Topic: 2011 Chillies

[chriswg]

So after 2 disappointing years of chilli growing I've bought the seeds for this years plants. Its a little bit late in the year o be planting them but I usually keep them in our conservatory so they should be fine.

In 2009 I grew Super Chillies which were very prolific and looked pretty cool but the chillies weren't hot at all. I would add about 20 to a chilli con carne and still have to add lots of hot chilli powder.

I also grew Dorset Naga's which took an absolute eternity to germinate but eventually I managed to get quite a few fruits. While they were clearly stinking hot, the pungent taste was pretty revolting. It completely overpowered everything else anywhere near it.

So last year I went for Jalapenos, pinnochios nose and pusa jwala. It turns out fresh jalapens on pizza aren't as nice as pickled ones from a jar. The Pinnchios nose were good fun to grow and they really were enormous! The pusa jwala I grew as a green finger chilli but they weren't right. They were too light in colour and didn't have a lot of heat in them.

So this year I have already planted some seeds that I dried from green chillies I bought at the Indian grocery store. 2 weeks later and no shoots so I'm thinking they probably aren't going to germinate.

I have also bought 3 types from chilliseeds.co.uk. They have a new type in called curry chilli which is apparently specifically designed for the green finger chilli curry market. We shall see! I also will be growing some birds eye chillies which I use all the time. Then purely to see the WI lady judges face at the annual show, I'll be growing yellow Peter Peppers. If you don't know what they look like do a quick Google images search!

[coogan]

Good luck with the chillies this year.

I've got about forty plants on the go consisting of a selection from:-

Fuego - New this year supposed to be 6 inch hot finger chillies - hopefully.

Scotch  Bonnet type - borrowed the ripe pods from the Eden project last year and dried them.

Finger Chillies - Proper tasty indian ones but not sure what they are called as I grew them from a mixed seed pack and dried them for the seeds - loads for this year.

Marconi Rosso & Hungarian Wax - Grew them last year big jalapeno like not really hot but are lovely pickled for pizza or kebab - still eating them now.

Planted mine at the end of january and they are all going well - four leaf stage. I had no trouble with germination I use an electric propagator. I can well recommend them invaluable if you grow a lot of stuff and want a early start especially for chillies, aubergines, toms etc. I use the Garland Super Seven second best bit of kit I've bought - only cost about ?20.00 from Amazon.

Bon growth and good luck at the show I got a first for my peppers last year at mine.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garland-Super-Windowsill-Seed-Propagator/dp/B000YA43HC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302000219&sr=8-1

[timeless]

Also got some on the go including Satan's Kiss, Cherry Bombs, Jalapeno's and Scotch Bonnets some are just starting to leave in total have around 50 but don't think all will come good.

[coogan]

Weather depending. They will!

[shanew]

This year i've got Dorset nagas, Grande Jalapeno, White habanero, Lemon drop, Pepperdew, Scotch bonnet, Red and Chocolate habanero, Birds eye, Volcano and Thai Hot - Cayenne varaiety. all are potted up into 4" pots now and will soon end up in my hydro system  ready for this years sauce making

[coogan]

Hello,

Fine selection of chillies. Do you grow them under lights or outside? Have you got any good sauce recipes and methods? Hopefully I'm going to have a glut this year to deal with.

bon chilli

[shanew]

I had one season growing under lights in an nft system but at around ?1 a day in electricity I only did it once, i now use autopots in my greenhouses for growing.

For chilli related info, growing and using get over to www.chillisgalore.co.uk it's a great site for info and recipes. That site, this and sausagemaking.org are my 3 regular haunts

[MrCurryLover]

I am trying a homemade hydroponic system this year to grow 24 chillies, I am also growing plenty of chillies in soil as well and the. The system cost me just over ?100 to make but I am sure it will repay itself as I don't have to buy soil and the water is recirculated. So far the signs are good, the hydroponic chillies have grown a lot bigger than the soil grown chillies.
I don't use any lights to grow the chillies, they are grown in a polytunnel. If anyone wants the details of how to set up your own hydroponic system let me know and I will post the details.
This years chillies: Bhut Naga, Purple Jalapeno, Bulgarian Carrot, Scotch Bonnet, 7 pod, Red savina, Fatali, Habanero Chocolate, Hungarian Yellow Wax, Serrano Tampiqueno, Fresno, Scorpion Trinidad, Red Savina, & Peter Pepper

[Peripatetic Phil]

I am trying a homemade hydroponic system this year to grow 24 chillies, I am also growing plenty of chillies in soil as well and the. The system cost me just over ?100 to make but I am sure it will repay itself as I don't have to buy soil and the water is recirculated.

Hells bells, man, you must eat a serious amount of chillies if you can recoup an investment of GBP 100 over a reasonable timespan; I think it would take me at least ten years to recoup that investment, at an absolute minimum !

** Phil.

[MrCurryLover]

Hells bells, man, you must eat a serious amount of chillies if you can recoup an investment of GBP 100 over a reasonable timespan; I think it would take me at least ten years to recoup that investment, at an absolute minimum !

I will probably sell some of the chillies at the local car boot. I grew about 250 plants last year and sold a few at the carboot, but the majority of them we either used them straight away or froze them and they have just about run out now ;D
To be honest it was more about making my own hydroponic unit and seeing the results than making money. I also have about 150 chillies growing in soil and the difference is amazing.
Here's a photo comparison at 8 weeks growth, both of the plants were planted at the same time and they are both scotch bonnets