli Farm which had 4 types of seed in, only one I can definitely remember is Apache F1.
Think this one could be Hungarian Wax, when should I pick it?
 
Soldato
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^ Looking good :D
I found today the orange ones above are too hot (for me) to put in a sandwich unless used very sparingly. Will start freezing them to use in recipes & testing them on some neighbours too, if they're up for it
 
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Caporegime
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In theory the plant should be intelligent enough to drop leaves that are at the bottom of the stem if they're not getting much light.
idk but I gave up already.

the side shoots they were just bending at like 90 degree angles heading sideways after where the rope was tied too when I woke up this morning lol.. they already went back to how they were before since I untied them.
people do it with illegal plants but I guess they don't fight as much.

I think its called LST low stress training but it's probably better if you do it with the main stem, I'll try it next year on one.

oh I googled a little and epcot do it with tomato plants on a huge scale
eY0123U.jpg
 
Caporegime
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regrown leek is surviving and grown a lot already in 5 days :O guess it will run to seed but I'm assuming seeds are seeds, and they're free so..

I thought it would just get 2 new shoots or something but even the fat bit in the middle looks twice as high
HRzJTof.jpg

toilet roll tube is lemon seeds, decided to grow one from seed even though it will take ages.

other plants still in the window couldn't be bothered to move more and they are getting to big to give them all extra light anyway.

seems my pepper plants compost finally dried out a lot and stopped being over watered, going to leave them until they start to wilt though and then be more careful
 
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Soldato
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19 Oct 2008
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Just glued my Fresno unopened flower, so i get pure seeds from pod, first year i try it.
PVA glue, chosen flower bud, 1st dip, then 2nd dip

Never heard of that. Will be good to try.

Finally have a few other types ripening now, aside from the orange (so far) reapers
Bonnet (yellow trinidad I think)
Bonnet.jpg


Red ones, whatever they are
RedOnes.jpg
 
Soldato
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They overwintered plants, if not, nice early ripening.
Sowed on the 13th Dec. Was surprised the reapers were the first to ripen, even if it's just the intermediate colour. The red ones seem to quickly turn red once they start, within two days. Slowest are the bonnets.
Might overwinter a couple this year.
 
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