Growing Chillies

chillidoggy

No, don't laugh, yer old Chillidoggy is going to grow some chillies.

Bearing in mind the only thing I've ever grown in my life is a beard and a belly, last Chrimbo the wife thought it would be a good idea to buy me a 'grow your own chilies' kit. But being a lazy sod I never got around to planting the seeds until late April. That said, I had 14 plants germinate, and grow, and I had to buy a PVC greenhouse thing to put them in. The season ended with the staggering total of 11 usable chillies, and I think the cost per chilli was about a tenner, so not really a success story.

So, she's bought me another kit and I'm starting earlier this time in the hope I'll have a decent crop to harvest. Any advice welcome, I'm gonna try Habanero, Jalapeno and Cayenne.  

FastEddie

Don't start them too late. I did and was harvesting in Sept

South Devon Chilli farm have great choices of stuff and tips. If you go to youtube make sure it's someone from the UK. Chillies grow different in our climate.

When they are as tall as the pot, pot them on. When you get to a 5l pot that should be enough. 
Water from below (leave on a tray)
I use chicken poo feed from a farm in Herefordshire. Half a handful of that in the pot (not on top as it stinks) when you pot them on is a boon. Also look at micro nutrients from crushed seaweed and shells. 

Water them regularly but don't drown them. Loads and loads of heat and light.

Enjoy.

P.S: I'm not a gardener but grow for the sheer hell of it. Oh, South Devon are great btw.

ESBlonde

Chillies need a long warm growing season so it is essential to start them indoors early.

It is possible to over winter a chilli plant, but it must not get anywhere near freezing! Just cut it back to about a 6-8" bush/stump and keep it moist and warm, that way it's already established to commence growing early.

As well as warmth in the soil/pots to get the germination, daylight then plays a significant part. You might benefit from a cheap LED grow light to extend daylight beyond the 7-8 yours we get at this time of year. We have a dedicated area in a south facing spare room to start seeds like this. Keep the soil moist but not soaked.

once the plant is about 5-6" tall nip out the growing tip to make it bush out more and provide more fruit. It looks a bit savage at the time, last year I did 50/50 and those topped specimins did well.

MattBanshee

Water, heat and sunlight. Treat them like tomatoes (same family and all that). I've also had chilli plants that, kept indoors, have flowered and fruited twice in a year, so don't bin the plant off once the first lot of chillis have been harvested.

LastMantra

I planted some really late last year and they're still going.

They're pretty easy to grow really. Or the the ones I've done have been. I just put them at a south facing window and gave them some tomato feed. These ones are quite short but some I grew before got pretty big. I should have cropped them, like has been said.

ThePrettyDamned

Chillies are one of the easiest plants to grow, basically treat them a bit like tomatoes that are perennial and can be over wintered if you want to bring them indoors to a sunny windowsill.

I grow several - jalapeño, scotch bonnet, hot carrot, lemon cayenne, aji charapita, Trinidad moruga scorpion and komodo dragon. The superhots are toughest - none of yours are very hot so should be easy. 

If you have a heated propogator and a grow light, sow now. If not, sow in late Feb and pub somewhere warm, sealed in a bag to simulate a warmer climate. South facing window is a must. 

Make sure soil is very well drained and not too wet. They will rot. They are from warmer climes than our own! 

If they go outside, protect from wind and put somewhere with as much sun as possible. Feed weekly once flowering to help them set with an organic tomato feed (high potash feed) and viola! 

Kittyfrisk

Don't forget to inspect the plants regularly for signs of whitefly & greenfly. Little bastards have ruined a few crops for me, even indoors.

SNAKEBITE

As said above, start them early.

February is good.

If you want to increase the heat of the chilli then the plant must be put into a state of stress, this then tricks the plant into thinking it is near deaths door and to put all its strength into procreating, i.e. the chilli seed pod. The heat increases as it will make it less appetising to predators.

This makes the plant less attractive however. If you want a nice looking plant you will lose the heat.

Try a forum such as chilli lovers for some serious geeky knowledge on growing the plants.

ThePrettyDamned

Kittyfrisk said:

Don't forget to inspect the plants regularly for signs of whitefly & greenfly. Little bastards have ruined a few crops for me, even indoors.

I missed this. Easily treated and prevented - water from the bottom if there is a tray and it's in a pot! This keeps the top layers of soil dry and reduces the number of larvae eating the roots (from fungus gnats etc). A layer of mulch can be helpful too. 

Greenfly and whitefly are easily squished if you keep on top of them. I grow my chillies with flowering chives, marigolds and borage nearby, which attracts predators like wasps, bees, ladybirds etc. This helps massively. 

Finally, if it gets bad, a dilute solution of garden centre soap with some neem oil will kill en masse. 

boogieman

We’ve got a greenhouse so I bung a few in the bed with the tomatoes and cucumbers we normally grow. I totally neglect them apart from watering them regularly and they do just fine... had the biggest crop ever last year. 

Jalapeno

Once established, too few chillis won't be your problem

Jalapenos are dead easy and very big croppers.

chillidoggy

I did have a problem with bugs last year. I think they were thrips, but not entirely sure, they might have been black fly.

