Topic: Paddy growing...

[chriscross1966]

Has anyone else ever tried the technique of growing the chillis in smallish pots (IIRC I used 6") with the pots stood in a deepish tray (about 3" deep with at least a couple of inches of water in it all through the summer? It was in an unheated greenhouse.... I did have to get rid of some mossie larvae a couple of times  but it did produce a staggering number (to me at the time) of Habaneros off half a dozen plants....

My reasoning was that I had heard of Asian and Mexican ones being grown in this fashion.... as soon as I let the water dry out just about the entire crop ripened in one go....

[Deb P]

I grow mine on gravel trays with capillary matting underneath, so not quite that wet at the roots but still get good crops.... ;D

Why the small pots, deliberately restricting the roots to make them go in the water? Don't they rot?

[Barnowl]

Perhaps if you start them with that amount of water the roots won't grow down into the waterlogged soil and therefore won't rot?

In the GH I use pots on capillary matting unless they are potted on into larger outdoor pots or planted out at the allotment.

[chriscross1966]

THey got the small pots cos the tomatos, cucmber and sweet peppers had the big ones..... didn't seem to have any problems with rot, if you picked them up then there were roots to the bottom of the pot..... the plants were covered in chillies and they all went orange when I let it dry out in September..... then I discovered that they really weren't joking about how hot Habaneros are..... pickled onions and pickallilli that you measured by the blast radius.....

[Barnowl]

Thanks. That's a useful bit of information, especially if one is planning to go away for a while. :)