Chillies - Growing and Over wintering 2020

[woodlouse]

Chillis are odd plants. Every year there is one variety that just doesn't wanna play ball. This year its the white Bhut jolkia. I have about 50 plants. 48 of them have been fine but these 2 just wanted to die. Shrivelled up, gone yellow generally looking totally unhealthy. I gave up as I have so many and just neglected them both. About mid march I put them on my poly tunnel bench to get them out of the way. And today they've decided to make a go of it. New growth looking healthy. They will probably go on to produce my best crop! Can't believe they've survived as I don't recall watering them in the last few weeks and it's been about 1c at night this week.

I cannot agree more at this stage. Sorry for the long reply, but you hit upon something with me.

Granted, this is my first year of growing chili plants - maybe 12-14 varieties. I tried to aim for three of each so I could experiment and count losses. Maybe it's the seeds, but I have found radically different results, and not in the same way with any other veg' I grew last year. Exactly the same everything - soil, pot size, water, light, heat, attention... !

I honestly cannot complain too much, as I'm loving the learning experience, but when there is nothing to go on, I just think it must be due to seeds.

I decided to save some seeds from some general store bought sweet peppers, as a main experiment, not wanting to be too hasty with the hotter varieties I spent money on to aquire seeds. My thinking (due to research) would be that these sweet peppers would grow a lot faster, and so I would be able to play around with pinching out, topping, potting on etc... and hopefully be slightly more aware when in comes to my real babies. I'm a noobie, but I thought my plan had at least some rational merrit. Turns out all pepper plants can be complete arses, if they decide to be... and I'm loving it.

Some of the harvested store seeds are busting out with thick stems and lots of growth. A few are starting to bud, so I snipped some off and let the rest carry on. That was almost two weeks ago. Now, they are all completely different: Each and every one seems to be doing it's own thing.

From my reading, I have understood you can stress them out a little to help in the long run, by not watering (combined with maybe some topping). Yeah, great, but the ones I just discarded (lack of room, experiment, and not being arsed to carry so many plants back inside each evening) are busting out with so much lower growth and hardy stems.

Bah... I don't know. I wanted to grow chili plants because I love the general food choices, want to make my own hot sauce recipes, and enjoy their aesthetic as someone might enjoy a particular flower. Now I'm starting to fall in love with their individual quirks as a single plant when compared to the exact same plant sitting right beside.

Maybe it's the thrill of being a virgin chili grower, but I was giving individual names to them in one of those half dreams you have after waking up and then slumbering. I don't want to push it and find myself giving names just out of fancy, but I hope one of them turns out to fit the name "Cassandra Conflation", given what this plant has already had me going through, haha.

[Scarlet]

Same as happened with NG's post - Click on your photo and it closes your post.

I can't be bothered posting photos anymore - it just takes so long. Even using a resizing app is t getting the iPhone photos small enough to upload - just taking so long and very frustrating. I tried to upload photos to the flower seed thread and I gave up in the end. Too many error messages - some upload, others don't and the 5 photo limit which also counts your failures is bizarre.

[Scarlet]

Some of the harvested store seeds are busting out with thick stems and lots of growth. A few are starting to bud, so I snipped some off and let the rest carry on. That was almost two weeks ago. Now, they are all completely different: Each and every one seems to be doing it's own thing.

Store bought chilli/ peppers will often be from F1s. Offspring plants from saved seeds from these could all well be very different from each other as they are unlikely to be stable. Also chilies cross pollinate very easily so you have that in the mix too...

[SimpleSimon]

Getting mine out in the garden in the day before nervously moving them into the tunnel next week. Looking nice and healthy. Heres a few from the seed swap.

Chocolate Habenero: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eD7HfSdUMEjwkxKy5

Cherry Bomb: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gRiLsr4uEQJ8cW4d8

And one in particularly looking forward too, bahmanian goat.from Mitzi: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m82BnHtwJA5e6c2X7

[Mark Rand]

They're only Cayenne (sown 26/01) and they are a little bit leggy compared with the ones that were under lights but:-

[Holly Daze]

I have a small collection of chilli plants that I have grown such as Scotch Bonnet, Padrons, Antillais Trinidad Perfume, Big Sun, Poblano, Jalapeño. First timer. They are all doing remarkably well in the greenhouse and all have small fruits on them. Should I snip the tops off to make them bushy- especially the Padrons that are 12 inches high?

[SimpleSimon]

Grrrrrr! I've severely scorched a few of my plants by stupidly leaving them in the blazing sun all day whilst it's been hot over last few days. Typically the worst affected is one that was previously looking incredibly healthy and I only have 1 of. I was also really looking forward to it as I've not tried it before (giant white Habenero). The sunburn is quite severe tho the plant is alive but it's gonna stunt it's progression big time. Schoolboy error.

[SimpleSimon]

I have a small collection of chilli plants that I have grown such as Scotch Bonnet, Padrons, Antillais Trinidad Perfume, Big Sun, Poblano, Jalapeño. First timer. They are all doing remarkably well in the greenhouse and all have small fruits on them. Should I snip the tops off to make them bushy- especially the Padrons that are 12 inches high?

Nah if they are in their final positions and happy in the GH then let them fly. And get ready for buckets of padrons as they are prolific when they get going.

[dave_100]

Got mine fully hardened off and outside in their final home. Probably a bit earlier this year than usual due to the good weather. This last week of sun has done them wonders. Looking forward to the upcoming months, this is the exciting bit

https://imgur.com/CKLPhqV

[ameno]

Is it normal for some varieties to grow much slower than others?
I have 10 chilli plants, all sown on the 21st February. One variety (four plants) are now some 5 inches tall with big leaves. The others are just a little over 1 inch, with small leaves. They seem healthy, and they actually have around the same number of leaves as the big plants, but the size difference is alarming. I have some sweet peppers I sowed a month later, and those are already twice tye size of these chillis...

[dave_100]

Is it normal for some varieties to grow much slower than others?
I have 10 chilli plants, all sown on the 21st February. One variety (four plants) are now some 5 inches tall with big leaves. The others are just a little over 1 inch, with small leaves. They seem healthy, and they actually have around the same number of leaves as the big plants, but the size difference is alarming. I have some sweet peppers I sowed a month later, and those are already twice tye size of these chillis...

Yes, especially different varieties, the hotter ones tend to be slower to grow. Sometimes as well you just get runts that are a bit slow to take off.

[Holly Daze]

Great. Thank you for the advice. Especially pleased about Padrons. Love them and can’t always get them locally.

[annie8]

Chuffed to see the first flower bud. It is on one of the cayenne. Repotted 4 now onto bigger pots. That should be them for a good while. They are liking being in the gh during the day and back inside at night. Still about 5/6 degrees overnight so bit cold for them.

[FromYorkshiretoBucks]

Had mine outside through the day over the last few weeks. Given them all a definite boost. Looks like it might be dry on Friday so will maybe look to start moving them all into their final homes for the summer

[annie8]

Assuming it would need to be about 10 degrees in the gh overnight before they'd be happy. Is that right?