The chillies I grew I finally identified as Anaheim, which were not at all hot, but had a decent flavor.

ThePrettyDamned

chillidoggy said:

I did have a problem with bugs last year. I think they were thrips, but not entirely sure, they might have been black fly.

The chillies I grew I finally identified as Anaheim, which were not at all hot, but had a decent flavor.

I had an anaheim last year, more of a sweet pepper than a chilli really - great dried and used as seasoning not growing any this year as it didnt have enough heat. 

I do, oddly enough, really love "tangerine dream" seeds from premierseedsdirect. These are different to the tangerine dream sold by specialist chilli stores. They're a proper sweet pepper, smaller but a decent size for snacking and salads, and have some mild heat. The flavour bean the anaheim for me, plus the plant was much smaller and more productive the fruits are a beautiful colour and ripened sequentially, meaning a long harvest. 

chillidoggy

Ta, I'll make a note of that. I don't really like hot chillies, and I do prefer the green, unripened chilli for flavour. Trying to satisfy me and the missus heat-wise is tricky, as she doesn't like anything hot.

ThePrettyDamned

Definitely try tangerine dream.

I like chillies at all stages of ripeness. Green are almost always mild, even green superhots that can top a million scovilles can be eaten green but then you're missing the unique tropical taste they have. 

There is a type of chilli seaspringseeds sells that's basically a heatless habanero, which let's you get the very fruity super hot flavour without the heat. 

Mark_R

ESBlonde said:

Chillies need a long warm growing season so it is essential to start them indoors early.

It is possible to over winter a chilli plant, but it must not get anywhere near freezing! Just cut it back to about a 6-8" bush/stump and keep it moist and warm, that way it's already established to commence growing early.

As well as warmth in the soil/pots to get the germination, daylight then plays a significant part. You might benefit from a cheap LED grow light to extend daylight beyond the 7-8 yours we get at this time of year. We have a dedicated area in a south facing spare room to start seeds like this. Keep the soil moist but not soaked.

once the plant is about 5-6" tall nip out the growing tip to make it bush out more and provide more fruit. It looks a bit savage at the time, last year I did 50/50 and those topped specimins did well.

Cheers for the advice, always grow chillies and never really get much from it though.  The chillies tend to be paper thin, clearly over watered.  Will follow this advice and get my heated propagator out as I found you have to have a stable, warm environment for them to grow.  The airing cupboard worked a few years back, but forgot about the second batch which dried out.

Snap

We have a greenhouse, came with the house we moved into in 2018. Last summer was the first where we had a do at growing stuff. the chillies thrived, but sadly weren't hot. Will do some more, but proper hot ones. The Kale is still growing well, everything else has died.

You know what, as a middle aged get, a grower's thread would be a good idea, yeah? For all us farts to get excited about our crops of cabbages and beetroots etc.

ThePrettyDamned

For a really, really tasty chilli that's easy to grow, beautiful to look at and pretty hot for normal folks, I'd 100 percent recommend Bulgarian hot carrots. They make 3" ish chillies that are hot, super sweet with thick flesh and skin for a super crunchy texture.

They're about as hot as its variety gets, nowhere near super hot - they say about 40k scovilles. But they're super tasty. I eat them raw in a salad, if I'm up for the heat, or fry and pop into a burger. Yummy. 

chillidoggy

I heard that the chillies get hotter if they're exposed to more heat and sun. Not sure if that's right, though. could be an urban myth,

ThePrettyDamned

chillidoggy said:

I heard that the chillies get hotter if they're exposed to more heat and sun. Not sure if that's right, though. could be an urban myth,

It's true, but it's not really useful - more light is always better for this type of plant. I use small LED grow lights to help with seedlings in winter (I actually germinate my super hots at the back end of summer so it's warm enough to germinate them, then overwinter seedlings indoors with grow lights).

Heat,again, it's not going to be too hot in the UK so more is always better. But they must not dry out - there is a huge difference between drowned and dry! They need to be kept moist, and slightly drier to increase heat, moist for slightly less. Its not a huge deal imo and I grow to have a larger harvest, rather than a heat-based willy-waving contest. 

On the hottest day of last year (I live in cambs, which was the hottest area) I had to water my chillies in big pots three times and in small pots five, through the day. By midday all we're wilting a bit because they were so hot and dry, but they bounce back super fast! If they're in the ground, it's a bit easier as they can find water. 

earwighoney

chillidoggy said:

Ta, I'll make a note of that. I don't really like hot chillies, and I do prefer the green, unripened chilli for flavour. Trying to satisfy me and the missus heat-wise is tricky, as she doesn't like anything hot.

I love chillies, and having family from the subcontinent where chillies are a huge part of cooking.  One of the most popular is the Kashmiri variant, which is pretty mild but has a great aroma and flavour.  It's a red/ripened one but doesn't have a huge amount of heat.

I'd recommend getting a small packet of them whole and using most of them for cooking but keep a few of the many additional hundred loose seeds at the bottom for growing.  They are generally stocked in Indian supermarket type places if there are any close to you.