Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[4Shoes]

Chris11 Challenge - July Update1 - Sweet Peppers

Now that the plants (and pods) are nearing full size and pods starting to change colour should get more clues to what they are.


I had a couple of pods on the Enjoya plant isolated but they all fell off last week. The pepper in the picture was damaged (think it was condensation damage) so was removed. It does confirm that the peppers will be yellow.

On the subject or pods falling off (which I thinks is down to fruit loading) would reducing the fruit on one plant encourage it to go back into flower? (See Blog on pod drop)

Whilst looking for the white and purple flower for 7A I stumbles across Violet Sparkle. Whilst it may not be name on 12A quite similar.





More Pointed Peppers





Plants 9A, 1A, 1B, 5A pods are similar, but the plants 1A & 1B have a flat top to them where as 9A and 5A are more bushy. Think it is a case of waiting out until the pods change colour before meaningful guesses are possible. One is just turning to Red, so could be a Palermo. but that is just a wild guess

[Small pumpkin]

How did you get that TML so big? Mine is a little weedy thing by comparison with just a few small pods and one long one.

Have you had any ripe ones yet? Apparently the flavour isn't brilliant; they're more of a novelty plant.

I'm guessing mines a bit bigger because it's in a 60lt tub. Other than that I have no idea. I just grow chillies
I tried a little one at the start of the season. First one that was ripe. Flavour wasn't great. I'm hoping it'll improve slightly with the later / bigger ones. Not holding my breath.

[monkeyboy]

I don't know whether it's the slight cooling recently, or that I'm watering daily, but the pepper plants are now fruiting, rather than just producing flowers that dropped off.

[happyhumph]

First attempt at overwintering any chilies and very pleased that with the almost complete neglect they had over the winter my dedos design mochas are big and bushy with lots of fruit forming

[Philthy]

Have you had any ripe ones yet? Apparently the flavour isn't brilliant; they're more of a novelty plant

I love novelty chillies They can taste like old shoelaces, I still want to grow them! Good find, Mitzi

So I could send you some at the end of the season.

Very kind, SP I shall follow with interest... This season is a bit of a scratch for me, I'll get some crop sure but nothing spectacular. It's a shame because there's been such a long period of near perfect growing conditions, and I don't feel I've made the most of it (not for want of trying though). Starting to plan next year already, think a little seed shopping is in order....

[christoff]

WOW.....
I have just found this thread, well done everyone, amazing efforts... i now have chilli envy

[christoff]

Very, very new to all this... but I read if you take the first lot of chillies off, and let them ripen off the plant, the plant will put more effort into producing more chillies

[Mitzi]

Reminder: do not rub your eye after de-seeding nagas.

[jackarmy]

My first ripe pepper of the season, milas

[Mitzi]

That's huge!

[IainM]

Hey grapes. It's been a while, but the chillies are doing well. I've got some photos from last week (linky link, after the toms etc...), but they're doing even better now. I've had loads off the apache, cayenetta, cherry bomb, prarie fire, krakatoa, fiesta, loco, jalapeno, hot banana, hot burriot, hot fajita and, more than all the others put together, padron, which is nice because I love padron and they're one of the reasons I started growing chillis! The comets tail space peppers are doing well too, though each plant is different. One is large and prolific, one is small and pale, one has really curly pods and another has only two massive pods. Kitchen pepper is coming on nicely, as are the golden ghost, red scotch bonnet, Jamaica yellow, paper lantern, amarillo, lemon drop, aji peruvian, chocolate hab, medina, Zimbabwe black, birds eye, aji delight, Trinidad perfume, aji omnicolour and tabasco. The Hungarian hot wax that was decapitated to 1.5" and only two leaves, has bounced back with avengance and has loads of pods on the way. One of the reapers has two pods on, with a third on its way. The other reapers haven't set yet, nor has the orange habanero, 7 pot primo, peach scorpion, moruga brainstrain, fatali, chocolate douglah or bhut jolokia, so it seems the superhots are living up to their name as being slow growers. Loads of buds/flowers though. I'll try to overwinter them for a head start next year. Rocotto is the big disappointment, the plant is big enough but not even a single bud yet.

Overall, year 1 has been fun, especially with all the toms, tomatillos, courgettes and other stuff. I'm well and truely hooked!

[christoff]

Hey grapes. It's been a while, but the chillies are doing well. I've got some photos from last week (linky link, after the toms etc...), but they're doing even better now. I've had loads off the apache, cayenetta, cherry bomb, prarie fire, krakatoa, fiesta, loco, jalapeno, hot banana, hot burriot, hot fajita and, more than all the others put together, padron, which is nice because I love padron and they're one of the reasons I started growing chillis! The comets tail space peppers are doing well too, though each plant is different. One is large and prolific, one is small and pale, one has really curly pods and another has only two massive pods. Kitchen pepper is coming on nicely, as are the golden ghost, red scotch bonnet, Jamaica yellow, paper lantern, amarillo, lemon drop, aji peruvian, chocolate hab, medina, Zimbabwe black, birds eye, aji delight, Trinidad perfume, aji omnicolour and tabasco. The Hungarian hot wax that was decapitated to 1.5" and only two leaves, has bounced back with avengance and has loads of pods on the way. One of the reapers has two pods on, with a third on its way. The other reapers haven't set yet, nor has the orange habanero, 7 pot primo, peach scorpion, moruga brainstrain, fatali, chocolate douglah or bhut jolokia, so it seems the superhots are living up to their name as being slow growers. Loads of buds/flowers though. I'll try to overwinter them for a head start next year. Rocotto is the big disappointment, the plant is big enough but not even a single bud yet.

Overall, year 1 has been fun, especially with all the toms, tomatillos, courgettes and other stuff. I'm well and truely hooked!

WOW... I just had a look thru your pics, superb..

[Mitzi]

Wow, Iain, that's a huge number of varieties (and multiple plants of each!) I haven't even heard of some of them. Where did you get your seeds / plants? Do you have a farm?

It sounds like you're an absolute natural at chilli growing as you've even got a reaper to fruit; very well done.

[IainM]

Wow, Iain, that's a huge number of varieties (and multiple plants of each!) I haven't even heard of some of them. Where did you get your seeds / plants? Do you have a farm?

It sounds like you're an absolute natural at chilli growing as you've even got a reaper to fruit; very well done.

Thanks Mitzi. No farm I'm afraid! We only got a proper garden last year. Most were from seed, ordered online from Sow Seeds, Chillies on the web, and UK Chilli seeds, though I also picked up some seeds and plants from the garden centers around Cambridge and some plugs from World of Chillis. I got a bit carried away and have taken over the garden, which my wife wasn't so happy about, though she's a bit happier now ever since we've had the glut of tomatos, courgettes, spinach, chard and carrots that taste better than the ones in the supermarket. Some chillis were started inside in Feb, others in March, under cheap (£10) LED strip lights. I'm not sure if I'm a natural as much as a bit obsessed. I read through the whole 2016 and 2017 chilli growing threads on here, as well as many pages of threads on The Hot Pepper, so I kind of got my head around the basics, making a decent potting mix, watering, feeding, when to pot on, preventing legginess, identifying pests, pest-fighters, disease and nutritional excess/deficiency and hot to combat them, companion planting, and so on. I still made *many* mistakes, but I think this the weather has offset these quite a bit.

[Ani]

Awesome pictures, Iain.
I love the Comet's tail, and it looks like it's mild enough to eat raw. It certainly goes to my next year wishlist.