Used and abused - the common chilli

[tim_n]

Last year I bought a chilli plant I was intending to plant out on the lotty.  Except it never made it out of the house.  I potted it up last year and I got about three chillis in total off it after finally doing some hand pollination (you know the one, get little finger, stick in each flower and cross other fingers)

It looked horribly sickly last year with no leaves at all - they'd all dropped off about Julyish, but the chillis still matured and were reasonably hot.

This year I decided in December to give it a d**n good trim. I reduced it to a bonsai 1ft high plant.  I then dumped some peppermint teabags on it and suddenly in January it burst into life.

It's covered in thick lush folliage, loads of flowers and even has two or three chillis in it.

Fingers crossed for a bumper crop this year!

[tim_n]

[saddad]

Well done, just neede a bit of TLC!  :)

[Twoflower]

If you have put peppermint tea bags on it, does that mean it won't give up indigestion!!! ;D

[muddylou]

We've been growing chilli plants in pots on the balcony for the last two years,
Just slit a chilli from the supermarket and put the seeds in some all purpose compost.

They grow like weeds but need quite a bit of watering in pots (they seem to wilt very quickly in the sun).

The first chilli we produced the first year, I snapped it off and after wiping it just started eating it thinking we would only get mild ones in this climate. That was a big mistake,  very hot (this one was still green before they turn red).

They also produced many chillis for a period of around 3 months. My GF has managed to keep two plants going over the winter by keeping them in the passage. they have very small chillis on them so not sure if they will grow anybigger.