Chilli plants potted up ....

If you keep some chillis back Harry, you can dry them and then turn it into powder, which you can later use on dishes for years to come (if the powder is stored right).

 

Here are a few I potted up today from cell trays and into their first pots, amongst these are 2x Carolina Reapers, Choc Habaneros, Bhut Jolokias and others :-





These are some which I don't expect much from now this year, as it's quite late, but will hopefully overwinter them, these include Moruga Scorpions, Habaneros etc :-

 

That I haven't quite figured out exactly, but may make a box from cellotex type insulation boards, and light them with an led grow lamp.

I'll need to figure this out though.

 

'If' I decide to use my T5 grow light which I already have, this will provide enough heat during lighting period. For overnight, I could use a very small fan heater (or even an oil filled rad), and as it will be a crude box made from Cellotex, the heat should stay contained quite well, though it will also need air movement .... Again, something else to look into.

 

I was going to use my garage :D

 

Unfortunately not .... Someone would not approve of the amount of pots to overwinter

 

Thanks for the alert, Freddy. I've just got back home.

Nathan, it's good to see someone taking so much care over them. I have too much to do to bother with that.

Our chillies were just stuck into Wickes compost. Nothing added and they have to take their chances with all the other plants.

These photos were taken 8 days ago and they'll get their first feed tomorrow - standard tomato feed. All of the plants have got flowers on and most of them have now got fruit.




We overwinter ours in the lounge - but you need to keep an eye out for aphids and, particularly, fungus gnats (sciarid flies).

We're not as enthusiastic about them nowadays, with regards to keeping them, and always sow more seed from the best of the old ones. Having said that we have kept some for five years. After year three they don't do quite as well. We've found that they tend to get leggy. Not a real problem but it just seems to spread the crop out instead of having the plants more compact.

The first year they gave a good crop at a height of about 9" - about 100 chillies per plant (small, very hot, chillies). Years two and three they grew up to 3ft high and produced between 200-300 chillies. By year five they were 7ft high but still only produced 200-300 chillies.

The small first year plants are much easier to look after and don't get in the way.

Three year's old (two plants) November


First season (August)




All fruits are fully grown and just waiting to ripen. They can be eaten at this stage but haven't developed full intensity yet.

These are a Tabasco variety but have been cross bred with hotter chillies (Bird's Eye type) and now give us the intense heat of the Bird's Eye type with the juiciness typical of the Tabasco chilli. Ideal for eating raw - which I do with most meals. Sometimes a plant seems to revert back to the Tabasco heat - even with plants grown from the seeds of the same chilli as the hotter ones. We, now, don't bother to grow any others because we like the fresh juicy flavour that we get from these.