Chili Plants

The Sweeper

I love chili!

So I've bought two chili plants. I have a Thai Dragon chili plant, and a Habanero of the Antilles Caribbean variety. They're looking quite happy at the moment, indoors under glass. There was a short period of readjustment when I bought them (shedding leaves and flower stamens), but now they're looking happier.

The Thai Dragon has fruit at the moment, mostly green but a good few are turning. The habanero is a late bloomer because of weather conditions this year, but I knew that when I bought it and was happy to keep looking after it to see if it would fruit (no sign yet). The fruit on the Thai Dragon were extremely mild when I bought it, but the trauma of shifting environment since, I'm hoping, will be enough to heat them up (chili fruit become hotter if the plant is subjected to hardship e.g. flooding or wilting before harvest - some sort of survival mechanism no doubt, but a little sadistic for the cultivator).

Am just wondering if anyone's grown their own chili plants before, and have any tips and hints? You're not supposed to bother overwintering the plants, but I hate the idea of dumping a perfectly good plant just because it's winter time.

All input welcome!

RedPlanet

I tried growind a variety of pepper plants once upon a time.
Bought seeds from http://www.pepperjoe.com/
They all grew but never produced any fruit.
Bar the pepperoncini's (which are my favorite pizza garnish)
But they had no heat on them (green fruit).
Good luck with your ones

Tazz T

I have two chili plants (don't know what species - finger-type chililes) that I grew from seed. They're two years old now and for the past year have continually flowered and produced fruit throughout the year (we had chillies for Xmas). The cycle is about two months for each fruit-bearing period. One side of our apartment is all glass and gets tons of sun, so this is probably why they continually flower. In fact, I have to be careful they don't burn. In the winter they'll flower as soon as you put the heating on.

Make sure they're in the biggest post you can find, or you'll get small fruit. Also be aware that once they've lost their fruit, the leaves will go yellow and you'll lose most of them. They'll seem like they're dying, but will come back. Don't water until they start to droop and when you do fill them right up.

They really need to be fed around once a month, so if you've got a composter the liquid that comes off that is perfect. Enjoy them - mine are my little babies. Although since my other little baby is starting to crawl, I need to find somewhere else to put them.

BTW Mine have a bit of a 'minty' bite to them when they're green. They don't get really hot until they turn red. At the moment, theyre quite ferocious.

garyh3

Hi Tazz T

I grew Chili plants in the US before moving back for a few years. They were called "red missiles" Chili plants very hot.... they were annuals and self seeding they grew back every year....

I usually pick and dry them, then next year just re-plant the seeds. They grew almost anywhere

Garyh3