2018 Chilli Growing thread

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

planted mine this weekend :

Cherry bomb
Cayenne
Hungarian hot wax
Zimbabwe black
Trinidad perfume (like a habanero with low heat so great to add more flavour to things like stir frys)
Serrano
Carolina reaper

fingers crossed for successful germination, not a lot of hope on the zimbabwe blacks as they failed on 2 previous attempts, the seeds were poor quality

 

[NickK]

Overwintered Bhut and Trinidad Scorpion have just started budding leaves so not long before they start

 

[Mark A]

Pah! Shows how much I don't keep up with the times, maybe this will work instead..

That looks cool, never seen the chillies pointing up before. Mines getting there slowly, its already bushing out a bit.

Just potted them all up to 3l pots as the roots were starting to show at the bottom of the 1L pots. Just need some more sun now...



Is it ok to water from the top if you use perlite? The water seems to drain well. I tried watering from the bottom for the first time a couple of years back and it seemed to soak too much water into the soil. I did it to try and combat fungus gnats and ended up with more that year than ever before, so i'm hessitant to use the bottom watering method again. But maybe i just did it wrong as a lot of people wear by it.

 

[kinetic747]

I have half a dozen Apache plugs in a heated propagator and they're growing strongly. Should I pinch them out and if so, when?

 

[rhysduck]

It's not to late to start is it? Really want to grow some sweet chillies or anythign not too hot this year.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Anyone grown carolina reapers from seed?
If so how long did they take to germinate. All my chilli seeds have germinated apart from my reapers, typically 5-14 days to germinate on all types I have found.
I wonder if the reapers take longer or if I may have to try another batch. They are in a heated prop in the low-mid 20s so should be around perfect temp.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

It's not to late to start is it? Really want to grow some sweet chillies or anythign not too hot this year.

If you get a move on you will be fine.
If you stick to the less hot ones they tend to grow faster (plants) and take less time to ripen I find

 

[topgun06]

Finally got around to ordering some plugs. Yes, I was so disorganised to sow seeds this year.

So i now have 6 little plants. 2 Jalapeno, 2 Scotch Bonnet, 2 Thai chili something something.

It's not to late to start is it? Really want to grow some sweet chillies or anythign not too hot this year.

I got myself some chilli plugs instead this year as I had left it so late. So that's an option.

 

[rhysduck]

I got myself some chilli plugs instead this year as I had left it so late. So that's an option.

If you get a move on you will be fine.
If you stick to the less hot ones they tend to grow faster (plants) and take less time to ripen I find

Thanks both. Any suggestions please? I wouldn't be after anything hot anyway particularly. Might be nice for some meat rubs though...

 

[Mark A]

Seeds are probably a bit too late, plugs or even small potted plants would be better. Although saying that it does say feb-apr for sowing on most of the seeds I looked at.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Thanks both. Any suggestions please? I wouldn't be after anything hot anyway particularly. Might be nice for some meat rubs though...

Cayenne would be my recommendation for a rub type chilli. Its hot enough to be useful and they are quite a prolific producer. They also ripen fairly quickly, and are completely fine if used green (just not as hot) so if you are a little late in the season then pick them green at the end.

If for slicing, then hungarian hot wax, jalapeneo or cherry bomb are good and again quite quick to ripen

 

[Mark A]

Anyone got any watering tips? I can't decide whether to water from the top or bottom and how much water to use if i do water from the bottom. Is it just a case of adding a small amount and then hoping the water will be soaked up into the rest of the pot?

I think the last time i tried the bottom watering method i left the pots soaking in a big bucket of water and thats why they became waterlogged and I ended up with fungus gnats.

 

[Begbie]

Just ordered some seeds, probably too late but we do have 30c till mid October here. So hoping I can still pull it off.

I had a 'chilli kit' that failed last year. Started early and I think the cold nights killed them (20c during the day and dropping off to below 10 at night) but the nights are warmer now so hoping for better luck.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I water from the top. I have never had an issue with gnats when outside as predators will find them.
Inside is more tricky, but even then on really good days just move them outside if you have gnats and something will come along for an all in buffet

Was told an interesting tip by one of the allotment guys (nickname : "going to the pub"), in that aphids dont like garlic, so plant some garlic near where you grow chilies. I am going to bung a few cloves in my polys, not that I had an aphid issue but thought it was worth mentioning,
Garlic is easy to grow, just plant a clove, where the roots were facing down. It likes decent amount of water until mid summer or so, then just enough to stop it going completely dried out, and easy to grow in pots.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Was told an interesting tip by one of the allotment guys (nickname : "going to the pub"), in that aphids dont like garlic, so plant some garlic near where you grow chilies. I am going to bung a few cloves in my polys, not that I had an aphid issue but thought it was worth mentioning,
Garlic is easy to grow, just plant a clove, where the roots were facing down. It likes decent amount of water until mid summer or so, then just enough to stop it going completely dried out, and easy to grow in pots.

I put half a dozen cloves of garlic from the supermarket into a raised bed amongst a load of shallots 2 years ago. It died back and I didn't harvest it as I foolishly thought it had actually died, result was that last year I had a huge cluster of garlic plants growing from each of the previous years bulbs.... nearly finished it up now

Have got picardy, solent wight and mersley wight this year (the picardy and mersley doing really well and the solent just starting to catchup)

 

[Iamzod]

Anyone grown carolina reapers from seed?
If so how long did they take to germinate. All my chilli seeds have germinated apart from my reapers, typically 5-14 days to germinate on all types I have found.
I wonder if the reapers take longer or if I may have to try another batch. They are in a heated prop in the low-mid 20s so should be around perfect temp.

Mine took about 10 days but I kept them at 35c.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Mine took about 10 days but I kept them at 35c.

Thanks, 35 wow thats very hot.
I think I may put the rest of the seeds in as 3 weeks on and they haven't shown any signs of germination.

Having some issues with my chillies that I did in the heated prop, they seem to be objecting to being taken away from it, and some have died.
I think I am going to use it sparingly and go back to my normal approach of a sealed plastic tub to create the micro environment. Maybe the heated prop until first signs of germination for early season only.

Will bung the remains of my reaper seeds into the heated prop though if they like really hot temps for germination. cheers for the reply

 

[Mark A]

I water from the top. I have never had an issue with gnats when outside as predators will find them.
Inside is more tricky, but even then on really good days just move them outside if you have gnats and something will come along for an all in buffet

Thanks, I am forced to grow inside as I live in a valley that seems to be constantly cold and wet and theres a giant sycamore tree at the end of the garden that is home to billions of greenflies every summer. Every time I try to grow outside I find i'm just constantly removing greenflies and due to the crap weather the growth is significantly worse than the indoor plants.

At the moment I am watering very little, around once a week or so and not totally soaking them when I do water them. The plants seem to be happy and the roots are now poking out of the 3l pots, so i think watering less has encouraged root growth. Not sure whether to pot up to 5l pots this early..

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I've just planted habanero and jalapeno seeds in a tegren t12. will see how they develop. how deep do seeds normally need to be? i think some are basically at the top and the other is 2 cm deep.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I go about a cm deep, maybe just under for normal size chilli seeds.
In theory most seeds will surface germinate, but what you have to consider is how they would be in the wild.

Eg a flower will drop the seeds that sit on the surface so they will normally be surface sown. A chilli when ripe and falling off a plant may be on the surface, but the seeds are protected by the remains of the old chilli.

The problem with surface seeding is that whilst the sun helps germination it can also nuke tiny seedlings. So i would always give them some cover even if its the bear minimum you can manage.