Why are my Chilli's so mild this year?

A question asked to me by @Marksvegplot I have looked around for a few answers on this one and there is a slight varied opinion. Despite Chilli plants being easy to grow. Growing them well is quite hard. Everything must be as perfect as possible. Enough sun, the right amount of water, the correct feed at the correct time, not too much heat for the roots, just enough heat for the plant......

You may have watered the plant too much, which can result in a large, leafy plant with mildly flavoured peppers. Chilli plants like to be watered but they don't like wet feet. Over watering may result in the fruit being watery too and relatively tasteless. Others also indicate that the quality and length of the sunshine will influence the heat of the pepper. This can ofter be a problem with the wonderful British summer! Chilis grown in a greenhouse or windowsill may have more light and become hotter. I have recently grown a number of my plants out doors in my south facing garden so the plants get a fair amount of sunlight but as a result am I depriving myself of some heat?

This year I have also used the chilligrow from greenhouse sensation which has produced some great plants with large crops but i have selected mild chili plats to test so have not noticed a drop in their heat. This system claims to deliver the right amount of water. Perhaps next year I will experiment with some hotter plants

If you are lucky when you grow you own your chilli will show its appreciation and love you back. One of my jalapeno plants this year has produced an almost heart shaped chilli

Jalapeno chili plant

Chiligrow by Greenhouse Sensation

Home Grown 2011: Chilli Grow Update

Its almost full harvest time here for my chilli crops! I have been testing this year for the first time the chiligrow from greenhouse sensation. I started with a store bought Hungarian Hot Wax, home grown Jalapeno and finally my Krakatoa chili plant is in its third year picked up from the west dean chilli fiesta which was looking on its last legs. My last update from July showed very health plants and as you can see below at the en of August each plant is looking full,  healthy and most importantly full of chilli's! Each plant continues to fruit still, I have decided to leave as many of the chilli's on as possible to get really ripe fruit this year rather than picking them for a larger crop.

I met the nice folk at Greenhouse sensation at this years west dean chilli fiesta and they were very friendly. The even gave me some fresh chili peppers and and chilli chocolate just for being a customer! I can whole heatedly recommend picking yourself up a chilli grow for your back garden. Whether you are a newbie, seasoned grower or just after a better crop with a bit less effort the chiligrow. Ill be picking up another one or two units for next year definitely.

Above is my mini chili greenhouse made with a number of spare bricks and a cold frame plonked on without the aid of the chilli grow these have done well due to late starts and not enough loving care they are a little smaller with less fruit.

 The chilli pepper nasu above i fed with the leftover chemicals for the chilli grow water reservoir and as you can see since stripping the plant bare from chillis in July i have a full sent i can harvest again already for my next meal!

Can you find any padron peppers in the supermarket this year? i cant, above I have a couple of padron plants I hope to get at least one meal from and a pyramid chilli plant where most of the peppers are ripening nicely ready to be preserved

Lastly for the veggie gardeners among you that grow chillis on the side I thought I'd include a picture of this years onion crop the will be filling my fajitas and spicy meals until the end of the year. 

I Hope your season has been successful too, ill try and post a picture of my harvest before I eat them all

Home Grown 2011: Greenhouse Sensation ChilliGrow Update

Here is a mini update from Greenhouse Sensation Chilligrow experiment. So far I am very pleased with the results. I started with a store bought Hungarian Hot Wax, home grown Jalapeno and finally my Krakatoa chili plant is in its third year picked up from the west dean chilli fiestia which was looking on its last legs. The picture below is from July and as you can see each plant is looking very very healthy. Each plant has fruit and and continues to grow in size week by week.

Greenhouse Sensation Chilligrow Picture

You will also notice in the frame a chilli nasu plant in a pot, I have already eaten the first crop of this one so it is looking a little bear.However I have been adding a little of the water used to fill up the chilli grow each time to this pot with the liquid fertiliser supplied and as a result I have already had a full crop which has already been eaten so currently the plant I looking a little sorry for itself.

Chilli Nasu Plant

If you decide to give the chilli grow yourself check out the Greenhouse sensation site. You can also pick up on the same page the South Devon Chilli Farm's Chilli Starter Kit. This includes everything you need to grow from seed to small plant; 20 Coir compost plugs (peat-free), 100ml of chilli feed, a selection of chilli seeds (3 x packet of seeds - Fresno, Ring of Fire and Peruvian Purple – 60 seeds in all), 10 plant labels and a mini disposable propagator to get seeds off to head start. All this is just £15.

