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chillies

nokiatom

has anyone grown chillies successful here ? I have set some seeds but only a few have germinated. any advise, thanks

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nokiatom

grounded jalepeno

Technophobe

nokiatom wrote: »

I never had a propagator. I presume that when you take them out of the propagator you need a warm place. at the moment the weather would not seem ideal for doing that

That's what windowsills are for:D
or...growlights if you are that way inclined

Gloomtastic!

It's been over two weeks on the windowsill and not even a peep of a shoot!!!!

Outkast_IRE

For those of you who haven't used propogators to germinate chilli seeds I must say you are missing out on a trick. I sowed 3 different varieties this year and had 100% of seeds growing within 7 days of being placed in propogator. It gives the seeds a great start to life and helps in the long term viability of each plant. I have grown for 6 years now and propogators help an awful lot in the Irish climate

Gloomtastic!

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

For those of you who haven't used propogators to germinate chilli seeds I must say you are missing out on a trick. I sowed 3 different varieties this year and had 100% of seeds growing within 7 days of being placed in propogator. It gives the seeds a great start to life and helps in the long term viability of each plant. I have grown for 6 years now and propogators help an awful lot in the Irish climate

Tell that to my chillies!!!

Outkast_IRE

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Tell that to my chillies!!!

2 weeks in an electric heated propogator ? Or one that simply relies on the sun for heat ?

Gloomtastic!

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

2 weeks in an electric heated propogator ? Or one that simply relies on the sun for heat ?

Relying on the sun alone, there was a few cold nights but the days seemed warm/sunny enough. I'll give it another few days then start again.....

Outkast_IRE

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Relying on the sun alone, there was a few cold nights but the days seemed warm/sunny enough. I'll give it another few days then start again.....

Yeah some of the night time temps came down a fair bit in the last 2 weeks so that might be slowing them. Also has been plenty of cloudy days.

The heated electric ones are worth the investment if you grow every year, especially if you are growing some of the chilli varities that require a longer period to fruit.

Technophobe

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Yeah some of the night time temps came down a fair bit in the last 2 weeks so that might be slowing them. Also has been plenty of cloudy days.

The heated electric ones are worth the investment if you grow every year, especially if you are growing some of the chilli varities that require a longer period to fruit.

Not to mention that some chilli varities require higher temps than others to germinate...If you like your chillies, then definitely a worthwhile investment..

Gloomtastic!

One shoot popped it's head up today, only 23 to go! :rolleyes:

gandalf

It's taken nearly 3 weeks for any shoots to appear with mine in the propagator on the window still. Thankfully they have started to appear. So now I have 3 Padrons, 1 Cherry Bomb and 1 bhut jolokia sprouting with the hope the rest of their buddies start popping up in the next couple of days.

captainshamroc

Think I over watered the seeds in the hot press. Only 12 germinated out of about 35 and I only have 8 seedlings left now after replanting and moving to a windowsill. 3 cayenne, 1 birds eye, 2 tabasco and 2 jalapeno. Fairly disappointed but its a learning curve. I had planned on a few different plantings anyway. After the talk above I invested in an electric propagator so lets see what batch number 2 sprouts. €27 so should be worth it.
Last year's cut backs have a lot of green leaves and even started flowering this week. I pinched them off to force the growth into new leaves and not flower.

Buona Fortuna

captainshamroc wrote: »

I invested in an electric propagator so lets see what batch number 2 sprouts. €27 so should be worth it.

So will you grow in this all the time? Or do they get potted on and then kept on a windowsill? Are any planted out at all?

I'd like to grow chillies. Tried when we were in the UK (sunny SE) and was always beaten by the shortness of the season.

Tried tomatoes here, and fine plants but then we had a summer storm off the Atlantic and no more. They sprouted again but they could never catch up.

Last year's cut backs have a lot of green leaves and even started flowering this week. I pinched them off to force the growth into new leaves and not flower.

I'm presuming that these were in pots inside?

cianr

Guys any particular place you source your seeds?

captainshamroc

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

So will you grow in this all the time? Or do they get potted on and then kept on a windowsill? Are any planted out at all?

I'd like to grow chillies. Tried when we were in the UK (sunny SE) and was always beaten by the shortness of the season.

Tried tomatoes here, and fine plants but then we had a summer storm off the Atlantic and no more. They sprouted again but they could never catch up.

