Time To Think Of What to Do About Chillies

As an amateur grower I've been growing hot chillies for a couple of decades. I find that, depending on the variety, pruning and overwintering varies.

Most of mine don't get pruned until at least late December (I only keep the stronger looking ones). Pruning is done in a fairly harsh manner with trying to keep some new shoots and cutting out a lot of the top growth. This can promote a bushier plant.

Unless you have the space to overwinter them and are able to keep them warm and with some light, then it's not worth overwintering.

Our new seeds are sown the second week in February and the germination varies between varieties.

This is a rather neglected Naga in its first year but it produced 70 fruit in its first season. Neglected mainly from the fact of not bothering to tie it in or train it upwards.






I sell both the Naga plants and their fruit. These are bought either directly by the Bangaldeshi restaurants/takeaways in the area or through the Asian wholesalers that supply the restaurants. All proceeds going to charity. They're not generally used for the currys at the restaurants but are bought by the staff.

The other variety that I grow is my own hybrid and is a short plant with small fairly hot fruit. The fruit is extremely prolific and a small plant (9"-12" high) can produce between 200 and 400 fruit per season. It fruits much earlier than the Nagas and continues into January.
This was late November.


Germination of the Nagas tends to take about two weeks with about 50-60% success whereas the hybrids are only four days with about 95% success. The success rate is unimportant unless being grown commercially.

If you are able to start them off early and pot them on you can keep them in a warm room with as much light as possible. A sunny windowsill is fine. Repot them into bigger pots each time they seem to have the roots coming out the bottom of the pot.

 

Did you get much fruit from them? Have you kept one for seed?

Chillies are perennials in their native habitat.

 

The Bangladeshis say that they prefer the flavour when the fruit are still green but just changing to red. Mine don't seem to work that way. One day they're green and the next they're a bright rich red.

 

I think that you should have a ShineyHybrid and not a Naga

Date for diary - We're open 28/29th of May. Small chilli plants are a bit delicate for post and larger ones are quite expensive for posting

Are you sure it's thrips and not fungus gnats? Neem oil is OK for thrips but fungus gnats are much more common are much easier to control. They don't harm the plant and you just need to replace the top half inch of soil and never water the surface of the soil - just water from below.

A spray with soapy water can usually control them indoors.