Any fellow PHers growing chillis this year?
Discussion
I planted out a good selection this year and results so far (healthy seedlings):
Finger chillis 40 or so
Scotch bonnets 40 or so
Bhut Jolikia (v.hot) 23
Naga Viper (stupid hot) 7
Butch T (worlds hottest until 6 weeks ago) 5
Only planted 10 of each of the last two because I had to buy the seeds! (hopefully next year I shall have a plentiful supply of my own) The Bhut Jolikia seeds are from my own crop last year. The bonnets descend from two small potted plants bought in tesco a few years back and grow really well!
Most of them are 1.5 - 2 inches high now and secondary leaves are visible. Here's hoping for a "hot" summer!
Finger chillis 40 or so
Scotch bonnets 40 or so
Bhut Jolikia (v.hot) 23
Naga Viper (stupid hot) 7
Butch T (worlds hottest until 6 weeks ago) 5
Only planted 10 of each of the last two because I had to buy the seeds! (hopefully next year I shall have a plentiful supply of my own) The Bhut Jolikia seeds are from my own crop last year. The bonnets descend from two small potted plants bought in tesco a few years back and grow really well!
Most of them are 1.5 - 2 inches high now and secondary leaves are visible. Here's hoping for a "hot" summer!
I've planted Indian Warangal Hot, Jalapenos, and Pinocchio's Nose chillis. They're coming up good and enjoying the current sunshine.
I've been down the route of growing the hot ones before, but ending up having too many, as most get used for cooking, and it doesn't take a whole Scott Bonnet to flavour a chilli. I've also got chilli sauce I've made from previous year's crops.
This year for the first time I'll have a small (cupboard type) greenhouse in my yard, leaving some window sills free for Basil and Rocket.
I've been down the route of growing the hot ones before, but ending up having too many, as most get used for cooking, and it doesn't take a whole Scott Bonnet to flavour a chilli. I've also got chilli sauce I've made from previous year's crops.
This year for the first time I'll have a small (cupboard type) greenhouse in my yard, leaving some window sills free for Basil and Rocket.
I can't compete with you on quantity, but I've got some interesting varieties this year:
Antillas caribbean; basically a big scotch bonnet
Naga Morich; potentially up to 1.5 million SHU
Tepin; the size of a pea, but 250,000 SHU
Etna; fairly hot, and looks pretty cool!
Prairie fire; It'll only grow to 15 cm tall, but potentially have hundreds of chillies per plant.
Royal black (currently refusing to germinate), but if they do they'll be a nice dark purple.
And I've got two plants which survived from last year; a Twilight, which was fantastic last year, and already has a few chillies on it now, and a Dorset Naga, which doesn't actually look very healthy any more...
Antillas caribbean; basically a big scotch bonnet
Naga Morich; potentially up to 1.5 million SHU
Tepin; the size of a pea, but 250,000 SHU
Etna; fairly hot, and looks pretty cool!
Prairie fire; It'll only grow to 15 cm tall, but potentially have hundreds of chillies per plant.
Royal black (currently refusing to germinate), but if they do they'll be a nice dark purple.
And I've got two plants which survived from last year; a Twilight, which was fantastic last year, and already has a few chillies on it now, and a Dorset Naga, which doesn't actually look very healthy any more...
Good work Graham! Great crop you got there. I too have tried to winter a couple of very sorry looking Bhut Jolikias! They lost most of their leaves and one or two branches died too but I'm optimistic that the warm weather and sunlight will keep them going. I've wintered a Bhut Jolikia before so I remain hopeful.
Posting those pictures got me quite excited for them, but they seem a far cry from what's currently on my windowsill, which range from
to
!
What do you plan to do with the vast quantity you're growing? I'm very impressed that you've managed to germinate so many! I was running out of ideas for the fruit from the three or four plants I had last year, so my solution was...to grow even more this year! At least it's a cheap addiction, eh.
My Twilight which survived the winter lost a load of leaves a month or two ago, and looked like it was giving up, then a few days later it suddenly sprung into life and new leaves appeared everywhere, so hopefully your Bhut Jolikias will be similarly phoenix-like soon. I made a couple of jars of sauce last year with about 10 Jolikias in, I still use it now to surprise friends who think they can handle their heat!
to
!What do you plan to do with the vast quantity you're growing? I'm very impressed that you've managed to germinate so many! I was running out of ideas for the fruit from the three or four plants I had last year, so my solution was...to grow even more this year! At least it's a cheap addiction, eh.
