any chilli growers out there?

[bimsb6]

my chilli plant has been going great guns up to now but all the leaves are dropping off any suggestions ? it has been watered and fed i'm wondering if its too cold ?

[eharding]

Take a close look at the plant - any sign of spider mite? - they seem to love chilli plants, I eventually gave up trying to grow the things because of the bloody mites (plus the local ethnic grocer in Slough does fresh Scotch Bonnet at £7.99 a kilo - the Sainsbury's opposite charges £1.20 for three peppers, making it somewhere north of £40 a kilo).

[aussiebruce]

Mate, you and me both. Then i find out they die at the end of every year!!!! At first i thought it was bull**** but no mines dieing too.

however leave the chillies on it and pluck them as you need them. they will last all winter (maybe)

[tashie]

My mum says you're either watering them too much or you might have a vine weevil

[aussiebruce]

nah, it's dieing. google it!!!!

[tashie]

aussiebruce said:

nah, it's dieing. google it!!!!

Subtle

[aussiebruce]

it's only a plant. and you can keep the chillies

[eharding]

aussiebruce said:

it's only a plant. and you can keep the chillies

Wierd. I was thinking of making some weak Aussie pun when I wrote "Any sign of spider mite?"

Frankly, I'm glad I didn't bother.

[aussiebruce]

eharding said:

aussiebruce said:

it's only a plant. and you can keep the chillies

Wierd. I was thinking of making some weak Aussie pun when I wrote "Any sign of spider mite?"

Frankly, I'm glad I didn't bother.

there is another tread going on weak Aussie puns. would have been a good one though.

[bimsb6]

just don't mention the olympics

[collateral]

Chillies freeze really well too

[[AJ]]

I had a problem with the leaves dropping off my chilli plant too. I thought I was perhaps watering it too much, but I've since continued and the leaves and flowers/buds have stopped dropping.

[alfa145uk]

I'm having mixed success - one thing I noticed is they are flowering very late this year. My indoor plants which see less sun are doing much better than the outdoor ones - a reverse of last year. The outdoor ones have really long droopy leaves (which are falling off) and small flowers that are staying as that. The indoor ones are doing much better, I've now got some mid-sized chillis growing.

I'm glad they freeze - I've got 58 plants - only 2 seeds didn't grow, I wasn't quite expecting that much of a success rate. I'm not convinced all will produce fruit though.

[Cotty]

My outside plant has lots of flowers but no fruit. My indoor plant has one 2" fruit and lots of flowers.

I understand that as there is nothing to polonate the indoor plants you have to do it yourself with a brush, which I did. I find the leaves drop off if you over water.

[eharding]

Somewhere in the PH thread archive there is a great one about someone who had a plant with some splendid green chillies which started turning black......binned the whole thing forthwith.

Shame that the black phase is shortly followed by the red phase.....

[Simpo Two]

Most houseplant deaths are from over-watering. Always lift the pot to judge its weight before lobbing more water in. Unless it's light, don't water it

[Tim S]

aussiebruce said:

Mate, you and me both. Then i find out they die at the end of every year!!!! At first i thought it was bull**** but no mines dieing too.

however leave the chillies on it and pluck them as you need them. they will last all winter (maybe)

I have 3 plants from last year which are fruiting again as we speak. It's a common misconception that they die every year. Probably put around by seed companies!

Speaking of which, don't forget to keep some seeds back when you cook with the chillis to dry & plant next year.

[AndrewM]

The leaves on my plants are dropping too. They're in a greenhouse and the chillies have grown well, don't appear to have any mites or disease.

The chillies I've had off it are a bit tame though. This is the first time I've grown them - is there any way of telling when they're totally ripe or do they just shrivel up?

[jof]

I've got three varieties on the go at the mo - all outside - all second year

Cayenne - loads of flowers, some mini peppers, about 40% fall before pickable (is that a word??) but come the end of August there'll be a load ready

Jalepeno - nearly every flower produces good chilli - some larger than others, range from 3cm to 7cm

Hot Stuff (the tiny volcanic ones) - same as cayenne, best for pickling/cooking whole with meat (BBQs homemade burgers etc), about 60% productive.

Scotch Bonnet/Chocolate Harbonara type chillies only really work well in a heated greenhouse/tunnel environment

I'ts all about where they're from originally I reckon

HTH

Jof

[Scraggles]

was over in walthamstow the other day, picked up some Jamaican peppers, turns out to be scotch bonnets, something like £0.65 for 100 grams, very nice and hot like the nice guy mentioned