Topic: Some Chillii growing help if you would

[DeadBeat]

HI

I bought a couple of plants from our local garden centre. An Apache and a Scotch Bonnet.

Had them about 2 weeks now. The Apache has started to flower a lot, and I've been pollinating them with a paint brush, but so far I've had about 4 flower drops and no chillis start.

The Scotch Bonnet is growing, but no flowers.

I've been watering them every couple of days and once per week adding diluted tomato food.

Are things going ok? I'll add some pics

[DeadBeat]

the scotch bonnet

and the Apache

[Invisible Mike]

Hi

Really you shouldn't give them a liquid feed until a few chillies have started forming, same with tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers etc. Otherwise the nutrients will go towards foliar growth rather than producing fruit. Your growing success will depend largely on how you're keeping them. Ideally you want them in a greenhouse and water them at the same time every day. If you are growing them in the house put them outside in a sunny spot during the day and bring them in at night. Remember to pot them on using fresh compost as they get bigger and other than that just be patient, its still early in the season and there's plenty of time to get a decent crop.

Hope this helps

MM

[DeadBeat]

Thank you for your reply. They are in the house all the time in a sunny window. We have no garden as the back of the house overlooks a river..just a small balcony at 1st floor level.
I'll be happier I guess once the blossoms stop dropping and I see a fruit form!

[Invisible Mike]

Hopefully the blossoms dropping is a sign that the chillies are on their way. Fingers crossed! :-)

MM

[DeadBeat]

Silly question...

The blossoms that have dropped have dropped stalk and head from the main stem. You can see them in the pic on the tray.
Is this normal or should the chillis take over on the stem where the flower is, replacing it so to speak?

[mr.mojorisin]

all in good time my friend.

you cannot speed up nature.

from my limited experience.......

forget the paintbrush for pollination.

take your finger, run it around the inside of the first flower and then go from flower to flower, pollinating as you go....

you will notice that the flowers may wilt and turn a brown colour.

this is a good sign. the chilli fruit will appear from there soon.

BTW your plants look totally fine IMO

let us know how they turn out.

cheers

[fried]

My chillies dropped a lot of flowers last year, but a much better success rate this year. I reckon chillis need to adapt to getting less sun than they would normally do.

Try to find a way of getting thrm outside so they can be pollinated by insects. I find this much more successful than polinating by hand. Even an open window would help.

I'm growing some scotch bonnet from seed this year and they look exactly like yours. I was aiming for fruiting next year.

However I only grow for fun, if I really want lots of chillis I can go to the asian shop.

[Invisible Mike]

Right I see...if the whole flower is dropping off - stem n all then that's a different matter as that's the bit the chilli grows from, I admit I didn't look that closely I thought you meant just the petals dropping off. I think to lose the odd one or two is normal. I wouldn't worry.

[DeadBeat]

An update.
The first 2-3 flowers all fell off including stalk which had me concerned, but know many of the flowers do indeed appear to have shed leaves and are growing into small chillis.!

Can't wait!