2018 Chilli Growing thread

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 8 Jun 2018 at 08:48

Sounds like aphids
They love chilis

Start with physically removing as many as you can, they are super squishy, then a weak solution of soap and water onto the plant

azibux1 · 8 Jun 2018 at 10:33

Moonpie2 said:
It's absolutely fine

Thanks!

Mark A · 11 Jun 2018 at 20:15

I think i'll give up after this year. No matter what i try every year without fail I get fungus gnats. I added an inch of perlite to the top of each pot and it seemed like it was working, but today when i was watering them a few flew out of the perlite of one of the pots

. It definitely helped as I would have been killing 100 a day by this point without the perlite.

I tried all sorts last year and nothing completely got rid of them. The only other thing i could try is nematodes, but they're pretty expensive if they don't work.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2018 at 13:23

Mark A said:
I think i'll give up after this year. No matter what i try every year without fail I get fungus gnats. I added an inch of perlite to the top of each pot and it seemed like it was working, but today when i was watering them a few flew out of the perlite of one of the pots . It definitely helped as I would have been killing 100 a day by this point without the perlite.

I tried all sorts last year and nothing completely got rid of them. The only other thing i could try is nematodes, but they're pretty expensive if they don't work.

are you growing inside or outside?

Mark A · 12 Jun 2018 at 13:32

Inside, but I put them outside when its sunny. I have had the same problem every year I grow them, whether its just inside, in a green house or outside. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but i have tried all sorts and always seem to end up with them.

At least they all have all started fruiting, so I should get a crop at least. Last time they got infested before they started fruiting and all the flowers just dropped off.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2018 at 14:28

Mark A said:
Inside, but I put them outside when its sunny. I have had the same problem every year I grow them, whether its just inside, in a green house or outside. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but i have tried all sorts and always seem to end up with them.

At least they all have all started fruiting, so I should get a crop at least. Last time they got infested before they started fruiting and all the flowers just dropped off.

I had one on my strawberry plant but the roseclear seems to have done the trick.

psd99 · 12 Jun 2018 at 16:03

I got lots of chillies this year, and the first time I am growing chillies and in a greenhouse.

some of the leaves are being munched on, probably the aphids. good shout about the soap water as the sprays I got seem to be doing little.

azibux1 · 17 Jun 2018 at 16:21

Got some holes in my leaves... Can't see whats causing them. Any ideas please?

Mark A · 17 Jun 2018 at 21:31

azibux1 said:
Got some holes in my leaves... Can't see whats causing them. Any ideas please?

Probably tiny caterpillars. Check inside the flowers if you have any as they like to hide inside there.

azibux1 · 17 Jun 2018 at 23:19

Mark A said:
Probably tiny caterpillars. Check inside the flowers if you have any as they like to hide inside there.

Nothing has actually flowered yet... maybe starting right at the top but looks like more leaves to me

Google also suggests caterpillars, anything I can do about it? A spray or anything?

Psycho Sonny · 18 Jun 2018 at 09:38

azibux1 said:
Nothing has actually flowered yet... maybe starting right at the top but looks like more leaves to me

Google also suggests caterpillars, anything I can do about it? A spray or anything?

I used rose clear but apparently there are veggie friendly versions.

Although apparently they are weaker.

I saw the little multicoloured sucker walking about the top soil. I sprayed the wee guy liberally and he went down into a hide hole and never appeared again.

Basically you will need to check on the plant several times a day and see if you can spot whatever it is.

Several of my leaves had very small holes in them. But the plant looks all good now and I haven't seen any more appear. Neither can I see anything else on or around the plant.

samcat · 18 Jun 2018 at 13:33

The Aji lemon/Joes long beast... All others are about 2/3 - 1/2 the size of this. Not sure why this one has decided to grow so big and so quickly.
Was in same size pot as everything else till 3 days ago, now in a giant pot to allow some more growth.

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2018 at 09:45

samcat said:
The Aji lemon/Joes long beast... All others are about 2/3 - 1/2 the size of this. Not sure why this one has decided to grow so big and so quickly.
Was in same size pot as everything else till 3 days ago, now in a giant pot to allow some more growth.

leaves look droopy on that

samcat · 19 Jun 2018 at 10:05

Psycho Sonny said:
leaves look droopy on that

Not surprised, pic was not long after repotting, it was sad for about 24 hours.. repotting does stress them out!

Growing happily again now from my check this morning.

ShotInTheAss86 · 22 Jun 2018 at 19:54

also had big problem with pests this year.

Jalapeno's mostly all flowering and got a few decent peppers on them already.

4 out of 5 of my ring of fire flowering the tiny one looks like it wants to but hasnt opened up yet.

None of my Aji Limon's have flowered yet, plenty of heads just not opening up, hoping we get a couple more days like today to give them a kick in to action

ShotInTheAss86 · 22 Jun 2018 at 19:56

Mark A what soil you using? you seemed to have a really good early start with big plants that flowered a lot earlier than anyone else on here

Moonpie2 · 23 Jun 2018 at 08:55

Here's about half of my 'garden'.
After posting a few weeks ago that nothing was fruiting and my flowers seemed pollen-less and hard, they finally decided to make chillies.

Got Bhut Jolokia, Paper Lantern, Fatalii, Antilais Habaneiro and Trinidad scorpions on the go !!
Wheee !!

Mark A · 24 Jun 2018 at 01:24

SHOTinTHEface86 said:
Mark A what soil you using? you seemed to have a really good early start with big plants that flowered a lot earlier than anyone else on here

I used Westland multi purpose from Wilko, with about 20% perlite added to give better drainage.

I cheated by buying plugs from ebay as i was too late to grow from seeds. They have shot up surprisingly quickly though from the first pic I took, much faster than in the past. I think potting them up to 5l pots just before we got that couple of weeks of strong sunshine helped.

My cayennes are turning red now, i used a couple today in a stirfry, but think they need to ripen for a bit longer as they weren't as hot as i'd like.

The plant on the right is the Birdseye demon and it has cropped really well. Hundreds of little chillies and hundreds more flowers. I think i'll get a few more of these next year as they are nice and compact, so perfect for window sills. They should look cool when they start to ripen with the chillies all pointing up.

ShotInTheAss86 · 24 Jun 2018 at 17:27

Mark A said:
I used Westland multi purpose from Wilko, with about 20% perlite added to give better drainage.

I cheated by buying plugs from ebay as i was too late to grow from seeds. They have shot up surprisingly quickly though from the first pic I took, much faster than in the past. I think potting them up to 5l pots just before we got that couple of weeks of strong sunshine helped.

My cayennes are turning red now, i used a couple today in a stirfry, but think they need to ripen for a bit longer as they weren't as hot as i'd like.

The plant on the right is the Birdseye demon and it has cropped really well. Hundreds of little chillies and hundreds more flowers. I think i'll get a few more of these next year as they are nice and compact, so perfect for window sills. They should look cool when they start to ripen with the chillies all pointing up.

That Birdseye demon looks awesome. you got more peppers on that than I have got on all 17 of my plants put together. Looks like you'll have a good crop at least!

Tarqy · 25 Jun 2018 at 08:43

The chillies I've been growing in the office are coming along nicely, Just starting to get some flowers.