Bought a pack of 6 from garden centre reduced but they are not growing. They are outside and look healthy enough. Plenty of food. Suggestion please. Do you think they need as little more heat such as a plastic bottle.
Some chilies put on a spurt of growth then flower and sit back for a while before growing again. If they haven't flowered and aren't growing - have you potted them on? It is hot enough for chilies or at least it is here so I don't think it would be that.
Patience is the Oder of the day I think!
Putting a bottle over them might be a good idea!
I have noticed that plants are are taking bit longer than normal to take off after moving them from the pot to the soil,but equally once they do start developing they seem to romp away.
Just as an aside; Carol Klein mentioned in a newspaper article this weekend that she was having a similar problem with some of her plants, she put it down to the possibility of toxins in the new recipe compost she was using!
With all due respect to Carol it is comforting to know that it is not only we amateurs that are are having problems with the new compost recipes.
Perhaps the compost makers will take heed of her comments as they do not seem to be listening to the amateur gardener!
Only time will tell I guess!
They are flowering. Perhaps I should take off the flowers so they put there energy into growing. Plants are far to small to produce more than one fruit each.
Bought the plants so do not know about compost. The strawberries beside them are more than happy.
I think I might try some bottles.
No sign of aminopyralid ie cupped leaves, the leaves are showing no signs of stress and are good colour, plants look very healthy, its just they are tiny and staying that way.
I suspect they might have dried out at sometime though they looked healthy enough when I bought them.
I look forward to some romping going on.
It is widespread within the growing sector to administer Plant growth regultors to keep stocks uniform and create a "shelf life " to enable plants to pass through garden centres without getting bigger. It will depend on the product used, accurate application and good instore care to give best results. It may take several weeks for the plant to "come round" and resume its life pattern. Often the plants so treated have an unnatural green colour which slowly normalises as their "hangover" clears. You will find this in chain store garden centres rather than in local nurseries, the latter will be happy to answer your questions about it, the former will not!
It would help if we new the variety which I guess that is not possible!
You mention they are in flower, they are small and you can get a bottle over them.
This makes me think you may have a 'pot' variety that may not grow above 10"-12" high.
You have six I think I would grow say half of them in pots and keep them on a window sill or similar and leave the other half outdoors to hedge your bets!
Plus as ancellfarmer said they might have been treated with a 'dwarfing' agent so potting them up would also cater for this situation if they have!
Sorry I can't be of more assistance
The varieties are Apache, Gusto Green and Cheyenne, I do not know which plant is which, assume I have two of each.
I think they might be a little chilly or is that Chilli, and have given them a plastic bottle each.
Bit worried about he concept of dwarfing agent. Not clear why a garden centre would want to reduce the size of the plants.
My chillis and peppers are SO slow this year. For no apparent reason. Everyone else I've spoken to is saying the same.
My top tip for chillis and peppers, is to take the first flower out as soon as you see it. I usually add my green cane once I've nipped the first flower out as then I know which ones I've nipped out. What happens then is that the plant throws out a load more flowers.
It can quadruple the fruit you get on the plants.
I am also now going to feed at every watering to try and kick them into some activity.
My chilies are going great guns this year. Maybe I have finally got them sussed! Very pleased with my Reapers but as they are the hottest chilies going I wont need too many!
So far so good over here...
They were planted 'late'..only couple of weeks ago and were begging for to get into bigger planters. They must have double their size since and have plenty of flowers and some set fruit too.. :icon_cheers:
Mine are planted into quadgrow planters and chillies seem to love that system...they grow into huge plants :icon_cheers:
Oh.... I had chillies of a pickable size a week ago (admittedly first time I'v eever had them in June)... variety was Cayenne.... all of the plants looked to be romping away except the Vampires.... they're home-raised using my normal technique (New Horizon compost with a thin layer of John Innes Seed in 24-cell modules potted on into 12-cell modules with a 50/50 mix of council compost and topsoil with a bit of BFB)... I suppose they have the advantage of having spent their entire lives in my greenhouse, and as it's pretty big (20x10) they have had a bit less bouncy temperature variation than in a smaller one...
The bottles do seem to have done the trick. They are almost double the size in a week. Looks like they are not outdoor varieties. I do wish garden centre would put more instructions on the label.
Looks like I may need some bigger bottles, did manage to bring some 8L ones back from Spain. They were a special offer get 60% more free. Though lugging them back to the apartment full of water was rather a chore.
Quote from: aj on June 29, 2014, 09:07:43
My chillis and peppers are SO slow this year. For no apparent reason. Everyone else I've spoken to is saying the same.
My top tip for chillis and peppers, is to take the first flower out as soon as you see it. I usually add my green cane once I've nipped the first flower out as then I know which ones I've nipped out. What happens then is that the plant throws out a load more flowers.
It can quadruple the fruit you get on the plants.
I am also now going to feed at every watering to try and kick them into some activity.
Thank you for this tip. Does that apply to all peppers or chillis only. Capsicum annuum?