2019 Chilli Growing thread

[Squid Vicious]

Following on from 2018 what are people growing this year?

I have a few plants that look like they'll survive over-wintering so just adding/changing a little this year.

Padron - 6 plants, up from 3 last year but will probably try and stagger them as these bore fruit really early but slowed down a-lot towards the end of summer but are fantastic pan-fried with a sprinkle of salt (and unlike most I've tried in restaurants mine had a fair few with a nice kick to them)

Aji Limon - overwintering ok and a really lovely chilli so back on the list.

Hungarian hot-wax - over-wintered and quite a heavy cropper last year so back on the list.

One mystery chilli - think it's a paper lantern chilli that came out of a pack of Aji Limon seeds, over-wintered OK and did well last year so that can stay.

Think I'll replace last years Italian pepperoncini with a frigitello for pickling - really trying to find something to replicate the mild pickled chilli's you get in the kebab shop.

I'll choose a habanero or two to use in hot-sauces and relishes as well.

The propagator and heating mat are ready to get them going in next couple of weeks and then they'll be shifted into a cold-frame in the conservatory, more to protect them from the cat than anything else before finally going outside when it's warm enough.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Hi chaps,

Been out of the game for a few years -whats the best way to germinate these days? I could have sworn I started the seeds off using damp kitchen roll in my airing cupboard then tranferred them to a coir plug - is this still the preferred route?

I germinated in some plain old potting compost last year but going to try some coir plugs this year.
Think the key thing is getting them into a propagator and ensuring it's warm enough to germinate.
Adding a heated mat under the propogator made massive difference last year - lot of plants failed without it in a relatively cold kitchen.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Got a lot of super hot seeds from last year.
Not even sure what they are any more, but they're the type to melt your face off, you know, stuff in the top 5 hottest in the world
Also picked up some of these seeds online....
Not even sure they're real!?!
Does anyone know?
Hahah !!

Quick question though.
I've been reclaiming some of the soil from failed overwintering and basically, it's dust.
I'm trying to re-hydrate it, but now it just feels like wet dust.
Is it useless or it's all fine and doesn't really matter?

- Cheers

No idea what those chilli's might be, though reckon good chance it's just been photoshopped to makem look 'interesting' (google image search has that stock photo showing up in quite a few places).

If it's old stuff that plants have already grown in then a lot of the nutrients will have been drained, I'd suggest getting some fresh potting or general purpose compost if you're growing from seed to give the plants the best chance.

 

[Squid Vicious]

I still havnt cleared up my plants from last year. I just went out to have a tidy and the main stems are still green on a few. Anyone think they can be saved? I thought they would be long dead by now.

We've had some pretty hard frosts already this winter and I'd be surprised if they've survived, but you don't have much to lose by trying! Give it a go and see what happens

 

[Squid Vicious]

Finally got round to putting my seeds in :
9 Padron - can never have to many of these
3 Apache
3 Hungarian hotwax

Looks like I have 2 aji limon and a scotch bonnet survived overwintering

 

[Squid Vicious]

From a packet of say 10 seeds, how many do people sow for germination? I'm just thinking that I don't want to end up with loads of plants that I can't store properly...

There's no harm in germinating some extra and then just potting on the healthiest ones

 

[Squid Vicious]

I'm sure my cats are out to kill my chillies! Last year one of them pushed the whole propagator off the window sill!



Nice! Two out of three of mine have died as they couldn't cope with the heat and wilted.

I tried to keep mine safe from the cat by putting them in a cold-frame in the conservatory - I failed - the polycarbonate multiwall sheet on top unfortunately couldn't take 6kg of cat

Looking at upgrading it to solid polycarbonate sheet this year

 

[Squid Vicious]

Interesting to read this as I was planning of making a small greenhouse with the double walled stuff. Did your cat go through it?

I'd already moved the chilli's down to the second shelf as she'd already been showing a little to much interest in them - but the top was down and she must have jumped on, at which point it just folded and was partially pulled out from the wooden frame - enough for her to get inside and onto the top shelf allowing her to fish for the supposedly safe chillis on the middle shelf.

