Twang's Chillis 2009

[mnmc2004]

Look great Twang...I would be intrested in knowing where you take cuttings from and your prop techniques!

I fancy taking a few from mine now I have more space and I plan on buy more aswell !

[Twang20]

Hi, thanks for all the responses. As I mentionned i've found it very easy to take cuttings from my plants. Here is how I do it...

You will need; A sterile knife or sharp scissors, Rooting gel or powder (I use clonex), and the rooting medium (soil jiffy pellets etc).

Basically you just choose a nice healthy established plant. Cleanly remove the tip of a stem (around 4-6"). You must make sure the stem isn't coming into flower or you'll get the world's smallest chilli bonsai. Remove the largest leaves until 3 or 4 remain, then cut the largest remainning leaf in half. With a sharp knife or scalpel make a diagonal cut to the base of the cutting so it is about 3 inches in total, then quickly dip into the rooting gel or powder to seal the end. Then place the cutting into the growing medium, it is a good idea to prepare a hole for it in advance so you don't wipe off the gel. You can use normal seed/cuttings compost, but I have more success with jiffy pellets or root riot cubes. The medium should be very moist and once the cutting is in, place it in a humid well ventilated propagator. It should take around 3 weeks to grow some roots, Simple.

[mnmc2004]

Thats sounds pretty standard way...so I think i'll give it ago!

I've used clonex many times, but i found that rootmax gel roots alot quicker than clonex, in jiffys..

Thanks for the run down twanga

[Twang20]

Thanks for the tip mnmc2004

[womble]

Twang, you've got 400 chilli plants? Can I ask what are your plans for that many chillies? Because that's alot of hot chillies!!

[Twang20]

I have sold around 150 plants, I only intended to keep one of each type but it hasn't worked out like that. Now I have more of some and none of others.
At the minute I have a lot of plants that were intended to go on ebay but which outgrew the postage containers I have, so they had to be repotted.
The plants that im keeping are divided between my loft/growroom, the 8' x 12' greenhouse and my little polytunnel, aswell as some smaller ones on windowsills. It's a lot of work to look after them when they are in 3 different places.

[BumbleB]

Hi Twang20

What is your advice to speed up the growing of my tiny chilli plants. They are in unheated GH at the moment and only 2'' high. Would they be better inside on a windowsil?

[Twang20]

They will be better wherever the temperatures fluctuate less, so I guess that would be the windowsill as long as they get plenty of light. Ideally the night time temperature should be no more than 12c below the daytime, and no less than 8c.
When were they sown?

[BumbleB]

They were sown end of March. Our weather has been very good and mild here, everything else has grown well in the GH. I do have a warm sunny windowsil. I think I will move half inside to see what difference. I would love to see a step by step how to guide for chillis, with expert tips etc. Next year, I will start them earlier.

[Twang20]

Hi, There is a great guide for growing chillis on fatalii.net, (I tried to do the link thingy but cant work it out).
I had every intention of writing you a full step by step but I remembered how great this guys (Jukka's) guide is. Mine probably wouldn't be as good as this guy really knows his stuff.

[HotStuff]

Twang, do you mean this one?

[Twang20]

Thats the one, thans hotstuff. I buy a lot of seeds from this site aswell, cant recommend it highly enough, he is the absolute best chilli seed supplier on the net.

[annacruachan]

Thanks for this website info, Twang. My seedlings are about 2 cm high, in a pot covered with a plastic bag on a sunny windowsill - a bit amateur compared with Fatalii's methods - but now I know what to do, even if it is a bit late in the season.
Do all chillies overwinter? I have a plant given me by a friend last year which has done so and is fruiting again, but another one wilted after giving me a good harvest of upright red, green, yellow and purple fruits. My survivor has only green going to red downward hanging fruits. I'd be grateful for any advice.

[HotStuff]

Thats the one, thans hotstuff.

Thank you for mentioning it in the first place

Interesting site, I guess the guy is Finnish, which would explain his interest in growlights, hydroponics, aeroponics etc. Must be quite a challenge growing Chillies that far North.

[Twang20]

Thanks for this website info, Twang. My seedlings are about 2 cm high, in a pot covered with a plastic bag on a sunny windowsill - a bit amateur compared with Fatalii's methods - but now I know what to do, even if it is a bit late in the season.
Do all chillies overwinter? I have a plant given me by a friend last year which has done so and is fruiting again, but another one wilted after giving me a good harvest of upright red, green, yellow and purple fruits. My survivor has only green going to red downward hanging fruits. I'd be grateful for any advice.

Hi Anna, It sounds like your seedlings should be happy enough, only I would remove the plastic bag now that they've germinated as the seedlings are highly prone to fungal diseases unless well ventilated.
It is possible to over-winter all chillies but some have far less cold tolerance than others, unless the plants are quite small and can be over-wintered without cutting back the best method is as follows;
Hard prune the plant by removing up to 60% of the height.
Remove soil from the root ball and prune the same proportion of the roots.
Repot into a smaller pot of fresh compost and water well.
Keep above 5C (warmer the better) throughout winter in a more shaded position.
Cut down on watering until around until early in the year, then begin to increase both watering and amount of light to promote new growth.
Repot during early spring.

Im over wintering mine this year under the lights with a heater on at night.