I'm presuming that these were in pots inside?

Last year I only have a couple of plants. Some bought from B&Q and 1 I grew myself. I potted all on and kept them on a sunny windowsill. They produced chilies from about July through November. I cut them all back and kept inside over the winter, watering occasionally. About half survived the winter.
This year I'm trying to grow a lot more from seed and they will be in pots indoors in the sun until about may when they'll go in a small plastic green house outside.

gandalf

cianr wrote: »

Guys any particular place you source your seeds?

I got mine from these guys, http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

Got the delivery after around 3 working days.

Outkast_IRE

gandalf wrote: »

I got mine from these guys, http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

Got the delivery after around 3 working days.

Also use south devon chilli farm, i have nearly a 100% success rate with their seeds and they have a great selection.

Shemale

Any luck so far guys?

I tried overwinter two of my Habanero plants but I don't think it worked, the stems are brown and no sign of life, they have been in the attic over winter and in greenhouse the last week:mad:

About 4 weeks ago I planted Jalapenos, Scotch Bonnets, Habaneros and even some Bhut Jolokia - too hot for me but want to see what happens. Only half have germinated but still have their first two leaves.

iainBB

mine are looking good about 3 inches in height for new one started from seed late Jan ( this year germinated in the tissue in the hot press) then transplant a few week later )
The over winter ones, chills and sweet peppers are getting new leaves and are looking great. about 2 foot tall now. lost about 10 percent of them but that is expected.

mcgovern

None of my overwintered plants survived, but I have 4 or 5 that I planted from seed that have their second set of leaves.
A few more that are about an inch and some more that are just sprouting - think it will be too late for these though

Gloomtastic!

'Firecracker' Sowed 8 seeds, then 10 a month or so later, nothing as yet.
'Long Red Slim Cayenne' sowed 8 seeds, 6 have grown to about 6 inches, looking really good.
'Chocolate Habanero' sowed 8 seeds, 2 developed to shoots, 1 quite fragile.

(Is it just me or does the word sowed look wrong? :rolleyes:)

captainshamroc

Mixed success at this point.
5/10 or so overwintered survived with 1 Cayenne really sprouting great at the moment. pulled off all the flowers as they pop to encourage leave growth and it seems to be working. They are spending their first night outside tonight.
Of the two batches of seeds planted probably 50% have made it this far. Up to 10 leaves on the best of the first batch and the second range from an inch to two tall, mostly with two leaves.
So about 35 plants, some looking great and some I'm hopeful more than anything.
Some of the hotter ones didn't sprout - Trinidad scorpion, chocolate habanero.
Overall happy and expect a big crop this summer but probably late in the season.

Shemale

Fair play to you, I think the plants I tried overwinter weren't big enough to begin with, they did even have flowers as I sowed(looks ok to me!!) them so late

captainshamroc wrote: »

pulled off all the flowers as they pop to encourage leave growth and it seems to be working. They are spending their first night outside tonight.

I am not sure if they are the same as tomatoes but if they are you should only have them outside a short while for the first time and gradually increase the time to harden them up.

Does pulling the flowers off work, I am guessing the chillis come in where the flowers were.

captainshamroc

They were out for a few afternoons recently so it shouldn't be a full shock. Its fairly warm even at night. Above 10 degrees and they should be fine. I'll bring them in if I need to and the younger ones are in a small plastic greenhouse.

The flowers are where the chillies grow from but at this stage I want growth and lots of leaves to increase the spots that will produce chillies later. If you let it flower it will put all its energy into flowers. By pinching them off they put the energy into leaves and growth. Come late June or July I'll let the flowers stay, pollinate them and let the chillies grow.
Or so the plan goes

. They can be fairly temperamental.

Tefral

Some of my Carolina Reapers have produced flowers. I planted them around November in pots inside. They are about a foot high now with nodes coming down all over the place, those havent produced flowers yet though

Shemale

November, God, I only planted my seeds about 6 weeks ago and they are only about 3 inches now. I better get some chillis this year!!

gucci

Mine are about the same. I actually have plenty of shoots at about 3 / 5 inches high now. I am going to try and keep some inside, some inside a green house and some under a cloche in a warm spot in the garden, see how it goes.
When the flowers come up I will have to get the cloche on and off as I suppose I will need to get the flowers to pollinate some how!

