Chillies perennial/evergreen?

Hi All.

Just joined here. Good place!
I've been greenhouse growing peppers and chillies for a few years now, bringing them indoors over winter.
This spring, I had too many seedlings, and put some outside. Later in august, I noticed one of them had grown many odd yellow variegated leaves. I don't think it's a disease, as the leaves are still healthy now, and all of the chillis have slight streaks running the length of them - light to dark green, and green to red on maturing ones. These only flowered and developed once brought inside the greenhouse. I've been using saved seeds from the same original plants for 3 or 4 years now, and have never seen that before.

Anyone got any ideas what that's about? Could they have been cross-pollinated? - there was a mixture of pepper and chilli plants outside next to it. It looks like some sort of jalapeno (The original seeds were from some market-bought mild chillis, so I have no idea what type they are.....)

cheers,
Dave

 

Hi Dave (from another Dave),

Chillis do cross polinate and I have done the same and started off with one colour and got an entirely difference one. I had some yellow leaves in the summer, but a bit of feed seemed to sort it out quite quickly. Mine are still growing in my greenhouse, but I think this new batch of cold weather is going to wipe them out!

Cheers,

Dave

 

Hi folks, slightly off-topic. When preparing chillies, should the seeds be removed prior to cooking? Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi shiney, thanks for the reply. Myself, I dont like VERY hot food, so I`ll follow your advice on that, thanks. I remember once handling one of those `decorative` chillies(round ones) and out of curiosity I opened up a fruit to see what was inside. Thinking no more of it, I went about my business. Next thing I knew my eyes were on fire !!! Boy, that was painfull. Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi.
Good to be here.
Dave - I got yellowing too, which a bit of feed fixed, but this looks different - the leaves look like variegated ivy leaves - a yellow border all around some of the leaves, with a sharp demarcation. Weird. I've also got some red peppers that have ripened to a dark reddish brown, and refuse to go any redder. They taste OK though. Will save the seeds in separate bags and see what happens next year....

cheers,
Dave

 

Hi All,
I am gowing this year, Prarie Fire, Cayenne Longs, Royal Blacks, Cherry Bombs & Tepins. I am addicted to growing Chillis

Greenfly are / always will be the biggest nightmare. Soapy water can work but not always. I go hunting with a wet kitchen towel once a week. This tends to keep the little blighters under control.

Re Overwintering. This is a very hit and miss affair, the benefit is that they produce fruit much earlier in the year than from seed.
I understand that the best way to overwinter is to place in a cool site (but with light) cut almost completely off and water sparingly.


ps When feeding Chillis use 4x watered down Tomato food or Special Chiil Food as too much Nitrogen makes them grow too quick (Greenfly) and pod drop = No Chillis :(

This is the total sum of my knowledge :D

 

Thanks for that advice on feeding Fastboy. I'm just experimenting with one plant of dubious vintage and type (it came from some parrot food from a neighbour) but I do want to try Tepins and Jalapenos next year if this one does OK so I'd better cut back the feeding.

 

Hi.

Amen to that! I've had to resort to sprays more often than I'd like. A friend swears by growing basil ( the big leaved italian types) as a companion plant to lure away the bugs. It didn't work too well for me, but maybe because the basil didn't really get big enough. I guess I'll try again next year....

I did a bit of nosing around on the net, and found this site ... there are 3707 varieties of capsicum listed in the database with heat rating and descriptions ! :eek:
Some, like the Bolivian Rainbow are amazing, along with the cream and brown-coloured sweet peppers..... Only browse the database if you have time to waste!


cheers,
Dave

 

I tried 'tepins' this year but they were a diaster- not even one plant flowered out of eight.

To me 'rocotos' are the best suited to the UK climate- I got 60 big chillies off one plant and it was outside all summer. Pretty puple flowers and fuzzy leaves too.

I find 'fatali' the easiest to overwinter- it keeps all it's leaves and generally withstands a few degrees frost, no pruning neccesary. Nice fruity flavour aswell.

 

I tried basil (sweet basil - don't know if that is "Italian type"), but it didn't distract the bugs from wrecking my chillies!