2018 Chilli Growing thread

rhysduck · 27 Jul 2018 at 09:55

Street said:
I've got one Basket of Fire plant left over I need to shift otherwise it's going in the bin if you want it?

So after @Street donated me a Basket of Fire kindly back a few weeks, this is how it's now looking. Fed once a week with tommie feed. Thank you Street. Very pleased with how it's turned out!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GNctdcVKvnhDoSdb9

Got a few other chilli plants (variety forgotten) that are doing ok... still yet to show any signs of fruit though. I blame the bees!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GPs58DTSh1zAmbj66

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NYbLdPFFBeziyRzx9

They aren't very big due to I think them being planted a bit late in the season. Hopefully they'll start fruiting soon if the weather keeps up and the bees arrive!

LewisRaz · 27 Jul 2018 at 17:27

Moonpie2 said:
I got some super hots on the go.
Not as many as I'd like though, maybe only about 15 in total.
Dunno whether that's just how little that super hots grow or if it's got something to do with a whitefly infestation that's stopping new ones coming (grrrr).
Anyway....
Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion and I think there might be some kind of 'jigsaw' variety in there.

They look great!

My SBs have anywhere from 40-100 on each plant. My bhuts are more like 20-50 but still a lot more than 15.. are they in a smaller pot?

One of my apache peppers has gone fully red but is smaller than a grape.... the unripe ones are all 2" or so long... Anyone know what its doing?

Moonpie2 · 28 Jul 2018 at 03:03

LewisRaz said:
They look great!

My SBs have anywhere from 40-100 on each plant. My bhuts are more like 20-50 but still a lot more than 15.. are they in a smaller pot?

My plants have had a bit of a weird and hard life.
Firstly after flowering everything went through about 3 weeks of blossom drop, I lost hundreds of flowers.
Then they got a bit beaten up in a storm (But pulled through)
Then after some chillies started appearing, the white fly attacked.
Was it one of these things? A combination? Something else? I dunno.... but yeah, considering the size of my plants, they should have done much better

I'm gonna overwinter and move to bigger pots next year (they're currently in pots about 15cmx15cmx15cm)

Squid Vicious · 30 Jul 2018 at 08:06

Still waiting for fruit on my scotch bonnet, have had flowers on there for last week or two and they've starting dropping so hoping fruit will appear soon.

Padron, hot wax and aji limon all doing well now though.

mid_gen · 30 Jul 2018 at 08:27

My 7-pot burgundy has stopped dropping and started lots of fruits over the weekend, finally! The red habanero has gone nuts in the past week and is covered in fruit, the cayenne type thing as it's first ripe fruit I'll be trying out tomorrow.

Just the one last plant that's not fruited, the guy I got the sapling from thinks it's some kind of habanero type, the plant certainly looks something like the 7pot/habanero plants.

LewisRaz · 30 Jul 2018 at 17:25

My ghosts are getting some fruits going now, and one of my bonnet plants is getting heavy

randomshenans · 2 Aug 2018 at 08:39

So one of my plants (labels fell off, no idea what it is...) is about 3ft tall now and had some flowers but now they've all dropped and it hasn't got any more yet. Would you say it'd benefit from some chilli feed?

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 2 Aug 2018 at 09:31

randomshenans said:
So one of my plants (labels fell off, no idea what it is...) is about 3ft tall now and had some flowers but now they've all dropped and it hasn't got any more yet. Would you say it'd benefit from some chilli feed?

Maybe, but if they all fell off its sounding like an issue with fertilisation not happening

Mark A · 2 Aug 2018 at 18:36

I have harvested most of mine now and dried them out in the oven. I was surprised the Ancho Grande only matured to red, I was expecting them to turn dark brown like thew Mulato chillies I grew a few years back, but they started to go soft on the plant at the red stage, so I thought i'd better harvest them before they spoil. They have dried out well, but it took ages as the walls were so thick and fleshy.

Squid Vicious · 3 Aug 2018 at 08:23

Also have the first fruit on my scotch bonnet.

Also think I have enough Hungarian hot wax for first batch of pickled chilli.

Does anybody else pickle? If so how do make up your brine?

ping8781 · 3 Aug 2018 at 09:57

Any idea what type of chilli these are? Got a chilli plant from Tesco that was reduced to 30p and almost dead, cut it right back and stuck it on a sunny windowsill and water regularly, it recovered and flowered and now has these growing but no idea what type they are

https://ibb.co/nFzzOz

Also, is it worth cutting back anything that looks dead / bits without flowers on to give it more chance?

How do i know when they are ready to pick?

Thanks

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 3 Aug 2018 at 10:32

It looks like a jalapeno type chilli, I say type, you will probably never know for sure as loads look similar but that would be my guess

As far as ready to pick, most chilies will go red when fully ripe. The good thing is that as they are peppers they are never under ripe, ie you can pick and eat at any point but obviously as they ripen the active ingredient goes up, although this is actually at its peak before fully ripe, they are fully ripe when the seeds are fully formed, we don't specifically want ripe seeds as a key part of growing chilies to eat.

They typically take a week - 2 to grow then 4-8 to fully ripen. The hotter the chilli the longer generally. I would give those 4 weeks or so from when they seem to stop growing and you should be fine.

ping8781 · 3 Aug 2018 at 10:37

Awesome, thank you that's really useful to know. Sounds like hopefully they will be similar to the type we normally eat. I feel i'm getting the growing bug now.

Raikiri · 3 Aug 2018 at 19:39

I bought a couple of plants a while back and one was labeled as Lemon drop but they seem to have been mislabeled, anybody know what these are:

LewisRaz · 3 Aug 2018 at 20:14

ping8781 said:
Any idea what type of chilli these are? Got a chilli plant from Tesco that was reduced to 30p and almost dead, cut it right back and stuck it on a sunny windowsill and water regularly, it recovered and flowered and now has these growing but no idea what type they are

https://ibb.co/nFzzOz

Also, is it worth cutting back anything that looks dead / bits without flowers on to give it more chance?

How do i know when they are ready to pick?

Thanks

The chillies look a bit like apache but the leaves look different

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 4 Aug 2018 at 10:56

Look quite like young cherry bomb to me

Squid Vicious · 7 Aug 2018 at 14:40

Some nice crops now...

Fruit on Aji Limon are coming along nicely - just need them to ripen now.

Few more fruit appeared on the Scotch Bonnet as well so good time all round.

randomshenans · 7 Aug 2018 at 15:08

Aji's are a massive favourite of mine!

LewisRaz · 7 Aug 2018 at 17:29

Squid Vicious said:
Some nice crops now...

Fruit on Aji Limon are coming along nicely - just need them to ripen now.

Few more fruit appeared on the Scotch Bonnet as well so good time all round.

Is it better to pick them like that(green) or let them ripen on the plant?

Squid Vicious · 7 Aug 2018 at 17:50

LewisRaz said:
Is it better to pick them like that(green) or let them ripen on the plant?

It depends on your preferences and the chillis, they'll typically develop more heat the longer you leave them on the plant.

In my case the Padron are perfect green with only the odd one being spicy, the pepperoncini (longer green wrinkly) I'll try leaving on for longer see if they develop any more heat but not expecting much as they're another very mild chilli. The hot wax have a really nice heat at that colour and I'll pickle most of them for snacking on later.

The Aji Limon and Scotch Bonnet I'll leave on until properly matured to have as some more spicy options.