Chilli plants

[onefivenine]

Sorry guys that really was pants advice... from me.
Head slapping has commenced

I agree, you guys have got to be right. Not good for the stem on a juvenile plant like that.

Mine got potted on up to the seed leaves very early on. The roots have developed to about 10mm below the seed leaf joint on this one, pretty much on the surface of the compost.



The tall one measures 41" from windowsill to the highest flower bud.



I'm definitely doing something wrong I think. Another two flowers have fallen off, stalk and all. I've been hand-pollinating and I thought they doing fine, but that 3 flowers in 2 days that have just dropped like this.

It's in a huff about something

Its saucer is dry; gets water in the morning then a little in the evening; the soil is dark brown on top, only just moist so that it binds, but never soggy and it's mixed with perlite.

Maybe I need to lay off the feed for a bit?

[teakdesk]

159, growing is not an exact science (like raising kids!!!) - what fails for one person works for another.


Please don't take this as crowing, just passing on info that you might find useful...

Your pics look like the Inferno chillis I'm growing; mine have been in a larger (9 or 10 inch diameter) pot for many weeks now; they are in a greenhouse but well shaded against strong sun; they have a little bottom heat from my heated wires to try and stop the heat dropping below 17 degC at night; temp during day is 30 degC max; the compost has been kept very dry until they set fruit; they were not fed at all before fruit set; they are cropping nicely now; they are now fed with tomorite.

I've had flowers drop off in earlier years as well; I put it down to too hot in the day and too cold in the night. But as the plants matured they set fruit well and cropped well into the autumn so I think if you are patient all will be well!!

[onefivenine]

Thanks teakdesk.

I've never grown chillis from seed before so it's great to get info like that, and helps me try and figure out the problem. Appreciated mate, thanks. It's very interesting learning about this stuff too.

Mine are Fothergills Hot Cayenne. The pots are 7.5" diameter. I wasn't planning on potting them on again but I do have some 9" pots. Dunno if it's worth it though. If they get any bigger I'm going to build a tree house in one of them LOL.

I don't think temperature is a likely problem as we've had hardly any sun up here in the last week - mostly fog - and warm nights, so they never really get colder than 18 deg and don't get too fried. I might get a max/min thermomoter and check this out.

One thing though, I've just found a leaf beetle on it... Wonder what damage it has been doing too!

They've all got a few growing chillis - one 3" woo hoo! So I am hopeful for lots and lots of chillis.

Cheers! Dave

[Two_Sheds]

159 ... your plants look a bit drawn/leggy tbh.
I'd get them outside if I were you ... they just aren't getting enough light on that windowsill

[Comfreyfan]

My peppers all got a nasty attack of greenfly early on, the leaves were very distorted. I got rid of the greenfly but any new leaves were distorted, the plants looked really unhappy. I put off potting them on and didn't know whether to bother. I did eventually and in the last 2 weeks they've romped away, the leaves have been straightening out there are flowers and even the first chilli! They obviously needed more space and fresh compost. Doh!!

[Rabidbun]

I think most people plant chillies differently, much like tomatoes, hence all the conflicting advice! Main thing is to find things that work for you and stick with it as long as it keeps working, imo!

I'm a seedling burier too btw - many of mine start off leggy as I haven't got the best light levels in my house early in the year and they do fine, so don't worry bout having done that - they're like tomatoes and happily grow roots from the stem!

You could try a drench water of around an inch or so at the top of the pot and then leave them to nearly dry out before watering again (pot will be fairly light), seems to work for mine and is far less work! I get a little bit of flower drop early on also if the temperatures aren't quite hot enough or the light levels not right, but they've always (so far) caught up and given large crops to make up for that later on.

Fair warning if you do decide to pot them on - they tend to use the extra space (though you'll end up with more chillies)! I used 10-12 inch pots for many of mine last year and ended up with huge monsters of plants taking over my house and home! This year I stuck mainly to 8 inch to have smaller plants and give me room for something else, as I've still probably got a couple of hundred chillies in the freezer from last season.

Chillies are very fun to grow though! Tonnes of different varieties out there to keep you hooked for years, which reminds me *goes to look for more seeds for next year*!

