2018 Chilli Growing thread

[Moonpie2]

Does anyone know if there's any downside to starting the overwintering process too early?

I've decided to give up on my 'garden' now after the white fly infestation.
I'll harvest what chillies I've got and then cut the plants back to just 6 inches of stalk.
Although I've done that for a few, obviously they have started sprouting again, but I wondered if I then pull those sprouts off come october time, will there be any negative side-effects?

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

When I was overwintering I found they would do that occasionally. Unless you have a very temperature controlled environment they keep thinking its spring as soon as you have a warm uptick.

I would let them to be honest, just keep trimming them back to very small bushes. water them and keep a very low level of food available.

Plants that can get some energy from daylight should be easier to maintain than ones that are almost dead.

I am going to look at doing this myself with some of my poly plants. Ideally one of each type, dig them up, hack them right back, and keep trimming them back to not much more than the old main stem.
Then in spring a last harsh prune back before I let them go gadget go

 

[Moonpie2]

Hmmm..... a staggered approach to overwintering eh?
Might give that a whirl.
I just want to get rid of all the leaves as fast as possible to get rid of the flies.
Honestly, 'Infestation' isn't a strong enough word for what's happening to me

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Whitefly isn't that hard to deal with, if you deleaf them now they will probably regrow quickly.
You may need a chemical treatment as well to defeat the whitefly

The difficultly I found with going really extreme on the overwintering is, you must keep the roots damp or you will get a high chance of failure.
If you can keep them somewhere they will not suffer extreme temps, then let them grow, slowly, and trim back constantly.

All you are really gaining by overwintering is a fully formed root structure in effect. I look at it like this, from say late Sept to Jan you have extra work, keeping this plant alive. Come february or so you have a robust plant still when otherwise you would be in the realm of seedlings etc so you haven't got much extra work really across 6 months if you manage to keep your plants alive.

The difficultly for me is getting the plants out of the poly at the right time. Last years suffered a long slow blight, they got that in the poly around early Oct before I dug them up, and they slowly slowly went downhill. Kept getting new growth but it would die eventually. This year I wont leave it so late as once they get blight I have never seen them recover. Chili plants have a surprisingly small root ball. I had 4 foot plants with a fist size root ball, you dont need big pots to overwinter them in. In fact I have seen guides where people also trim the rootball down to a smaller size to also help to restrict the plant.

 

[LewisRaz]

Made a chilli with one of my scotch bonnets in the weekend. It was still green but I was getting inpatient!

I didnt add any other chilli or chilli powder so I could gauge the heat level and I must say it was quite nice but I hope they get a fair bit hotter once ripe.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

i was away for 4 weeks whilst all of mine were flowering.

i've got like 3-4 jalapenos from 40+ buds.

not got a single habanero but only had around 4-5 flowers actually open up yet on that.

they are all inside using grow lamps. i think it's too cold in scotland. i might try hot varieties in future inside a grow tent in the garage. jalapeno would have been fine had i been home to pollinate them regularly.

disappointing to say the least but I did start late and i think it's too cold now for flowering.

lessons learnt for next year. i'm going to just keep them going through the winter and see what happens. is there any need to cut them back or can i keep them as they are and keep the grow lamps on.

they are on 12 hours per day going to cut down to 10 then possibly 6 or 8 through winter.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

i was away for 4 weeks whilst all of mine were flowering.

i've got like 3-4 jalapenos from 40+ buds.

not got a single habanero but only had around 4-5 flowers actually open up yet on that.

they are all inside using grow lamps. i think it's too cold in scotland. i might try hot varieties in future inside a grow tent in the garage. jalapeno would have been fine had i been home to pollinate them regularly.

disappointing to say the least but I did start late and i think it's too cold now for flowering.

lessons learnt for next year. i'm going to just keep them going through the winter and see what happens. is there any need to cut them back or can i keep them as they are and keep the grow lamps on.

they are on 12 hours per day going to cut down to 10 then possibly 6 or 8 through winter.

No need to cut back, if you have them in grow tents they should be going for ever basically.

It sounds odd but I find sometimes you need to shock chilli plants by changing their environment if they are not producing, because there must be something they are not so happy with.
Heat, light, humidity (often ignored), obviously then food, water etc

I would, try giving them a spell outside, plus a decent food boost. You may shock them back into producing. If not then maybe a trim back, wont hurt them.
I have a plant in my poly that had no chilies when the rest had hundreds. I tried underwatering it, then overwatering, then I gave a very high dose of food. Its now got about 100 flowers on it, but suspect its too late for this year now

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I just noticed i have a lot more jalapenos but they are just starting to grow so I was being impatient.

Got a few more buds opening up on the habanero now too. So hopefully in 5 weeks time i should have some ready.

