Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: bananagirl on April 04, 2005, 09:42:57
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My baby chillies are growing!! I'm so excited, especially since the jalapenos were gathered from supermarket chillies. Now, if I can just get them all big enough to fruit, I'll be one happy girl. I'm growing 5 different types this year, I hope. :D
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And the fruit of one will last you a year!!
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And the fruit of one will last you a year!!
Hehehe, not in this house. I am under pressure from she who knows best that I must grow twice as many as last year. We are down to our last frozen bag of chillies and we use 6 or 8 chillies a week!
Is chillie addiction a known medical condition?
Jerry
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Tim - really? eek. I've got about 20 plants and we don't eat that many chillies.
I can't even give them away as mum doesn't like spicey.
But then half of them probably won't do anything.
Oh well - i'll just freeze them and give myself more greenhouse room for the next 20 years.
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And the fruit of one will last you a year!!
Heh heh. One would not be enough for me. I am growing 8 although I am hoping for a hot summer so 4 can go outdoors. Last year I gave them all names. This year I'm going to do that again - on a rock'n'roll theme. Have already though of Lemmy, Keith (Richards), and Noddy (Holder). ;D
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I buy supermarket chillies and save the seeds and grew them on the allotment last year, it was a bumper crop. I have only one problem I am puzzle as to why my chillies are not spicy at all, I like my chillies hot the hotter the better any ideas as to where I've gone wrong.
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I believe to get them super hot, as the fruits are developing, withhold water, then when they are really dry and the plant looks wilted, flood them. Don't know where I read that I'm afraid.
I have oodles of chilli plants again, not only for the harvest, but they look so great as plants! My overwintering selection in the conservatory are all in flower!
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Arum -try growing Habenero or Scotch Bonnet-if they fail to hit the spot then gargle with petrol and ignite ;D.
I too am adicted to growing the things but Jenny and I have differing views on `heat`-mind you as age moves I do think she has a point-what was once a warm morning after botty glow can now be more of an ouch lol
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I buy supermarket chillies and save the seeds and grew them on the allotment last year, it was a bumper crop. I have only one problem I am puzzle as to why my chillies are not spicy at all, I like my chillies hot the hotter the better any ideas as to where I've gone wrong.
Maybe its just down to variety? I bought a packet of seed (Mr Fothergills) and it turned out to be a random selection which supposedly includes Scotch Bonnet. As you cannot tell the seeds apart and they are not separated, it has been hit and miss which I have grown. There seem to be two main types in there - a mild, fairly large one which are more like sweet peppers, and the tiny "birdseye" type. The latter are very hot. Seems to be that the smaller they are the hotter, for the most part.
I read not to save seed where you have grown different types of chilli together, as they cross-pollinate, so you will have very variable results. Perhaps the supermarket ones you bought were grown alongside other types and therefore provided disappointing results. That's the only other explanation I can think of... and I have not explained it very well, because I don't understand it very well...! ;)
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Yes i think your better off buying seed. A ggod website for you chillinuts www.chileseeds.co.uk..Under the vast seed section it gives different hotness. Does anyone pickle them?
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OK, getting jealous! I sowed chilli seeds and only 2 have germinated! Where have I gone wrong?? I'm growing tabasco and green chillies. :'( Lottie
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I pickled some last year but they were the wrong sort. They did not have anough flesh and had thick skins. They were also a bit too hot for pickling. In the end I strained off the vinegar (hot :-X) and then boiled them down with some tomatoes and then whizzed it all up to make lethal tomato ketchup.
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I threw a few in with my pickled garlic, mainly for colour and interest, but they were deliciously hot. The type were just packeted as 'chillie' (Kings), but they were the hot ones often found in indian restaurants. I have also grown habanero, which were equally hot.
Growing a few varieties this year, I want to pickle a large jarful of 'assorted' to keep at work as they are very curious about my chilie addiction.
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You lot not helping!!! How do I get mine to germinate so I can pickle them, whizz them etc ::) Lottie
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They need warmth to germinate, are yours in a heated propagator? If you don't have one put them in the airing cupboard until they germinate. Remember to cover with plastic otherwise the soil will dry out.
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I germinate them in an electric propagator, they come up like cress
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I germinate mine in my conservatory. They are very slow to start, some have been in the compost for 6 weeks and are only just begining to poke through the soil! I don't rush them, especially now I know I can overwinter them! ;D
Patience and warmth seems to be the rule with chillies.
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Germination - SE-facing window sill with a hot radiator underneath and a "bottle top" propagator as shown below. They don't come up as fast as toms. Sowing a few in pots like this means any damping off is limited to the one container - although I only seem to have had that problem with ornamental grasses lately! ::)
(http://www.charliefoulkes.com/images/garden-2005/bottle-propagator.jpg)
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Wow. I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who loves the things. I'm impressed by all the care y'all put into germinating them. All I did was put the seeds in a tray with some dirt on the windowsill and mist them every morning to keep 'em dry...mainly, I have to say, because my tommys had come up in the other pot and they're too delicate to water properly at the minute. Works a treat, though! Mine took maybe 5 days longer than the toms to pop up. Nice. Everythings up except the capsicums and the choccy chillies!
