Chillies, Peppers, Tomatoes & Melon crazy 2019

[Bacchus]

This is a great thread, and as others have noted, you're lucky to have that warmer climate than most here. I pretty much gave up growing super hots as they took too much mollycoddling to get anything. Also it must be great to grow peppers / chillies / tomatoes outdoors. Very few varieties of tomatoes do well outdoors here and as for chillies or peppers ....

I too switched to more peppers than chillies this year with about 25 plants each of various varieties but mostly with an eye to long term storage and usefulness in the kitchen.

Salted chilli chips has really become a thing here and all the ingredients can be grown (except the salt) so that's potatoes, chilli, peppers, onions and garlic. I find that standard cayenne's work well but it's fun to experiment with others.

Best of luck with your varieties.

[Small pumpkin]

Salted chilli chips has really become a thing here and all the ingredients can be grown (except the salt) so that's potatoes, chilli, peppers, onions and garlic. I find that standard cayenne's work well but it's fun to experiment with others.

Bacchus can you stick the recipe for those bad boys in the season to taste section please.
They sound bl@@dy lovely

[Mitzi]

This is a great thread, and as others have noted, you're lucky to have that warmer climate than most here. I pretty much gave up growing super hots as they took too much mollycoddling to get anything. Also it must be great to grow peppers / chillies / tomatoes outdoors. Very few varieties of tomatoes do well outdoors here and as for chillies or peppers ....

I too switched to more peppers than chillies this year with about 25 plants each of various varieties but mostly with an eye to long term storage and usefulness in the kitchen.

Salted chilli chips has really become a thing here and all the ingredients can be grown (except the salt) so that's potatoes, chilli, peppers, onions and garlic. I find that standard cayenne's work well but it's fun to experiment with others.

Best of luck with your varieties.

I agree with SP - we need the recipe! I make chilli peanuts but would like to try some crisps too.

If you want to try again with a superhot, I grew Nagabrain Chocolate last year and I got quite a few pods off two plants. Overwintered one on my bedroom windowsill - and it's only in a pop bottle so approx 1 litre pot - and it has about a dozen good-sized pods on it already this year (not ripe yet but there's plenty of time for that.) It crops a lot faster than most superhots. It also has a really good flavour imho (I know flavour is subjective) which you taste just before the heat hits. It's the only one I've tried so far where I've got a flavour other than just heat. If you're interested, I can send you a few seeds after my pods ripen - obviously too late for this year but you could grow it next year.

[The Pepper Man]

I am getting seriously annoyed with my neighbours cats, who keep digging up my peppers and sunflowers in the garden. I have had 4 pepper plants buried, each with their main stem irreversibly damaged, and another pepper plant dug up completely. Each of those 5 plants were 12-18 inches in height and setting pods aplenty.

Likewise, I have also had 2 sunflower plants dug up completely and another 2 sunflowers buried by the damn cats. It is frustrating beyond belief. I replaced all my initial 'cat' losses with more spares I had sitting around, but the cats have got some of them as well. I know it is cats doing it, because I caught one in the act at dawn the other morning, defecating into a hole it had dug right next to one of my sunflowers, half burying it.

Anyone else had issues with neighbours cats, and know how to control them? I have already put down a cat deterrent, but they have struck again since then. I am tempted to knock on the neighbours door and kick up a fuss, because it hasn't just happened the once (on one night), it has happened 5-6 different times now. I am at wits end with them.

[veggiechicken]

There are several threads about cats - here's the latest https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ray_99349.html

[Scarlet]

Maybe put up some poles and net the lot until they've put on some growth -stick some twiggy sticks all around

[Mitzi]

Berberis cuttings around the plants? Something sharp and scratchy to keep them off.

[The Pepper Man]

Just gone outside to check on my stuff and the cats have got yet another sunflower, which was dug up completely and snapped in half at the stem.

I have just spent the past 15 mins erecting a makeshift fence out of wire mesh, at midnight, and will post pictures tomorrow. Hopefully that will keep them off for now! I can't tell you how annoyed I am with this...

[fluffybunnyuk]

fight fire with napalm. get a big fat tom cat. litter tray train it. no other cats will come into its territory.
Stick catnip in at the other end of the garden.

[Mitzi]

Scatter chilli powder around the plants?

[fluffybunnyuk]

plant gooseberry bushes around the patch. porcupine tomato is good. lavender. Failing that just stick netting 2 inches off the ground over the area. Cats will find it tricky and avoid it. motion activated cat repellent or motion activated water sprinkler. Would you go somewhere its raining water?

A good one is to grow a spikey plant somewhere else if you have room and scatter the cuttings on the ground. Free cocktail sticks!!! You definitely dont want to walk over a bed covered in buckthorn cuttings....

On an aside my naga chilli flowered this morning.

[The Pepper Man]

This year, I am noticing rogue sunflowers all over the garden - in side borders, flower beds and even growing out of the gravel on pathways!

[The Pepper Man]

I have also come across a rogue, self-seeded, tomato plant that I noticed growing today, out of one of my potted Trachycarpus palms.

I will have to dig it out as I certainly cannot leave it there, but I may do so carefully and pot this mystery tomato up, to see what it turns into...




A quick update on the chillies now...

[The Pepper Man]

First up, the Hot Burrito, which is one of my most advanced chillies this season. The large chillies on this plant are just starting to turn red now.




And here we have a 'super hot' Moruga Scorpion...

[The Pepper Man]

This is a Sweet Banana that is still playing catch up. Looking forward to watching it grow though over the next few months...




Here is an interesting comparison between two different types of Jalapeno. At the top, in the bigger pot, we have the 'early' variety. The larger specimen, in a smaller pot, is a regular Jalapeno. This normal one is clearly bigger than the 'early' type.

Both of them were germinated at the same time, yet one is clearly quicker growing and more vigorous than the other. It will be interesting to see which one is harvested first...