Chillis, am I too late?

[cupcake]

I was given some Hungarian Hot Wax seeds by a chillihead (now I know why!) and have 6 plants growing! The rest I'm growing are all pretty hot. Mind you the hotter the weather is when they're growing, the hotter the chilli, and last year was rubbish! I got 2 Cheyenne plants from our local nursery for 50p each. They were great. Just finishing the last few now,and managed to over winrter one of them.

[Keith2202]

Is there any way to tell sweet peppers from chilli peppers until they are fruiting?

I sowed a variety of seeds and didn't bother to label them as they were mostly chilli and are all quite different so it would be obvious when they fruited. (I also did know roughly what was what but kept moving them around)
However, there were a couple of sweet peppers mixed in there and I'd quite like to grow them in the mini greenhouse so will need to repot them, but I have no idea if I will be able to identify them at an early stage??

Cheers
Keith

[Mchanen]

I grew some cayenne and jalepeno chilli plants from seeds around this time last year in the house and they were flowering by late june so i don't think it's too late :-)

[drumgerry]

Another good variety for quick-ish fruiting is Fresno. Sowed some back in January and getting some fruit now (having used a growlight through the winter). It's a bit of a lottery just now which fruit have heat and which don't but those that do are about the same level as a Jalapeno. I'm finding leaving them on the plant for longer helps build their heat levels.

Cheers

Gerry

PS - if anyone wants a few fresno seeds I can send them on receipt of a pm with address. First come first served!

[COMPOST CORNER]

A question for chilli growers, I know warmth helps germination so was thinking of the airing cupboard (I know it's late, but I'll give it a go, everything is late this year) but I seem to remember reading that Chilli seeds need light for germination. Is this correct? If so, should I just place them on the surface of the compost rather than covering the seed with vermiculite?

[crichmond]

Prairie fire must also be quick fruiting as mine are still in the propagator about 2 inch tall and 1.5 inch across lots of leaves and one of them has 2 flowers just starting to open already.

[smallblueplanet]

...should I just place them on the surface of the compost rather than covering the seed with vermiculite?

We always cover ours vermiculite. I've just last night sown some mustard habs, but as its late I first of all germinated them on damp kitchen paper in the heated prop. Then I put them onto compost in small modules (in the prop) and just covered them with vermiculite to keep them from drying out.

[sallym]

Thanks for the advice Guys, I have planted a couple of seeds, and was planning to pop into Homebase on the way home today, so will see what they have.

[Mchanen]

Hi Compost Corner, When i grew my chilli plants last year around this time i started off by putting the seeds in moist compost into a propagator tray with the lid on and placing it in my coat cuboard in the hall way, all the seeds germinated. The plants started to flower at the end of june.

So i think it will be fine to stick them in your airing cuboard now.

[Keith2202]

Grrr, a colleague knocked my 'Iranian Round' Big Cherry Chilli plant off the window sill this morning trying to open the window.
I think she has killed it.
It was growing nicely too, grrrrr!

[Mchanen]

OH no that's awful Keith- did you only have the one?

My other half is always knocking my chilli plants when he opens the curtains to go outside at night- i'm always telling him off
(He sometimes knocks them over when he's drunk too and thinks i won't notice

[Keith2202]

Yes, I have some more seedlings at home, I'll have to check if I have the same variety.
That was the most advanced of my chillis. Oh well, these things happen, I blame the stupid window for having annoying handles on. I'm just glad she didn't do my Chocolate Sweet peppers that were next to it as they are going pretty well and are much further advanced than any seedlings I may have at home!!

My girlfriend, my housemate and I are all really clumsy so I wouldn't be surprised if we did more damage at home, your OH isn't the only one
We knock things over when drunk too

[teakdesk]

Grrr, a colleague knocked my 'Iranian Round' Big Cherry Chilli plant off the window sill this morning trying to open the window.
I think she has killed it.

If the compost was moist and a normal multi-purpose then the roots are unlikely to have sustained major damage.

If the stem is not broken or badly bruised the it should not have sustained major damage.

Re-pot it and you may well find that the shock it has received gets it all worried about survival and it fruits better than normal !!!!

[Mchanen]

Ahh such a shame but like you said these things do happen (unfortunatly)

Sounds like you have few varietys of chilli plants- what else you growing?
(I've not heard of those two varietys you've mentioned so far- they sound far more exciting then my cayenne and jalepeno plants )

[Keith2202]

I think the stem may have been damaged but I have earthed it up as much as possible, most of the leaves have wilted but there are 2 low ones that seem alright, fingers crossed that it survives!

I'm growing (well attempting to grow!):
Chocolate sweet pepper
Chilis:
Lemon Drop
Pretty in Purple
Iranian Round
Rocoto
all from
Chilli Pepper Seed

plus Jalapenos and Californian Wonder sweet pepper from random packets from the garden centre

I managed to get quite a few Jalapeno's last year, planted a lot later than this with very little idea what I was doing, so I thought I'd try some other interesting ones this year too!