Grow lights for chillies?

ThePrettyDamned

So I saved some seeds from some Komodo Dragon peppers I got from Tesco, and now I have several seedlings.

I'd *love* to get these to grow somewhat over the next month or two as indoor plants, then overwinter them. I already have some mature plants I'll try to overwinter the traditional way but I'm not sure these seedlings will be developed enough to pull through without a bit of help - I was thinking of investing in an energy efficient LED grow light to give them an extra month or two of growth on windowsills by giving them a few hours of extra light of an evening. Once more mature, I can phase this down until I'm overwintering a small twig in a small pot so it has a good root system for next spring. 

Has anyone tried this? The goal would be one healthy plant that will give an early crop of superhots next spring/summer. 

prowla

Grow them in the loft - make sure it's well lined with tin-foil and has plenty of heat...

robgilmo

Or a grow tent, much better and easier to control. Chillies need heat.

revsorg

I built some shelves in our laundry room and we have a couple of these

They work well.

RandallFlagg

There's a few people known to grow things in their lofts under lights round here, might be worth asking them...

ThePrettyDamned

revsorg said:

I built some shelves in our laundry room and we have a couple of these

They work well.

Do you grow chillies through winter, or do you use it to supplement them to overwinter them better? 

TheMarlin

You’ve left it a bit late. Seedlings should have been outdoors early March. My chilli plants are knee high right now. They’ll be harvested in September! I uproot mine at the end of October. Plant fresh again in the spring. 

i freeze half, and dry the others. I love the taste of dried chilli, but also love the searing heat of fresh.  Freezer does a great job, just chop them over my food from frozen, they defrost super quickly.  Just holding them in your hands for a few seconds is enough, and they keep their texture and fierce heat. 

ThePrettyDamned

TheMarlin said:

You’ve left it a bit late. Seedlings should have been outdoors early March. My chilli plants are knee high right now. They’ll be harvested in September! I uproot mine at the end of October. Plant fresh again in the spring. 

i freeze half, and dry the others. I love the taste of dried chilli, but also love the searing heat of fresh.  Freezer does a great job, just chop them over my food from frozen, they defrost super quickly.  Just holding them in your hands for a few seconds is enough, and they keep their texture and fierce heat. 

I have some that are about 2 and a half feet high - I just fancied seeing if I could overwinter some plants for an early harvest. I successfully managed last year with some demon reds - but they're not amazingly tasty, just quite hot. It died back to a stick in a pot, I pruned it, left it on a West facing windowsill and kept it warm. That left it dormant - then in February it sprang back to life, and by April I was harvesting (up until a couple of weeks ago where the wind killed it for good). 

I was hoping I could indoor cultivate the super hots into small, young plants over winter in a similar way - either by providing enough light and heat to continually grow, or by growing it fast over the next couple of months indoors into a healthy plant, then letting it go dormant slowly over autumn/winter by supplementing light and heat... 

ThePrettyDamned

By the way, I can whole heartedly recommend komodo dragon chillies - they're grown in Bedford for Tesco, and they're absolutely fantastic if you like it hot. They sit hotter than a naga chilli, but not quite a carolina reaper - I think they're between 1-1.4 million scovilles.

That sounds a lot but two of them chopped, keeping the seeds for sowing (!), with a grilled pineapple, some shallots, garlic, rapeseed oil and a generous helping of apple cider vinegar makes a fantastic hot sauce that most people would enjoy. 

I just had a pasta sauce with a few slivers chopped up and it added a wonderful, fruity flavour and faint heat - it's surprising what a good quality chilli does. Demon reds and other "ornamentals" tend to be quite bitter and only taste of hot. 

badlydrawnbanjo

prowla said:

Grow them in the loft - make sure it's well lined with tin-foil and has plenty of heat...

And just leave your front door unlocked, it’ll save the old bill kicking it in when the helicopter’s been doing it’s rounds. 

robgilmo

badlydrawnbanjo said:

prowla said:

Grow them in the loft - make sure it's well lined with tin-foil and has plenty of heat...

And just leave your front door unlocked, it’ll save the old bill kicking it in when the helicopter’s been doing it’s rounds. 