Technophobe

Shemale wrote: »

November, God, I only planted my seeds about 6 weeks ago and they are only about 3 inches now. I better get some chillis this year!!

To give yourself the best chance with chillis and peppers, you should ideally start as soon as possible. I always start in Jan or Feb...

That's not to say you wont get a crop, but just lessens your chances and time...

Shemale

Technophobe wrote: »

To give yourself the best chance with chillis and peppers, you should ideally start as soon as possible. I always start in Jan or Feb...

That's not to say you wont get a crop, but just lessens your chances and time...

Cheers, was slow enough this year alright, hopefully I at least get something that might overwinter for next year.:eek:

syklops

This turned into more like a blog post than a comment.. Sorry for the wall of text. At least its punctuated.

My parents are avid gardeners and manys a Sunday afternoon was spent at a boring Garden Centre, so I think their passion made me rebel to the point that I had zero interest in growing things. Im a technical guy, all my interests and hobbies are technical in nature but recently I wanted a hobby which was non-technical. I spend 8 hours a day looking at a screen, and if you include my commute, another 2 hours on the bus, looking at a screen. I also suffer from stress sometimes so, it was suggested to me a non-technical hobby might help. So far I have tried:

Martial Arts
Fishing
designing quadcopters
Rock climbing
Squash
Falconry

All topics which there seems to be endless hours doing web-based research before you start doing any. Or when you start doing them, it turns out you are crap at it(Martial Arts, Rock climbing, Squash).

I then got the notion to grow some bonsai trees. I'd always been fascinated with Bonsai trees and I don't need to do too much research. All I needed was some peat compost, some seeds and some pots. I also had a desire to grow a bonsai chilli tree, which produced fruit because I use chillis in everything and I love the idea of going to get them not from Tesco but from my chilli tree.

So with almost zero knowledge I started germinating seeds. I started with a mixture of orange, lemon and chilli seeds and the chillis are the only ones which sprouted thus far. I germinated them in moist kitchen paper in ziplock bags in the airing cupboard. Some took a week, some sprouted in 3-4 days.

I now have approximately 20 plants. Some still in the egg box, some in pots. They are just shoots with 3 to 4 leaves each, so a long way to go, but its surprising how quickly they grow. I am now obsessed with my collection of plants and love getting home from work so I can look at how they are doing.

Stuff I've learnt along the way:

- Cinnamon is a natural anti-fungal agent. A few of my plants were getting this whiteish mould on the soil, possibly due to me over watering them. Sprinkling cinnamon over the top of the soil kills the mould and adds a pretty contrast for the plant.

- Germination is recommended but not required, not with chilis anyway. I planted 18 seeds in another eggbox nursery, put it in the airing cupboard and 5 days later I had about 11 plants, so high they were hitting the top of the eggbox. Chillis, at least, seem to be very easy to grow. I've had zero luck with lemon, orange and Kumquat germinating, but the chillis are flying - almost to the point that Im running out of space. I have a crop of Jalapenos germinating at the minute. I'll report back with the results.

- Garden centres are expensive! This is why we had no money when I was growing up. It wasnt my dad spending it on coke and hookers it was him going mad in Atlantic Care and Woodies. I went into Woodies on Sunday, and all I bought was a watering bottle, some general purpose fertiliser, and 20 pots and drip trays. 45 euros. Now this is the only money Ive spent on my new hobby, as I was given peat compost, but it was still a surprise.

Stuff Im thinking about.

Going on holiday for a week the end of June. As I said Im a technical guy, and Im thinking of building an automated watering system using a raspberry Pi and an arduino. Then my ideas went into overdrive and I considered buying moisture sensors for each plant so they only get watered when they "need it", and a webcam, so I can log in remotely and look at them, as well as read out the moisture to a webpage. Then I thought if I do that I should be able to water them manually if I feel fit, and now we are talking a lot of testing and quite a few lines of code to write and I am getting away from the relaxing impact my chili farm was having on me.
tl;dr version of the above paragraph, what do other people do when they go on holiday?

Next thing I plant to grow are christmas trees but miniatures. A bonsai Christmas tree would be a nice decoration for a desk or a coffee table and any bonsai tree is a nice gift.

I'll check this thread regularly now.