There's hardly any pollen coming off the habanero buds but tonnes of it off the jalapenos. I guess that's because they require a hotter climate?

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I just noticed i have a lot more jalapenos but they are just starting to grow so I was being impatient.

Got a few more buds opening up on the habanero now too. So hopefully in 5 weeks time i should have some ready.

There's hardly any pollen coming off the habanero buds but tonnes of it off the jalapenos. I guess that's because they require a hotter climate?

Ah right, so what you have seen is the flower part fall off, but not the stalk? Thats a successful pollination. What happens is, if they are not pollinated the whole of the stalk will come off, usually with a shrivelled flower. If they are fine then often the flower falls off, or for thinner chillies it can send up stuck around the chilli.

Some are very heavy pollen producers, some not so much. I often find the earlier flowers have less pollen, it seems to produce more as the plant is properly in fruiting mode.
I cant really say on habs as mine failed last year (old seeds) so I dont have any habs growing this year.

Now the fruit is growing is time to feed

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Yeah I've upped feeding to twice a week from once a week.

Just tomorite until it runs out then I'll use chilli focus. My chilli focus wouldn't open so I had to drill a hole in the lid. So I'm going to pour it into the empty tomorite container once itsi finished.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

haha that chilli focus lid thing is well known

Did you buy the big container? I just got 5L delivered and you need a cap spanner. Or far simpler, just cut the 4 plastic prongs that join the cap to the collar

Just reminded me to go and get some pipettes from one of the labs (tying to pour 5ml from a 5 litre container isn't very easy!)

Oh if your already at weekly feeding be careful going too high, you can promote excessive foliage growth, ie the plant will aim to grow larger due to plenty of food, and in effect stop flowering as much as it sets out for global domination

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Oh right I'll just stick with weekly feeds then.

Yeah was 5 litre container. I'll funnel it into the tomorite then tape the hole up using masking tape so it doesn't go off or evaporate. I have already drilled a hole and taped it up so I found my own solution. Why can't they use a normal 5 litre container?

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Those are quite normal industrial ones. We use just the same at work, they are tough as designed to sustain quite some impact.
From my understanding the 5l they expect to go to larger growers who would have a cap spanner. They don't cost much

Or, if you come across one again, look closely at the point the cap is joined to the collar that you need to break off, typically just 4 pieces will be connected, a sharp knife will easily cut through them.

Its quite funny if you look on Amazon at chilli focus, people complaining about the cap and sending it back. Numpties!

 

[Squid Vicious]

So how long for Aji Limon to ripen off? I've got a couple of plants that are loaded with green aji limon chillis - assume they should go a nice yellow at some point...

I did try one a week or so back and no heat so have left them to mature.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Most chilies 2-3 months from when they stop growing, hotter take longer

 

[ShotInTheAss86]

So how long for Aji Limon to ripen off? I've got a couple of plants that are loaded with green aji limon chillis - assume they should go a nice yellow at some point...

I did try one a week or so back and no heat so have left them to mature.

in the same boat, just moved all my aji's and ring of fire indoors for the evening as getting too cold now and still seem a good 3-4 weeks off from ripening up

 

[tom_nieto]

Strangely I find that the chillies tend to ripen faster if they’re outside - I had put that down to the colder nights. My Aji Limons for example went yellow after a few days of being outside where’s they had been green for ages being inside.

I might yet get a few chillies before autumn properly sets in. I’m hoping for a bit of an Indian summer so everything eta a chance to ripen in my veg patch.

Yellow Courgettes did well though!

 

[ShotInTheAss86]

So after moving the aji's indoors I've been able to inspect them better and they are still flowering with hundreds of heads coming through. Had 2 to taste already last week which had ripened first and stalks given up. Got another 8 which are yellow now. The scent from them when chopped is great and they taste lovely

is it worth me trying to keep these going or should i just pinch the heads off so the plant focus' on the developed chillies to finish growth and ripen

 

[Psycho Sonny]

as long as you are feeding them it shouldn't matter how many chillies are on there.

i saw some when i was in vancouver, canada. tiny plants covered in chillies. must have been rich soil and perfect growing conditions.

 

[Yadda]

Nice to see some fellow chilli growers on here.

I've taken a break from growing superhots this year and stepped it down a bit. Partly because I still have quite a few of last year's Trinidad Scorpions on the freezer but mainly because I want to be able to put more (~10-15) chillies in my curry pastes for flavour without ruining my curries.

So, this year it's just paper lantern habaneros and a very mild variety that I've never grown before called "Inferno". I've harvested a few from it already and I can't get over how big they are! Everyone who has seen them on the plant when they're pale green/yellow says they look like bananas.

Here are a few Infernos straight from the freezer. The picture doesn't really convey their size very well but by Christ, they are big!