First time chilli grower - am I being too ambitious?

Hi all, I've recently bought three chilli plants; Paper Lantern, Cayenne and Scotch Bonnet. I love eating chillis and growing things but this is my first attempt at growing something edible! I live in a very wet Cornwall and do not have a greenhouse so i'm growing them in a window. I am watering them once or twice a week and feeding them with tomato feed once a week. The Cayenne and Scorch Bonnet look great, plenty of new leaves and a good colour. The Cayenne is the first to flower but the flowers are turning brown and falling off. I have tried pollenating them with a cotton bud once or twice but this doesn't seem to have helped. The second problem is the Paper Lantern (which unfortunatley is the one we really want to grow!). This is pretty much a disaster. It is sprouting new leaves all the time but the old leaves are turning brown around the edges and eventually falling off. It has multiple flower buds but these fall off before even opening.
Can anyone tell me if I'm doing anything drastically wrong and what I can do to help them please?
Maybe I should've started with potatoes

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

We're all in the same boat this year with the lack of light & heat. Even indoors is too cold for them to grow properly without the heating on.

I wouldn't feed them anymore till they've set fruits, thats whats producing the leaf growth.

We've got a few Chilli Heads on here who'll be able to go into more detail. I've just got a few plants on the windowsill too. They look like they are thinking about flowering but not quite there yet.

 

I grew a load this year all from the same seed packet. All started in a heated propagator in February.

One batch is in my blowaway greenhouse. They're surviving, but they're only about 6 inches tall.

Another batch has been released into my back garden. They are surviving, and a bit taller than the ones in the greenhouse.

A third batch has been released in my front garden, which is south facing and sheltered. This batch is doing best. They are about 1ft tall, good strong growth.

None have flowered yet though.

My verdict is that its lack of light rather than heat. Of the three batches, the greenhouse is the warmest, yet they are doing worst. This wet soggy weather is bad enough for blocking sunlight as it is, but add to that the condensation on the inside of the greenhouse (even with the door left open), its like the rain forest in there. warm and muggy and gloomy.

The back garden is colder than the front, but is more open than inside the greenhouse, and of course the front garden gets the most of the very limited sunlight, and that's where my chillis are doing best.

All of this is up in the north east, usually a couple of degrees cooler than Cornwall, but usually less rainy.

 

Thank you both. I will stop feeding them for a bit and put them outside. Our back garden is SSE so gets a fair amount of sunshine when there is some. Will just have to ensure they have enough drainage. I might try re-potting, the Cayenne and Scotch Bonnet are approx 10 inches tall and they are still in the pot I bought them in.
Thanks again!

 

The buds are dropping for one of a few reasons. Could be weather, over feeding, or it could just be that the plant isnt ready to flower or bud so it focuses more on growth than production of pods.
Most my plants are grown outdoors apart from my superhots which are grown indoors. Ive pulled loads of pods off so far this season, first pick was 68 off 3 plants.

 

I was about to say go on James rub it in, but after just watching Slumdog Millionaire, thats probably not appropriate with Chillies

 

Haha, been there done that got the soiled ujderwear :eek: lol

 

Also if you got your plants from the likes of b and q or homehase, make sure you very gently remove from soil, wash rootball off very carefully and pot up...sometimes help alot.

 

I've grown sweet peppers, jalapeños and chillies, and I find they like heat in ascending order, that is to grow, well.

I'd not put chillies outside in this awful summer right now.

 

This is true of course but when sheltered in the growhouse and when growing annums not such an issue as they dont require foreign or tropical climates to thrive. Wouldnt put any of my c.chinenses out there until the sun starts to break thru!!

 

Hi Tippitoes, I am in a similiar postion, I have two plants on my windowsill, I have grown both from seed and they were started off at the same time. The california sweet pepper has a few flowers on it and two smallish peppers coming. The paper lantern plant is a lot skinner but has masses of flowers and leaves on it. But the flowers on the lantern are dropping off faster than they bud. I have only fed them once too.

 

Your plant will flower drop until there is enough heat try hand polinating with a soft paint brush it sometimes helps .....

 

I pulled 60ish off 3 plants green a few weeks ago got double the number of chillis on there now....