THE CHILLIES THREAD 2018

Sorry, haven't been around for a while as we've been traipsing through Rajastan (certainly had some chillies there ).

It's not a good time of year to go away - from a chilli growing point of view - but things haven't turned out too bad.

As mentioned in the past, we sow ours on kitchen paper in a seed sprouter. No heat, no light - just on kitchen worktop underneath a top cupboard. Germination is usually 4 - 10 days.

When they're at the 2 leaf stage they are transferred, still on kitchen paper, to seed trays. Then, after a day or two to allow them to settle down we use scissors to just snip the kitchen paper, sprinkle a little compost on the paper, put on a windowsill and keep watered.

The seed trays are dropped into cat littler trays and water is put in the cat litter tray. Fingers crossed , and we go away for a couple of weeks.

This is the result:-

Shiney Hybrids sown on 6th Jan (for some reason the ones in the middle are struggling - but still there)


Shiney Hybrids sown on 21st Jan (last of our potatoes and butternut squash sitting on worktop - we were given a couple of heritage type potato plants as we don't normally grow spuds)


Nagas sown on 6th Feb, transferred to tray 12th Feb, scissors and compost 13th Feb (ignore intruder )


Nagas are always slower than Shiney Hybrids (as are most chillies). Everything survived two weeks of total neglect. They were all leaning towards the window when we arrived home last week but we turned the trays round and they have straightened up. We shall start potting on into 2.5" or 3" pots - whichever come to hand first. They will still be kept on window sills until potted on again.

The size of the next pots (or the ones after that) will depend on speed of growth and what they are wanted for. If they're for sale (in May) they will be in smaller pots and left for purchasers to pot on. Some purchasers want then in 2 litre pots and pay extra. Hybrids tend to stay in 2 litre pots and Nagas in 3 litre pots. If the plants are exceptionally vigorous they may need larger pots but the Hybrids have been bred to remain small but prolific.

When they're put into the bigger pots they are then kept in the lounge (warmest room) on the floor by the patio doors (south facing). Mid May they are moved to the greenhouse and into the heated propagator to give them a boost.

 

@Scrungee those Nagas are looking good.

Ours should start to take off now that we're home and the house has the heating back on. I've always been surprised how quickly plants catch up once they have light and warmth. Sometimes a month earlier sowing results in only a few days earlier fruiting if the plants have similar conditions. If we gave them extra heat they would advance quicker but we time things to be convenient for Open Day.

 

Yes, it's our own and a cross between Tabasco and Naga. It took quite some years to breed it more towards the Tabasco with a touch of Naga. So it has the fresh taste of a Tabasco chilli with more heat. We then continued to only keep the ones that didn't grow tall. So it's now a short version of Tabasco but very prolific.

We haven't bothered with isolating them for some years so they tend to change gradually. Some of them have remained short hot chillies but a bit fatter than the normal Tabasco. We only grow those and Nagas and now let them get on with being their usual promiscuous selves.





These are some of their Tabasco ancestors