Contrary to popular belief the camera they use cannot see through a solid object, like a roof, they look for hot exhaust gasses exiting a building, like from an extraction system. Lots of people have things like model railways in their lofts, a hot roof isnt unusual, a 1000 watt lamp is akin to having a 1 kw electric heater, which isnt the most powerful heater in the world.

notanon

I have over wintered indoors using the approach of cutting the plant down to a twig. Not very successful with percentage that worked.

The son-in-law just left his plant alone and it has been going 4 years now. They do keep their house warm. I swear the chilies are getting hotter. He did move it into a larger pot after the first year.

LastMantra

A 125w/250w fluro grow lamp. The problem with those are that they are very fragile so very high chance of them breaking in transit. Even if you go into a shop get them to take it out the box and if possible try before buying.
LED is  the way forward but the technology isn't quite there yet there are good and bad ones.
Something around 2700k.

Jez6345789

I use LED these days not quite as cheap a fluorescent grow lamps but happily kept my Reapers going under 90 watts you will happily get them all the way to fruiting under something like that. No worries about breakages or heat. The plants are 4 years old now not supermassive as they get heavily pruned in winter but they will crop at least twice in a year if you increase the summer period with LEDs, last year they hit 3 flowing runs. This year they are probably starting to fade a little but it could of been I have been away a lot and not got enough nutrition, the amount they consume in pots when flowering and fruiting is massive. Need heavy weekly feeding. They don't like to much water probably due to the large root system it is often a difficult balance to get in enough liquid food without getting them too wet. 

ThePrettyDamned

Jez6345789 said:

I use LED these days not quite as cheap a fluorescent grow lamps but happily kept my Reapers going under 90 watts you will happily get them all the way to fruiting under something like that. No worries about breakages or heat. The plants are 4 years old now not supermassive as they get heavily pruned in winter but they will crop at least twice in a year if you increase the summer period with LEDs, last year they hit 3 flowing runs. This year they are probably starting to fade a little but it could of been I have been away a lot and not got enough nutrition, the amount they consume in pots when flowering and fruiting is massive. Need heavy weekly feeding. They don't like to much water probably due to the large root system it is often a difficult balance to get in enough liquid food without getting them too wet. 

Jez6345789 said:

I use LED these days not quite as cheap a fluorescent grow lamps but happily kept my Reapers going under 90 watts you will happily get them all the way to fruiting under something like that. No worries about breakages or heat. The plants are 4 years old now not supermassive as they get heavily pruned in winter but they will crop at least twice in a year if you increase the summer period with LEDs, last year they hit 3 flowing runs. This year they are probably starting to fade a little but it could of been I have been away a lot and not got enough nutrition, the amount they consume in pots when flowering and fruiting is massive. Need heavy weekly feeding. They don't like to much water probably due to the large root system it is often a difficult balance to get in enough liquid food without getting them too wet. 

After a couple of years they do tend to tone down productivity apparently... 

I have found some 18w/20w grow led lamps on amazon quite cheap. The colour is probably nothing like daylight or I don't know how much plants care? 

vasselmeyer

"for chillies"

ThePrettyDamned

vasselmeyer said:

"for chillies"

I love greenery, man. 

57Deluxe

chilli Spliffs??

ESBlonde

Don't use foil, pure white cardboard is a better reflector. But taking your mature plant and cutting it back to over winter gives it a head start. From seed start anytime after Christmas with a grow light and heat. The problem is when planting them out in a greenhouse if similar before they get leggy. 

robgilmo

57Deluxe said:

chilli Spliffs??

Chilli cough?

ThePrettyDamned

ESBlonde said:

Don't use foil, pure white cardboard is a better reflector. But taking your mature plant and cutting it back to over winter gives it a head start. From seed start anytime after Christmas with a grow light and heat. The problem is when planting them out in a greenhouse if similar before they get leggy. 

Good advice, thanks. 

I have seen this on amazon - any thoughts?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KINGBO-Spectrum-Gooseneck-2-Switch-Replaceable/dp/B07MNFKTW3/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp?keywords=Grow+light&pd_rd_i=B07MNFKTW3&pd_rd_r=d93feaf0-2eb4-46a3-9ec4-03257e44241f&pd_rd_w=0AcKG&pd_rd_wg=FECfc&pf_rd_p=7dc56c0d-8a5f-4d97-9143-7233b106859a&pf_rd_r=792A31WEB3SCYMTEYTMY&qid=1564945932&s=outdoors