Chilli plants pictures progression so far

Just to quote from a report produced in 2001 by Tainter, Donna and Grennis:-

"Numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content. Pungency values for any pepper are variable, owing to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate (humidity is a big factor for the Bhut Jolokia; the Dorset Naga and the original Naga have quite different ratings), and even soil (this is especially true of habaneros). The inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. When interpreting Scoville ratings, this should be kept in mind."

 

Sorry, James, as GC was down I spent some time cleaning up my computer by running a number of maintenance programmes. They cleared out a load of rubbish but also cleared my history.

I've just done a quick Google and found this:-

http://www.chipsbooks.com/spices1.htm

 

James, no problem . The chilli festival was quite good and, as usual, a few 'tough guys' ended up in the first aid tent after trying some particulalry hot chilli sauce. A couple of them were at a stall that we were at and were debating whether to try the '15 minute burn' or not - after the stallholder had warned them that very few people can take it.

Whilst they were telling each other how tough they were I asked for a taste and had it, with no visible effect - it was 1.5 million shu (using capsaicin extract). So they both decided to have a go - and nearly died (faces bright red, tears running down their faces, difficulty breathing and palpatations). Our friends who had trouble keeping a straight face when the 'tough guys' saw me have it, called me a cruel b...... after they were led off to the first aid van.

 

Congratulations to both of you

 

I tried a taste test this evening on two of my new varieties. The black Vampires were a total waste so I won't bother repotting them as I had intended to do. No heat at all and not a lot of taste. I'll leave the chillies on the plant a lot longer before trying another one. These plants are on trial for 'Which? Gardening'.

We can't remember where the other plants came from but the chillies, at the moment, are a blackish purple on one side and green on the other. Excellent flavour and pretty hot .

 

My favourite chillies are the ones that we've been growing for some years. The downside is that they only ripen late in the year. They are the ones that I showed in earlier shots that produced a profuse amount of ripe fruit mid-October and November and continued through to spring. This is a partial shot of one of them that had its first season in 2008. As the plants are getting old and are less productive after three years I've kept this pruned to a height of 2ft-3ft. It has produced the occasional ripe fruit through the summer but is picking up now and should ripen to bright red within a few weeks. The branches all the way down the main stem are producing as well.



These are seedlings from one of the chillies that ripened earlier and are just coming into week five. So will now be potted on.




This is another quite hot chilli but is a miniature and doesn't grow more than 4" high. It has been producing ripe chillies, in reasonable quantity, since May. You can see that the leaves are miniature as well. I'll see whether it continues to produce through the winter.