Chillies 2024

Hanglow,

Thanks for your kind comments.

When using hydroponics to grow chillies, the amount of food in the water determines the probability of aphids infestation. It seems to be a compromise between :-

1. Too much food = aphid infestation
2. Too little food = poor growth but no aphids

Somewhere in the middle appears to be ideal. This theory is backed up by many articles I've read and many YouTube videos I've watched.

I suspect that the same theory can be applied to growing in compost.

Using either growing technique for chillies, the pH should be between 5.5 and 6.5, ideally 6.0 though it's harder to measure this when using soil.

I hope this information helps anyone with aphid problems.

For information on pot size, and bearing in mind my media is clay beads, I use both 11litre and 18litre pots.

Ademission

 

I put plastic domes on my pots when chilli plants go indoors at night and taken off when put out in the sun during the day. No problem with little beasties.

 

My single chilli plant, which I thought was one of the Basket of Fire (BoF) is looking more like the Poinsettia I had. It has 30-40 reasonable size chilli's on it, but I'd have preferred it was the BoF as they look nicer, better size and were hotter at the different stages. It's back in the house at the moment as it did not seem happy when it went out. Looking at the long range forecast it might get out in July!

 

I had a spare 30l pot in the converted shed so bought a couple of plants from b&q. I had tried at three different garden centres but there was nothing I wanted from them, rather disappointing.

So I bought "chocolate" which I assume is a habanero and Zimbabwe black, which looks rather fetching for a chilli pepper.

 

Hello all,

Just a few notes from the chilli greenhouse: -

1. I performed a full water change with new nutrient on all 3 water tanks. Reset the pH to 6.0.
2. Addressed a small whitefly outbreak with Neem Oil. Worst affected were the Sweet Peppers.
3. Put canes and interlinks into Jalapeno and Lemon Drop plants as they were spreading into the access isles between the tanks. Tied the wayward branches to the canes.

Photos with wine bottle for scaling......

Jalapenos.



Lots of fruit now starting to grow but not big enough yet for any harvesting.

Lemon Drop

Lemon Drops growing well but no fruit yet. These plants started slowly but have grown rapidly as the weather has warmed up.

Sweet Peppers
Romano, California Wonder, King Of The North and Corno De Torro (2 of each).

Less growth on these but already showing decent size fruit. Star of the show is the California Wonder so far.



Regards

Ademission

 

My Shineybrids are real troopers. They went through a long cold 3 weeks and never dropped a blossom. They were a little stunted in height. Then soldiered on to full sized peppers and now the heat has hit us, those peppers are ready to harvest. But holy moly, they are throwing up not only copious amounts of new blossoms but serged upward with new growth. Amazing! I better get harvesting.

 

Fabulous aren't they Lori...ShineyHybrids are a must..I eat them like sweets

 

I don't care for spicy food so I don't eat them myself but I get lots and lots of compliments when I use them in my breads and jellies and all sorts of concoctions!

 

Slug eaten one, this is the worst one by far.

Also my aphid invasion that is showing no signs of abating. Can't find a spray that works against these ones

 

Any spray will kill aphids they are the easiest pest to kill.
What have you tried.

 

It's a total pain but using a fine spray setting blast it all over and under the leaves several times a day if all else fails.

I used something with Spinosad and it was magic.

 

Yeah they come back with a vengeance

Homemade (neem and soap), and bug clear ultra

the plant with the most fresh growth is completely unaffected, I guess they prefer the weaker plants

I've had luck with bug clear ultra in years past for other aphids, it's an older bottle so I suppose it might have become ineffective ?

 

Was it this stuff?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clear-Ultr...id+spray&qid=1719345041&sr=8-23#customerRevie

If so it appears to be rapeseed oil, might as well use chip fat.

 

No it's in a red spray bottle

I've seen a lot of the "organic" ones are just oil and soap, bit of a scam!

 

Neem and castile liquid soap worked for me, but needed to be repeated several times. Slug damage looks by far worse!