Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[4Shoes]

Nice looking tunnel you have. Like the strut supports and staging. Maybe a double door setup would have been ideal when your hitting temps like 54 Celsius. I need improve the ventilation into my tunnel. I have the door netting similar to yours but it gets so hot during summer.

Aye WalterWhite perhaps I should have put door on opposite ends.

Double doors were open when I took picture. Single door is in windy end

[the big lebowski]

wow 4shoes do you store airplanes in there in the winter looks great mate ,think i might start saving my pennies,have you thought about a solar pannel powered fan set up to get a good air flow ? not sure if they would work that well or not but just a thought ,cheers

[4Shoes]

wow 4shoes do you store airplanes in there in the winter looks great mate ,think i might start saving my pennies,have you thought about a solar pannel powered fan set up to get a good air flow ? not sure if they would work that well or not but just a thought ,cheers

Thanks Lebowski. Getting happier with it each day. I did look at getting a wind turbine. Might reinvestigate some sort of off grid setup. Needs to below 10m to keep planning happy..


Think the hotter Chilli's love it and that is the main thing.

[Small pumpkin]

Anyone use neem oil as a aphid control?
I'm going to give it a go. The little green demons have found my plants.

[4Shoes]

Anyone use neem oil as a aphid control?
I'm going to give it a go. The little green demons have found my plants.

Didn't know of its existence, but looking at following link

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/pla...m-oil-uses.htm


has many good properties.


Let us know how you get on.

[Scarlet]

Anyone use neem oil as a aphid control?
I'm going to give it a go. The little green demons have found my plants.

VC ....she recently said in a post that she was using it - but I can't remember where!

If I get them, a good hose off and a day outside often knocks them back. Choose a nice sunny day.....maybe difficult with super big pots though.

[Small pumpkin]

VC ....she recently said in a post that she was using it - but I can't remember where!

If I get them, a good hose off and a day outside often knocks them back. Choose a nice sunny day.....maybe difficult with super big pots though.

I've done the hose thing and the squishing thing ( before it went into final pot, can't pick it up easily now ). I've spent ages studying the plant, compost and pot to make sure I've got them all. A couple of days later they start appearing again . Now they've started to spread onto neighboring plant.
My own fault for buying in plug plants. It happens every year. No matter which supplier it is, they arrive with aphids on them.

[the big lebowski]

have you tried getting ladybirds ?

https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop...ladybirds.html

not tried them myself and they seem rather pricey but ive heard they work

[Small pumpkin]

have you tried getting ladybirds ?

https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop...ladybirds.html

not tried them myself and they seem rather pricey but ive heard they work

I've looked and quite agree they do seem pricey. We get very few ladybirds up here naturally. didn't want to upset the balance of things if any escaped. Also didn't think they would cope well if we had one of our summer cold snaps (which is always a possibility). I would love a tunnel full of ladybirds because they are very cool little dudes

[4Shoes]

How much to feed?

In the past not really thought about how much liquid feed to apply (Tomato). Normally given a "good" watering. The bottle says 3 caps per gal (30ml), but no indication of how much per plant or sq m.


What rule of thumb do you use? 1l / plant - Water until just weeping out the bottom / something else?

[Mitzi]

How much to feed?

In the past not really thought about how much liquid feed to apply (Tomato). Normally given a "good" watering. The bottle says 3 caps per gal (30ml), but no indication of how much per plant or sq m.


What rule of thumb do you use? 1l / plant - Water until just weeping out the bottom / something else?

This year, on my plants that have exhausted the nutrients in the compost, I tend to give them a weak feed with every watering. I'm using Chilli Focus and I dilute it to the "seedling" strength rather than the mature plant strength, unless I think something needs a particular boost. The ones I've recently potted up into their final pots are just getting water until they start to look a bit hungry; basically I give them about six weeks of just water, maybe even longer if they are a small-ish plant in a big pot.

I think tomatoes are hungrier than chillies so I'd always dilute the tomato feed more than it says on the bottle. I'd do it something like this:
A gallon is about 4.5 litres and my watering can holds about 11 litres when full, but I don't tend to fill it right to the top, so I'd call it 2 gallons.
Recommended feed strength for tomatoes is 3 caps per gallon, which would be 6 caps in the watering can, so I'd put around 4 caps into the watering can.
Then just water the plants with this mixture, giving them the normal amount that I would water them.

[Small pumpkin]

You just know your going to get a 100 different answers to that
I also use chilli focus. Feed weekly at full strength. I feed yesterday ( so I can remember ) 10ml per lt. About 80lt fed 51pots
My feeding regime until they are in there final pots is a little hit and miss and they don't get any food until they start spending time in the polytunnle.

[Philthy]

Chilli Focus for me too, just following the guidelines on the bottle. Lower dosage up until plants go out to GH in May, full strength thereafter. Full strength for overwintered plants soon as they start budding usually March/April (bearing in mind their compost is from previous season therefore spent). Weekly watering, amount judged on weather conditions at the time (if pots are already moist after an overcast week it'll be a smaller amount). If it's a hot period, supplementary watering performed mid-week but that's just with plain water. Once flowering properly underway I tend to switch to something high potash, Chempak 4 is a good one, or tomato feed, both made up in a 10L watering can, and I usually add a capful of the Chilli Focus as well, applying weekly. Regular water inbetween if required

[4Shoes]

You just know your going to get a 100 different answers to that
.

Aye
But the answer is around 1l to 1.5l / plant.... Sort of what I was expecting.

[Scarlet]

Woohoo my Trinidad scorpion is flowering!!!

Also SPs frozen scotch bonnet cross is producing I wonder what they crossed with?