 

[Squid Vicious]

That enclosure is awesome! Did you make or buy that?

Bought it off Amazon , I'd seen the brand in some local garden centres and had a look around at alternatives but that one seemed to be reasonably good quality and price.

Easy to put together, pretty solid though obviously not built to resist slightly chubby cats jumping on it.

Moved it outside when weather started warming up to start hardening the chillis off.

Gave it a few coats of teak oil to help protect it and it's been outside over winter and seems to have withstood the elements well enough. It'll be coming back indoors when the new seedlings are big enough to come out of the propagator.

Really shouldn't be that difficult to knock something together if you've got the skill, time, tools and materials though - sadly I'm lacking most of those

 

[Squid Vicious]

I'll look into that, thanks. I have tried horticultural sharp sand in the past, which didn't work, also tried perlite last year, which did work for most of the year, but I think the little buggers found their way into the bottom of the pots. They are a reall problem for me and usually result in me having to bin all my plants instead of over wintering as they are infested by the end of summer .

I'm thinking the mesh will totally stop them getting into the bottom holes, but still let water drain out. Same with the top. Then put a layer of grit or sand on top of the mesh to hold it down.

I had issues with an infestation last year but think the root cause was overwatering, as soon as I cut that back the problem disappeared.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Got my over wintered plants out in the sunshine last bank hol weekend as they were flowering.
Back in the conservatory now it's cooled down but have a load of aji limon fruit forming now.
Time to get than back into bigger pots and given a feed I think.

 

[Squid Vicious]

When do people start feeding their chillis?

Think the general recommendation is to start feeding the plants when they begin to flower.

 

[Squid Vicious]

You can also just stick the plants outside on a nice day and bugs will do the job for you.

The first fruit has started to ripen on the overwintered aji limon so looking forward to first harvest now.

Plenty of flowers on the scotch bonnet but no fruit yet - not to surprised as that plant was really late season last year.

Potted on the pardon, Apache F1 and paper lantern - looking forward to them later on in the year.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Took the first chilli off the aji limon last night to go into a lamb kofta wrap - yummy!! Some others starting to colour quite nicely as well.
One question though, quite a few of the early fruit have some very dark colouration - almost black - are these likely to ripen? If not I'll just remove them now...

 

[Squid Vicious]

Many thanks for the useful info @Daytrader

I'll leave them be and let them ripen off.

 

[Squid Vicious]

@SHOTinTHEface86 and @Daytrader - some lovely looking plants and chilli's there.

With the temps and sunshine the aji limon have started ripening in bulk now so really happy with them.

Scotch bonnet now has its first fruit and paper lantern starting to flower so looking forward to them.

I got my padron started much later than I'd liked but have 4 healthy plants now doing really well.

 

[Squid Vicious]

More purdy habaneros - nice!

Took a big crop of the overwintered aji limon off on the weekend - need to think of things to do with them - I think chop and freeze half and maybe dry some.

scotch bonnet has more fruit and they're developing slowly but surely

Big burst of life on the Padron with some big fruit now developing - hopefully have my first plate of fried padron with the next week or so

Apache now also has first fruit

Now only waiting for the paper lantern habanero - plants doing well and plenty of flowers so fingers crossed have fruit their in next few weeks.

 

[Squid Vicious]

@Pigeon_Killer those little monsters look fantastic

Just taken a little harvest off mine today



Still waiting for Paper Lantern and Apaches to start ripening - they started producing fruit much later than the rest so hoping this last little heat wave will do the trick

 

[Squid Vicious]

Some photos taken last week after Greenhouse went up

Very nice looking greenhouse - is it a rhino? Super tough - if I wasn't moving within the next year or two I'd have had one up

 

[Squid Vicious]

Abandoned the idea of over wintering this year due to an infestation of whitefly plus and fungus gnats.

Just starting to think about options for this year so I can get the seeds germinated.