[onefivenine]

159 ... your plants look a bit drawn/leggy tbh.
I'd get them outside if I were you ... they just aren't getting enough light on that windowsill

I think the lesson I learned there TS, is that all the seedlings which I grew on upstairs windowsills were too warm and all went a bit leggy. These plants spent two months up there, but are now downstairs where it's cooler. Same amount of light though. I'd rather not subject them to beasties outside if possible

[Two_Sheds]

I'd rather not subject them to beasties outside if possible

There's not much that will attack a healthy chilli plant. Put 'em out

[Incy]

There's not much that will attack a healthy chilli plant. Put 'em out

I would have agreed with you here two sheds until the other day when 100's of tiny caterpillars stormed one of my chillis. Kept thinking I'd got them all and lo and behold I find more happily munching away
The poor plant looks more like a paper doily at the moment! Mind you it will have to go back out to the GH soon as being indoors is affecting the pollination rate

[SarzWix]

Coming into this discussion a bit late, I know, but...

I always, always, always re-pot chillis and peppers deeper than they were in the pot before. I have never lost a plant to stem rot or any other troubles of that sort. In fact the only thing I've lost a plant to is frost at the end of the season... What usually happens is that I end up with plants with good, thick, strong stems Most of my plants are still in 5" pots, when they go up a final pot size I'll put them an inch or so deeper than they are now. Each to their own I guess, but burying the stems up to the seed leaves is unlikely to do any damage - this is the part of the stem which should be underground, the seed leaves should be more or less on the surface and I plant all plants with this part of the stem underground if they have gotten a bit 'stretched'.

[Stumpy the Red]

Hello all,

Also coming into the discussion late but I am a complete novice so please bear with me.

I was given some chilli plant seedlings 2 months ago and planted them in 10" diameter pots. I have a habanero chilli and a tabasco chilli plant. They are on my conservatory windowsill and are ginormous!! I have only used a bog standard tomato feed once a week and kept them watered. just a few questions to the chilli officianodoes on here please?

1) What's a seed leaf? (told you i was a novice)
2) When will I actually get some chillis?
3) Do you actually have to do anything with the plant flowers to promote yield ie. pollinate?
....and finally 4) I cut open a chilli I bought from the supermarket a while ago and for a laugh bunged the extracted seeds in a pot with some compost. These have since grown into seedlings and I have repotted them into a larger pot but stuck them outside in a sunny sheltered position. Will these actually grow?

thanks for your attention feel free to take the mick !!

ttfn,

stumpy

[Stumpy the Red]

Please don't answer Q4 as it is a daft question. I really must read threads more thouroughly! As mentioned above chilli plants can grow outside but more open to beastie attack

[onefivenine]

Stumpy, have you got any flowers yet???

I don't think you should feed them until they have flowers.

Seed leaves are the first leaves to emerge from a seed that germinates, like this one (which they pretty much all look like)


and they don't usually resemble the true leaves of the plant, which are the next ones that grow.


(This is a tomato plant in the photos by the way, just as an example)

The plant should be able to develop roots up to the seed leaves - or at least that's my understanding as a novice. You'll hear it mentioned often on here when people talk about potting on

When will you get chillis...? hopefully soon!

[Florence Fennel]

Right, so I'll sink some to the seed leaves and just pot on the rest and see what happens! Thanks everyone (I think.....)
Flo

[Stumpy the Red]

159,

Thats brilliant!! thanks for the info. As I didn't grow my main 2 plants from seed I just replanted the bigger plants into larger pots. As I now know, I should have planted them upto the seed leaves but as the plants are too well established now (about 2 foot tall) then I think it would be a mistake and potential damging to the plant to replant the whole thing upto the seed leaves. These plants also have loads of flowers and lots of tiny little bud things (as do my bell pepper plants) which I eagerly anticipate will grow into Chillis. Still I know for next time. (Will there be a next time if they are perrennials?!?)

However the small plants I grew from seed and just bunged in a pot outside I will replant and see what happens.

Thanks again!! I feel like I have 1 knowledge point now!!