For the heat thing, treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen. I don't take great care of mine, and they are v. hot mostly. I've a yellow one that's quite sweet, and then POW! It wops you one. Going to make peach/chillie chutley with them in the summer!
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Thanks guys and gals for your tips and suggestions. Banana girl how do you make chillie chutney, my chillies were mainly green ones all I did with mine was pickle them. I silced them finely then fill a glass jar and just add distilled white vinegar and a tsp of sugar and just leave it a for a few days and use them as needed.
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I've said it before but -
- don't forget chilli sherry!!
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I germinate mine in my conservatory. They are very slow to start, some have been in the compost for 6 weeks and are only just begining to poke through the soil! I don't rush them, especially now I know I can overwinter them! ;D
Patience and warmth seems to be the rule with chillies.
Glad you said this. Mine are in a heated propagator and sulking. I keep looking every morning but so far 2 weeks and nada. I hope that one type grow - they're the Purple Venezuelans from VidaVerde and are fantastic plants - all green and purple, with green and purple chillies until they go red. They are pea-sized and pea-shaped and the unripe ones turn totally pea-green when cooked. Flipping lethal when found in a curry and you think they're a pea... The bit I can't understand is why they're refusing to germinate with heat, whilst one seed somehow got into a plant pot overwinter and grew anyway...
moonbells
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I usually freeze mine straight from the plant when ripe-freeze them individually on a tray then put them in plastic bag. They freeze very well and chop up well straight from freezer to add to food. I also make chilli vinegar (great on chips)
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success! two purple venezuelan and two hungarian wax were up when I got in today ;D
moonbells
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Flags out for youMoonbells, how long did they take then? I reckon ej's 6 weeks must be a record. I've had poppy seeds in for 3 weeks and no show .
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Northerner: a couple of weeks in a heated propagator. Another few PVs are up this morning which will cheer up my chillihead hubby.
Poppies took forever. I got some freebie perennial double orange ones with Amateur Gardening back in Jan or early Feb, and sowed them the same weekend. Only one came up, I thought the lot was doomed, and then gradually a few more appeared so I've got about 15 now. Soooo tiny! They take ages to get to the point where you think they can be pricked out - I haven't done it yet as only the original plant is a decent size and if I rescue it, the others will be disturbed.
moonbells
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I planted mine 3 weeks ago, no sign of life yet. I am going to cover them with cling film and see what happens. I am growing my toms, chillies, peppers and okra in a cold greenhouse, only the tomatoes are showing sign of germination. I get impatient very fast! :-\
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I also planted some 'capsicum' hot and spicy 3 weeks ago in my mini cold frame and still nothing thas despite spraying them with warm water and checking their progress daily. Reading the packet it may be that the temperature in my cold frame is fluctuating as it states that they must be kept at a constant 65F and mine drops to 45-50 on a night time. ???
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I planted Capiscum Hot and Spicy on 25/03 in a covered, unheated tray and put on a warm (S/E facing) window above a radiator that's usually on v. low. All eight germinated - all about one week after the tomatoes.
Hope yours come up soon.
Ellkebe
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Just have to note this unusual member of the Elk family. Cousins??
Sorry to interpose.
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stuck mine on the boiler and about 1/2 germinated after 3 weeks, had to move them off the boiler then so the seedlings get some more light - maybe the rest will germinate mebbees not...
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Mines were sown on 2.4.05 in a propagator. I then placed this on a heat mat (one I use for brewing). I could swear they popped up after about a week. They're now about an inch high with two big leaves at the top. I'm frightened they go leggy so they get placed in the PVC greenhous during the day now. Should I be pricking them out? I've never grown chillies before...
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I have now potted all of mine up into individual 3 inch pots and they are all on there 2 or 3 true leaves and looking healthy. It is going to be a fight for space this year between the toms, chillies and aubergines as everything has germinated way above my expectations. I sense my conservatory is going to be my greenhouse extension!
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VidaVerde - now realseeds (yep, just checked) have an unusual range of chillis - I have 2 varieties from them - "Lemon Drop" chilli is a strong lemon chilli, small but robust bush with dainty leaves, covered in little green chillies that ripen to bright yellow. Very very hot with a strong citrus flavour...... I can't find the other one in the current catalogue - Rocoto or locoto or something like that.
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Just have to note this unusual member of the Elk family. Cousins??
Sorry to interpose.
Nothing very interesting I'm afraid Tim. I came up with it while trying to get a version of my name that someone else hadn't already snaffled up on hotmail!
Ellkebe
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Oh, well - it's an excuse to air my Arms!