My Twilight which survived the winter lost a load of leaves a month or two ago, and looked like it was giving up, then a few days later it suddenly sprung into life and new leaves appeared everywhere, so hopefully your Bhut Jolikias will be similarly phoenix-like soon. I made a couple of jars of sauce last year with about 10 Jolikias in, I still use it now to surprise friends who think they can handle their heat!
I've been growing with medium success for 3 years now. No new plants this year but have over wintered some bhut jolokia, chocolate habs, Dorset nagas, orange scotch bonnets and a super chilli. I find the whole thing fascinating and frustrating. They grow very well on the window sills but take up so much room and seem prone to green fly but move them outside to the small plastic green house and it's either too hot in the sun or leave the door open and they get destroyed by slugs/snails. Any ideas?
Here's one PHer who is http://web4.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=...
grahamr88 said:
Posting those pictures got me quite excited for them, but they seem a far cry from what's currently on my windowsill, which range from
to
!
What do you plan to do with the vast quantity you're growing? I'm very impressed that you've managed to germinate so many! I was running out of ideas for the fruit from the three or four plants I had last year, so my solution was...to grow even more this year! At least it's a cheap addiction, eh.
My Twilight which survived the winter lost a load of leaves a month or two ago, and looked like it was giving up, then a few days later it suddenly sprung into life and new leaves appeared everywhere, so hopefully your Bhut Jolikias will be similarly phoenix-like soon. I made a couple of jars of sauce last year with about 10 Jolikias in, I still use it now to surprise friends who think they can handle their heat!
The germination rate seems to vary wildly depending on which plants and where they are sourced. For example, last year I purchased some Bhut Jolikia seeds from ebay for about £2 for 25 seeds. I only got 3 germinate and they all started very small and unimpressive. This year I planted seeds harvested from the above mentioned plants and they have grown really well, over 20 now from 40 planted! Go figure!. In contrast to this I also planted 40 Bhut Jolikia seeds this year that I harvested from chillis purchased in Tesco last year and I have only had 3 come through this year. The scotch bonnets and finger chillis I have 100% success with this year. I find that seeds purchased tend to do well, seeds from last years home grown also do well and seeds from chillis bought in the supermarket do less well. Also it does seem that some of the hotter plants are harder to germinate.to
!What do you plan to do with the vast quantity you're growing? I'm very impressed that you've managed to germinate so many! I was running out of ideas for the fruit from the three or four plants I had last year, so my solution was...to grow even more this year! At least it's a cheap addiction, eh.
My Twilight which survived the winter lost a load of leaves a month or two ago, and looked like it was giving up, then a few days later it suddenly sprung into life and new leaves appeared everywhere, so hopefully your Bhut Jolikias will be similarly phoenix-like soon. I made a couple of jars of sauce last year with about 10 Jolikias in, I still use it now to surprise friends who think they can handle their heat!
I use the polystyrene "self-watering" type propagators and just a normal universal compost. I have one of those mini zip-up greenhouses next to a radiator indoors and keep the propagators in there until the plants sprout. When they come through I put them on the window sills by day and back in the zip up greenhouse at night. Once the plants are 1.5" tall I stand the lids of the propagators up on cocktail sticks which gives the plants a bit more headroom and reduces the moisture level which no longer has to be so high once they have germinated. Once the plants are too big for the propagator then I pot them out, mostly into small or medium pots and stake them. It's at this stage that I give many away each year because I run out of space and window sills! I have noticed that If you do put a small plant straight into a very big pot they can grow large very quickly but space-wise this is not an option if you are planting 200 odd seeds. After maybe a month in the small pots I transfer to large troughs, 4,5 or 6 plants to each and put outside or in the greenhouse. Finger chillis are fine outside I find, scotch bonnets and hotter fare much better in the greenhouse.
As to what do I do with them all? Well I do give many away as stated, I do eat a lot of chilli, and as for using half a scotch bonnet in a chilli - well it's not unusual for me to use 10 of those to a pound of mince beef! It's more difficult to get through a big crop of Bhut Jolikia though I admit! I may be making some sauce this year!
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff