Chillies, Toms & Sweet Pepper growing

[Marc]

yeah my buds are dropping abit too on some plants, would'nt worry about it as a few are bound to drop off anyway. My phone camera is rubbish at close up pics so might borrow a proper camera one night this week to get better close ups.

1 = Spagna, do a google image search to see how beautiful these are when fully fruited up!
2 = Tomato
3 = Thai Super Hot, small fruit middle bottom
4 = Sweet Pepper

 

[Publius Ovidius]

we have harvested a load of strawberries ( very sweet), raspberries ( and there are loads still on the bushes) Blueberries are busy ripening, as are the blackcurrants. The rhubarb is growing nicely as are my peas!.

However the piece de restistance, the herbs are a terrific crop this year

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Thanks for the pics Marc - my Jalapeno plants look rather similar to your thai chillis. Cool.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Sorry - not entirely sure. On the flowers that will fruit (not all of them will), it becomes obvious quite quickly - you'll see the start of a chilli peeking out from the middle of the flower.

What are you doing about pollination? Having read about it elsewhere, I've been using a very small paintbrush (ie for painting on paper, not walls!) to try and spread the pollen around a bit. I've got no idea if this is working at all, or whether the fruit I have would have come anyway.

Hey Bozza - just found this titbit of info re chilli pollination. Sounds like you were on the right track ....

As your pepper plants begin to mature you will start to notice flowers appearing on your plants. This is the sign you have been waiting for as it means that your first chillies are not that far off. All that stands between you and fresh chilli pods is pollination.

Be aware that as was the case with germination if you are growing cayenne peppers the plants will flower and fruit much earlier than varieties such as habanero, scotch bonnet or naga. These slower varieties require much more heat and our best kept in a conservatory or greenhouse to ensure they fruit as soon as possible.

Pollination will be taken care of naturally by bees and other insects if you plants are kept outside. If grown inside you may want to consider self pollination. Don't worry, this is not as sordid as it may sound. All you need to do is wait until you have a few flowers on your plants then lightly rub your little finger inside the flower heads on your plants. Alternatively use a small artists paint brush or a cotton bud. This will do the bees job of moving pollen around from flower to flower.


Eventually you will see that some of the flowers will go brown and drop off. This is usually no need for alarm as the cause will be a chilli pushing its way through the flower. All you need to do now is to keep up the water/food and wait for your chillies to ripen.

Next if you are anything like the king you will have to find a solution to one more question: How to use the chillies?!

 

[The Tassie Seagull]

All looks good guys, have all my winter crops in at the moment. Agree with the whole salad thing, easy to grow asian greens all year round here, have mizuna, bak choy, pak choy, spinach, giant mustard, silver beet, chinese cabbage on the go. Picking sugar snaps, and garden peas, and have my brassicas, onions and leeks growing well. If you want to think about growing in a small area check out "One Magic Square " book (Aussie book with great ideas. Might post some photos if interested

 

[Bozza]

Sorry - never got round to posting a picture of my jalapenos - loadsa fruit there now. Will post something from home tonight.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Sorry - never got round to posting a picture of my jalapenos - loadsa fruit there now. Will post something from home tonight.

I have a couple of flowers open on my jalapenos, one flower just about open on my Cayennes. Not much to report on my Lanterns though, but they are getting quite bushy.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

This is my personal favourite - don't think there are many hotter.

Chillipepper Pete's Dragon's Blood

What the bottle says...
Beware, extreme heat
Hot Pepper Awards - Winner
What we say...
Chillipepper Pete is one of the finest UK sauce makers around. Dragons Blood is among his best award winning creations - his hottest sauce to date with big flavour and an even bigger burn, containing large amounts of naga-bih jolokia and 6.4mshu chilli extract.

Country of origin: UK

Ingredients: Capsicum, vinegar, pineapple, sugar, naga bin jolokia x2, cayenne, 6.4m chilli extract

100ml bottle


Price: £6.49

Stumbled across an absolutely splendid new shop (well new to me at least) in the Marina yesterday called Fiery Foods. A shop dedicated to all things chilli. They got chilli plants (about £3 each), chilli seeds at £1.50 - I bought some chao tian jiao (facing heaven) seeds to sow next Feb. Also bought a bottle of Black Death beer - 'an EXTREME beer!' - made with the Naga or Death chilli, the world's strongest chilli @ 850,000 scoviles according to the bottle. Only 5.2% alcohol, but sadly unfinishable. One small glass left me defeated. But at only £3 for 500ml, maybe worth a try. Can highly recommend the shop, and the staff know everything there is to know about chilli. You can even try some out. I tried the Dragon's Blood as per the pic above. Jeez - it BURNS!! It's officially three times as strong as Scotch Bonnet and needs to be treated with the utmost respect

Oh, and the Fiery Foods people are holding a chilli festival in Victoria Gardens, Brighton, 19th - 20th September. Dates for the diary?

 

[Marc]

yeah tom Fiery Foods are good, never been to the shop but they were at the last two chilli festivals, should be another good one this year and looking forward too it. The one on Hove Lawns in April was very decent.

DISASTER with my lot, bloody caterpillars have taken over and started eating everything, managed to bug spray alot of them and quarantine the worst affected plants. None have died yet so think I got the bastards just in time, a few small holes still appearing so getting some better bug spray to finish the blighters off!
First Sweet Peppers are turning colour now and chillis are fruiting on about 50% of my plants aswell....happy days!

oh and I've been given an 8'x6' greenhouse for FREE....sweet!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

First Sweet Peppers are turning colour now and chillis are fruiting on about 50% of my plants aswell....happy days!

Sounds good!

The bloke in Fiery Foods said I could plant the seeds now, but I wouldn't get any chillies, tho the plants would grow OK. So following your advice, which shop bloke confirmed was wise and true, I will be waiting til Feb/March before sowing. Pics to follow - about a year from now!

 

[Marc]

Sounds good!

The bloke in Fiery Foods said I could plant the seeds now, but I wouldn't get any chillies, tho the plants would grow OK. So following your advice, which shop bloke confirmed was wise and true, I will be waiting til Feb/March before sowing. Pics to follow - about a year from now!

you can sow now and OverWinter the plants, that way they will be quicker to flower & fruit next year. Not sure that is better than sowing in Feb/March as a Fruit Ratio thing but it might be worth a go if you have room to keep them?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

you can sow now and OverWinter the plants, that way they will be quicker to flower & fruit next year. Not sure that is better than sowing in Feb/March as a Fruit Ratio thing but it might be worth a go if you have room to keep them?

Ah right. Cheers. In that case I'll give it a go. Just got a biggish window sill really, but reckon I'll sow a couple of the seeds now, then the rest in Feb/March. Compare and contrast sort of thing. Besides, it'll be grand just to see them grow!

 

[Marc]

yeah do that, you will need to cut them back (not too much) at Winter but they should be ready to go. My Tabasco that I overwintered is only just budding now but it never grew fruit last year so reckon its just a slow plant.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

yeah do that, you will need to cut them back (not too much) at Winter but they should be ready to go. My Tabasco that I overwintered is only just budding now but it never grew fruit last year so reckon its just a slow plant.

Thanks for the advice Marc

 

[timseagull]

My courgette has blackfly.

But tomatoes and chillis doing well. Have a Hungarian Hotwax forming!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

THPP Chilli Webcam - 25/07/2009

Planted 25/07/2009!

Follow the progress of THPP chilli growing efforts - new post on 25th of every month HERE!

Month One... very little action to report... nothing to see here...

 

[Skaville]

I've got six plants on he go, all doing well. I was thinking about pickling some of the crop. Any tips or advice on pickling?

 

[footychick]

I've got some green chilli's growing but I'm wondering what you do with them, do you pick them and if so how big do they need to be.
Thanks.

 

[Marc]

I've got six plants on he go, all doing well. I was thinking about pickling some of the crop. Any tips or advice on pickling?

depends what type of plant it is, generally you can pick anywhere from green to red (or other colour!) stage, post the name of the plants as that will help.

I've got some green chilli's growing but I'm wondering what you do with them, do you pick them and if so how big do they need to be.
Thanks.

again the name of the plant would help a great deal, if you dont know the name post a picture and I'll try to track it down for you

 

[Skaville]

I'm not sure Marc. I have six plants. I believe one of them is a hybrid, one is an outdoor long green chilli and another is a jalepeno. No idea what the other three are.