Topic: Chilli Grow 2021

[Garp]

Anyone growing this year?

[livo]

Of course I'm only just coming up to winter so I'm on a different schedule.  I'm hoping for a mild one so I can keep most of my plants going for a head start in spring. I have about 300. I'll post some pics of my weekly harvest from the other day.

I've given most of this year's harvest away to my local Indian grocer and my neighbour, a Thai lady who owns a restaurant. The favourite for both is the Thai birdseye. Heat and flavour.  I used some dried flakes in my Pad Thai last week and they pack some punch.

I'm having good pod yield from the Rajah and right now one particular brand of Kashmiri. The Thai produced well but have tapered off with the shorter days and cooling.

I've  been very surprised at the significant variance between plants and pods that come from same seed and I haven't even experienced cross pollination yet.  Next seasons new plants from harvested seed could be completely unpredictable.

Some varieties have been a bit disappointing and have really struggled but we did have a very unusually wet, humid and cloudy summer.  I also had many setbacks with pests which are going to be difficult to overcome.

[Garp]

Wow - 300 plants 

[mickyp]

Unusually wet, humid and cloudy Summer and a load of humping mice, hope they dont like chillies

[mickyp]

Rightly or wrongly ive ordered ten Tej Patta seeds, gonna give it a go, love a challenge. fingies crossed.

[Garp]

Good luck mate.

[livo]

Garp, I got a bit over-enthused and planted more and more seeds from different sources and had more successful germination than I expected. Potting up into larger pots as required and watering has become a fair amount of work.  I took a similar amount of ripened chilli off the plants again yesterday so I'm going to get my dehydrator out today and dry both lots to grind to powder.

Mickyp, fortunately, I'm not experiencing the mouse plague but we do have the bigger ones in lesser numbers and they do like chillis, or some varieties anyway.  They also occasionally eat seeds I've left out for drying in my shed.

I heard a long range weather forecast on the radio yesterday and they are predicting a mild and dry winter so with any luck my plants will survive into the spring.  If they do I should have more chilli than I'll know what to do with.  There are a few varieties that are growing well in my location and others not so well.  I'll put my efforts into the better cropping ones next season.

[Garp]

I feel inadequate, only having about 10 plants 

I made a schoolboy error this year and didn't harden them off enough before putting in the greenhouse, and a couple have suffered, but hopefully will survive.

I left this one on the windowsill and let it flower and fruit, rather than topping it as with most of the others. So these are my first chillies of the year

[mickyp]

Cheers Garpy, Due to arrive late July and can take 10 days to six months to germinate, if successful i will send you one to nurture.

[Onions]

I feel inadequate, only having about 10 plants 

I made a schoolboy error this year and didn't harden them off enough before putting in the greenhouse, and a couple have suffered, but hopefully will survive.

I left this one on the windowsill and let it flower and fruit, rather than topping it as with most of the others. So these are my first chillies of the year

Doner kebab style