Maddie the Cat taking shade in the Veg Patch

 

How to Protect your Chilli Plants

If you are placing your chilli plants outside to grow it is worth placing them in a sunny sheltered spot to get the warmth the need and also importantly avoid being blown about by the wind to much or drowned by the endless British rain. If you don't have access to or space for a greenhouse I have found a cold frame very useful to protect my plants while they are still growing. These can be picked up very cheaply and don't take up too much space. 

If you would like extra protection then I can also highly recommend a guard cat to watch over your plants

Home Grown 2011: Growing Update

Hopefully @Marksvegplot and @WeGrowOurOwn would be proud of my efforts this year. Chilli Plants and Hot sauce is the focus over here but there is also veg to be seen too. Though I admit that I do have support in the veg department from my partner who takes great pride in her work. 

For friendly and informative advice on vegetable growing you should visit http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/ where he will guide you through is wonderful never ending supply of veg and beautiful photographs from his small domestic urban kitchen garden. He does also admire the chili plant and so far is having more success than me this year with my wobbly start and melted propagator!

Below is a couple of snapshots of my efforts this year. I do have another update from the chilli grow experiment for you soon too and some new purchased editions to my plant family from the Gardner's world show where I met Alan Titchmarsh.

Chilli Plants

 Above we have the survivors of the melted propagator incident, four plants are now going strong outside sheltered from the wind and excess rain in this mini greenhouse. We have two padron plants, a Cayenne pepper and chocolate habanero.

Chilli Nasu Pepper Plant

This has been growing in a strange way but still producing lots of lovely chilli fruit. The Chilli Nasu plant produces small round chillis that ripen from green to red. the heat level is not too high on these peppers and often add them sliced to salads. Last year the plant was next to a Jalapeno plant and some interesting cross pollination took place producing small round Jalapenos

Home Grown 2011: The ChilliGrow from Greenhouse Sensation

Throughout building this blog site and interacting with other keen chilli growers, I came across the ChilliGrow sold by Greenhouse Sensation. I have heard endless good reviews of this product and wanted to try it out for myself to boost my grow your own chili crop. So I have decided to put the chilli grow to the test! The ChilliGrow is designed together with the chilefoundry and also south Deavon chilli farm so already it has the seal of approval from two great groups who know their chilli.

Feeder Mat

Watering chilli plants correctly is hard even when you know what you are doing. The ChilliGrow does this for you using a 7 Litre water reservoir.

The three 6 litre pots looked quite big to me but the website assures me that this is the idea size to encourage both root and fruit growth. A nice touch is that the try is also drip proof so you can grow inside if you are restricted for space or perhaps in your greenhouse if you have one too.

The pots each have holes at the base to put through feeder mats that dip into the reservoir below. These will ensure that your plan remains perfectly watered.

Chilli Nutrients

In the pack you will also receive so real easy instructions and also some chili plant some nutrients to last you one season.

To see how good the good the chilligrow is and what it could do for my crops I have selected three different chilli plants. A Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno and a Krakatoa.

The Hungarian Hot Wax is store bought from B&Q, the Jalapeno is home grown and finally my Krakatoa chilli plant is in its third year and has produced bumper crops the previous two years. What will happen??? I will let you know. Below is a picture of all three plants at of June 2011.



ChilliGrow



Home Grown 2011 - The beginning

Here are some pictures of my chilli plant grow your own attempts from this year. I am slightly behind where I had hoped as my propagator with my first crop melted with my first set of seeds inside so I had to start all over again!

Above are the few lucky chile plants rescued from the twisted melted mess of my propagator, I have potted them up with some feed and placed them on the windowsill to hopefully recover and grow. In this set so far the padron and cayenne plants look to be holding on well and I am hopeful they will continue to grow.

Where I have started again, my new seedlings are coming through healthy and are almost ready to be potted up

From the seeds I have left and those I picked up from the south Devon chilli farm i am hoping to grow Jalapenos, Cherry Bombs, Yellow Scotch Bonnet and Ring of Fire Chillis this season. I hope to make my own hot sauce this year too hopefully. If you woul d like soem tips to grow your own chillis to get you started check out my mini basic growing guide here



2011 Growing Season - The beginning

I thought I would share some photos from my 2010 chilli growing season. Below is a picture of my chilli shack / potting shed where many of my chilli plants are born and have been sleeping for the winter from 2010. I hoep my 2011 season will be successful too!

2010 Crop:

Here are some of my successes from last year. These plants have been grow outside in sheltered sunny spots and have done rather well.

Twilight Chillis

Jalapeno (Pizza Chilli)



Scotch Bonnett