Forum home Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Growing chilli plants

24567

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    The RHS advice is to keep them moist but not wet or water-logged.  Here's their advice on how to grow chillies, from sowing seed to growing on:-

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/chilli-pepper/grow-your-own 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    We just potted ours up into troughs today. We normally grow 3-4 plants per trough, and that has always worked well. We don't use any kind of propagator, just our unheated greenhouse, although we would bring them indoors if it went below about 6-7c. 

    We accidentally knocked the top off one seedling a few weeks ago, and would normally have discarded it, but my other half stuck the top half of the plant into a small glass of water (on a North facing windowsill). I had zero expectations that it would survive, but it is just starting to show healthy roots, and we will plant it in a week or so's time. 

    Worth a try, if you accidentally behead one of your seedlings.
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    edited May 2023
    @LeadFarmer Not sure if my comment is of any help.
    Generally, I sow the Chilli seeds around the 25th of January. The pots are by the living room window, south facing and warm from the heating below. I don't use any heated propagator and don't cover them. We had around 17 degrees over the winter in the rooms. If the sun shines, the window glass warms up.
    When they outgrow the pots, I pot them on but they remain in the living room and kitchen also south-facing. They start flowering in April, and developed first fruits. Because it can be warm, they need regular watering every 3 or 4 days. The soil is moist, but not overwatered.
    Last week, when the temperature rose at night to 10/11 degrees, I moved them into greenhouse, which is now all day in sunshine. I gave them the first tomato feed. I don't let the soil dry out. I heard that a dry spell and watering only once a weak makes them hotter. I don't like them hot and I keep the soil moist.
    In contrast to tomatoes, chillies don't like it colder than 10 degrees at night and it has to be above 14 degrees over the day. Where I live, they need 4 months to reach that stage and the fruits need then another 2 months before they turn red. Once fully red, they can be eaten.

    Those are my mild chillies "Fresno" in the greenhouse now; the Hungarian hot wax from the GW issue (sown when the package came) are smaller, and I need to check if they have flowers by now.



    I my garden.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I'd say they'd be treated a bit like tomatoes - ie not watered unnecessarily. I wait until toms are just wilting/drooping slightly. They flower more rapidly, and therefore fruit, if under a little stress. 
    Someone who was a real tomato growing expert on the forum always advised that, and I found it very effective, so I've done that for years. Easier when they're indoors, or under cover, of course, as you aren't dictated to by the weather. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    edited May 2023
    @LeadFarmer Not sure if my comment is of any help.
    Generally, I sow the Chilli seeds around the 25th of January. The pots are by the living room window, south facing and warm from the heating below. I don't use any heated propagator and don't cover them. We had around 17 degrees over the winter in the rooms. If the sun shines, the window glass warms up.
    When they outgrow the pots, I pot them on but they remain in the living room and kitchen also south-facing. They start flowering in April, and developed first fruits. Because it can be warm, they need regular watering every 3 or 4 days. The soil is moist, but not overwatered.
    Last week, when the temperature rose at night to 10/11 degrees, I moved them into greenhouse, which is now all day in sunshine. I gave them the first tomato feed. I don't let the soil dry out. I heard that a dry spell and watering only once a weak makes them hotter. I don't like them hot and I keep the soil moist.
    In contrast to tomatoes, chillies don't like it colder than 10 degrees at night and it has to be above 14 degrees over the day. Where I live, they need 4 months to reach that stage and the fruits need then another 2 months before they turn red. Once fully red, they can be eaten.

    Those are my mild chillies "Fresno" in the greenhouse now; the Hungarian hot wax from the GW issue (sown when the package came) are smaller, and I need to check if they have flowers by now.



    Thanks for the tips, appreciated.

    My plants are potted in a mix as follows..
    10 parts compost
    1 part perlite
    1 part vermiculite
    1 part chicken manure pellets
    then a small amount of blood fish & bone, and tiny amount of epson salt.

    Today I potted on the Spike chilli plants. They are quite small at only 20cm tall so I, hoping the grow a bit more. They have tiny flower buds forming, not sure whether to pick them off to encourage taller growth, or leave them?




    The Aji Benito plants are now at 50cm tall, which I think is about right for that variety..


  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I've grown the spike type before and not removed flowers.
    I'm growing Basket of Fire which is a spike type this year as a lille chili alongside Jalapeno and Yellow Hot Wax.
    They'll start to grow well and get a lot bushier as it warms up.
    They produce loads of chillies in a rainbow of colours as they ripen.
    I start feeding with tomato food soon as the first flowers open.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    Pete.8 said:
    I've grown the spike type before and not removed flowers.
    Can you recall what size your Spike plants grew to please?
  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    Thanks Pete.8, they look lovely plants.
  • MikeOxgreenMikeOxgreen Posts: 812
    Look up Chillichump on YT.
Sign In or Register to comment.