The 2012 Chilli growing thread - the second burn!

ash_scotland88 said:
cheers matt, yeah noticed there's a small one for around £14, which is currently beating the rainforest for places. It's not on offer but may try and have a look over the weekend.
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I got this one for my chillis this season. Worked it out to cost ~£13 if I left it on all year (electricity costs) and that was an important factor. It's only 4W but seems pretty good to me. Fairly solid - just a gentle heat.
 
:( must have had a power cut, grow lights weren't on when I came home and timer had reset.

Anyway my setup draws 348watts
On from 7:30-2100 so 13hr30mins a day
And elec price is 9.73p

So whats that work out per day and week?

topgun06 said:
Nice, did you use Vermiculite for that?
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Both, I'm sure I posted my proffered ratio last year, or maybe the year before, will have a dig.

Nope can't find it, I do it by eye but a guess would be 3:1:1
 
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Kazatan said:
I got this one for my chillis this season. Worked it out to cost ~£13 if I left it on all year (electricity costs) and that was an important factor. It's only 4W but seems pretty good to me. Fairly solid - just a gentle heat.
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The one currently online is advertised as 8w.
I only plan for use for germination and maybe for a wee bit longer afterwards. Plants will be sitting on a windowsill so will have access to light but not always direct sunlight.
I started late last year with my peppers and in my hurry for them to grow I recon I overfed them as they all developed black blotchy leaves.
 
topgun06 said:
Also, anyone swear by using Vermiculite or Perlite?
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I use a combination of both and compost, also 3:1:1 ratio.

In March I will be unpot my 2 plants that are being overwintered, clear off some of the old external soil, then repot with some new mix.
 
I'm hoping my chilli plant will survive to flower in 2012 because we had a bumper crop last year!

Anyone grown a chilli bush? Or do they not get that big.
 
Got my greenhouse coming early next month. Going to start loads of stuff in heated propagators then on to the greenhouse when ready.
 
Glaucus said:
Both, I'm sure I posted my proffered ratio last year, or maybe the year before, will have a dig.

Nope can't find it, I do it by eye but a guess would be 3:1:1
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krooton said:
I use a combination of both and compost, also 3:1:1 ratio.

In March I will be unpot my 2 plants that are being overwintered, clear off some of the old external soil, then repot with some new mix.
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Cool, cheeras guys. I didnt bother last year and went with 100% compost. Will grab some bags over the weekend and see if it changes anything this year.
 
I have a friend who was growing some chillis in his back garden, though he didn't know the variety. They were about an inch long, red and almost squarish in shape. He fancies himself as something of a hard chilli man (when he was a hard-up student he was looking for people to offer him fifty quid to neck a bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce). After a couple of bevvies he spoke to us of his crops in hushed tones and said that we should all try one and that he'd never had one himself.

He took a small nibble of a chilli and literally hurled himself to the floor, coughing and wheezing, like a premier league striker brushing a defender's elbow in the penalty box. The only words he could force out were 'that's the hottest thing I've ever eaten!'. Me and the other lad there each took a bite and were ok. Hotter than a Bird Eye chilli, but not coma-inducing or anything.

Still, they were tasty, and left an amusing burn on the lips, but that's all part of the fun!
 
I grew about 20 plants last season but I was one of the unlucky ones who didn't really get much in terms of crop. I think this is to do with a fairly rubbish summer, but also the fact that (despite being south-facing) my garden doesn't get that much sun due to trees.

The stars of the show...

Aji Limon / Lemon Drop (fruity/citrus but hot, great bright yellow, really easy to get a good healthy plant - in fact one is still growing, despite all it's limbs being hacked off for overwintering!).

Criolla Sella (a little fruity and fairly hot, amazing golden curly and knobbly chilli's, very pretty flowers, pretty vigorous plant).

Barbados (fairly hard to get hold of, really cool looking red folded/spherical fruits, great taste and not too hot, fairly vigorous plant).

CAP 256 (I think this is a wild strain, lots of red chilli's with good flavour and heat, pretty plant with great flowers).

Santa Fé Grande (big cone chilli's which have low heat, great for salads/salsa's, good colour changing from pale yellow/cream to orange to red).


I tried crossing the Santa Fé Grande (SFG) with Orange Habanero (both ways) and I have just put the seeds in to germinate. Hope this grows something cool!

This years list:

Malaysian Goronong
SFGxOH
OHxSFG
Pimientos de Padron
Trinidad perfume

I hope our summer is better this year.
 
I'm very interested in trying this year, I was gonna last year but never got round to it.
Thinking a couple of hot ones then a selection of intersting looking ones, fruity/sweet maybe for salads n stuff, anyone got any suggestions?

Any pointers on starter kits? I have no pots, no soil (well theres a muddy mess at the rear of the house lol), no lights (are they needed). Are these popup mini greenhouses any good?
 
So I went out yesterday and got myself some john innes no 2, along with some perlite to try and hopefully stop those stupid little flys this year (they killed my awesome jalapeno last year, was a very big productive plant).

Anyway im off to get some pots today and maybe a heated propagator? Not to sure what kind I should be looking for regarding that though (like price, features etc).

But anyway, going to pop off to B&q in a minute. If anyone happens to know of a decent one anyway it would be of great help. Need to decide soon and get some seeds going.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
I'm very interested in trying this year, I was gonna last year but never got round to it.
Thinking a couple of hot ones then a selection of intersting looking ones, fruity/sweet maybe for salads n stuff, anyone got any suggestions?

Any pointers on starter kits? I have no pots, no soil (well theres a muddy mess at the rear of the house lol), no lights (are they needed). Are these popup mini greenhouses any good?
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This site is pretty useful. Click.

For the basics to get started you would need some compost, small pots, seeds and a propagator. A lot of people use grow lights but I didn't bother last year and things were fine so you can get away with not using them. A mini greenhouse might be useful if you have a nice place to put it to get the most out of the sun in the summer months.
 
I will be keeping a close eye on this thread too. I have tried for the last 2 years to grow some chillis but not had a lot of success. Last year I only put in 5 Jalapeno plants and while they grew really well and fruited a lot the fruit didn't really grow to a decent size so I hardly got any off I could use. All I had last year though was one of those little plastic lean to greenhouses. However, I am getting a decent greenhouse this year.

Already got some decent tips from you with regard to using Vermiculite or Perlite. What about feed - what do you use?

I actually started mine off yesterday. Started off:

Demon Red
Jalapeno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Tabasco
Anaheim

The wife got me a starter kit for Christmas and they were the seeds that came with it. I do fancy growing some really hot ones so was thinking of Dorset Naga or Bhut Jolokia.
 
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