winter windowsill crops?

[aquilegia]

I've had this idea of growing small veg in pots on my kitchen windowsill (no greenhouse) over the winter.

The window is south-west facing. Gets very cold overnight and isn't much warmer during the day (unless the sun's shining directly on it or I'm cooking!)

Is it feasible?

What would work?

I'm thinking - herbs, carrots, radishes, lettuce, rocket, beetroot...

[aquilegia]

[wardy]

I'm going to try a chilli pepper  :)  I did it with basil last year but unsuccessfully.  Like you I don't get much light in the kitchen.  I have got myself an unheated grow house which I thought I could insulate with bubble wrap on the inside and give that a whirl  :)

[bupster]

This year have chives, parsley, chillies, rocket (what I haven't eaten), and am trying spinach, as I eat tons of the stuff. Also have two tomato plants - one fruited (just) last year and I'm just keeping it because I haven't killed it yet, the other was 99p from a garden centre and is growing like a trifffid. Has flowers so you never know!  ;)

[flowerlady]

How much heat do chillies need?  What would the minimum temperature required? 

I have quite a large porch, all glass, and the warmth in there winter p.m's is quite good, but don't know if the temp would go too low at night?

Thought I might try a tomato too.

[Mrs Ava]

My chillis were overwintered last year in out conservatory, which is on the house central heating circuit.  However, we don't have our heating on all that much, so night time temps in the conservatory are prrreeeetty cold, altho never frosty.  They survived, just ticked over really, although I think I was picking the last of the ripe chillis in December, and they started flowering again in March/April time.  I have been picking chillis almost for 12months solid, and have quite an abundance in the freezer, but I find I am adding them almost as a seasoning like garlic!

I would think a chilli would be fine on your windowsill.  I tried unsuccessfully with an aubergine last year, but that was due to spidermite, however, am planning to try again this year.  I would think lettuce, radish and spring onion would do okay, and maybe spinach, but would think you would only get one or two plants to a pot, unless you are going to treat them as very small leaves, cut and come again idea.  Carrots and beets, I would give the baby veg a whirl.  Light will be the problem, as with most things during the winter.

[flowerlady]

Is it possible to buy a chili plant now?  What variety would you reccomend?

[Merry Tiller]

Low light levels and short daylength are the limiting factor but I might have a go at Bok Choi in the conservatory as an experiment

[Mrs Ava]

I don't know whether you could buy a chilli plant now...well, I guess you might, but by now they should be fruiting profusely, and generally people grow from fresh every year.

[bupster]

My local homebase was selling flowering and fruiting chilli plants as cheap as chips last week  :)

[bupster]

Also try this for interesting varieties:

http://unusualherbsandedibles.co.uk/peppers.html

[terrace max]

St. Bob (Flowerdew) reckons you can overwinter this seasons' pepper plants indoors and look forward to an early, bumper harvest next year! Anyone tried this??

[bupster]

Chilli peppers yes. Couldn't get the d**n thing to stop growing until I went away for a month and killed it.

[Mrs Ava]

Yup Terrace, see my earlier post in this thread.

[wardy]

Bought mine yesterday and it's covered in little volcanic looking fruits.  The chap in the shop said he popped one into his mouth yesterday thinking they looked so sweet  :o :o  He warned me against doing the same  ;D

No idea what the variety is but it looks very promising.   :)

[flowerlady]

So where did you buy it from Wardy?

[Robert_Brenchley]

My chili plants haven't grown a bit since I planted them out. I don't know what went wrong.

[chrispea27]

I tried peas in unheated greenhouse last year used appropriate variety. They survived when I put them out in spring but got eaten to death by flea beetle slugs etc ooops!
try more protection next spring. Sounds like an advert for du**x!

[wardy]

Flowerlady    I got it from my local garden centre.  He had some purple leafed chillis too (they looked more like aubs to me but he assured me they were chillies) 

[Looby Loo]

How much heat do chillies need?  What would the minimum temperature required? 

I've just been listening to Veg Talk on radio4's listen again feature. They interveiwed the guy who was Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstalls chilli guru in the River Cottage TV programmes. He said ( If i remember correctly) that you need a tempreture of 80 f to germinate and then a temp of at least 70f to grow chillis. Mind my girlfriend grew several good yellow chillis awhile back for pickling outside, and they were excellent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/vegtalk.shtml

The above is a link for Veg Talk, the stuff about chillis is about 3/4s the way through.IIRC.

Looby Loo's OH.


EDIT TO ADD.

Growing chillies with Michael Michaud

Chillies are a tropical plant so the essentials are heat and light which is in short supply in the UK so you'll need a greenhouse or a polytunnel.
Habanero chillies are particularly difficult to grow - they require a lot of heat and take a long time.
I would recommend the Apache variety, which is a cayenne type of chilli. They're easy to grow and if you get too many, you can dry them.
The secret to growing chillies is to start early. We start in February but we're in Dorset and if you're further north, you'll probably have to start later.
Germinate at 80 degrees on a propagator with bottom heat which you can get from any garden centre. The chillies should start to germinate after about 10 days.
Start them out in a tray then put them into 3 inch pots and give them heat in the mid to high 70s and drop to the mid 60s at night.
Chillies can also be grown on a windowsill as long as they get plenty of sun.
If you need extra light, a fluorescent light works well.
In mid April, transfer to bigger pots or put them in the soil.
Aphids are a problem. We have wild flowers in our polytunnel to attract predators or you can buy them in.