How do I increase my chilli harvest?

[amandaandherveg]

This was my first year growing chillies and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. They were all started off in February indoors in paper pots then potted on and moved to the greenhouse when it was warm enough.

Comparing mine to other members chillis pics mine are on the on the small side and with less fruit. Can you give me some top tips for next year?

[FionaH]

#I fed mine with tomato food and ignored them otherwise, does that help?

[amandaandherveg]

They got their tom food each week, plants were happy and healthy just not as big as the one's I've seen on the Vine. Temperature maybe, given my location?

I spent many hours just staring at them - I wonder if this put them off?

[SarzWix]

Pick more? Often if you pick the first 2 or 3, the plant then puts more effort into flowering. Also, pot size makes a difference to the size of the plant, and at what stage you pot them up.

[amandaandherveg]

Hmmm, I suspect my pots may have been on the smallish side and I didn't pick often enough.

[BarleySugar]

I had quite a few chillies, and until the greenfly beat me (how they got in goodness knows!), I had them on the (sunny) kitchen windowsill. I started them in January in a heated propagator, and potted them on regularly until I couldn't get any bigger pots on the windowsill. They were fed regularly with tomato feed, and they were pretty healthy. About mid-July I had a lull in flowering, so I cut them back a bit, some were up to the top of the windows.
They regrew and did a lot more flowers. These are just ripeining now, in the greenhouse though, because I got fed up with washing my kitchen windows every weekend, and having greenfly dropping off the plants. I tried washing up liquid, squishing them, washing them off, then the organic pesticide but the kitchen was just too cosy, with no predators. The hover flies outside decimated them, but I know if I bring them in I'll have another population explosion
I'll be starting again with new plants next year.

[rustylady]

This was my first year growing chillies and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. They were all started off in February indoors in paper pots then potted on and moved to the greenhouse when it was warm enough.

Comparing mine to other members chillis pics mine are on the on the small side and with less fruit. Can you give me some top tips for next year?

What size pots did they end up in?

[Two_Sheds]

They were fed regularly with tomato feed,...some were up to the top of the windows.

It sounds like you had a lot of greenery at the expense of fruit? Not feeding until the fruits start to form might help that.
RustyLady had magnificent crops: her plants were taller than mine, with more fruit, and ripened earlier (in a greenhouse).
Mine are outside on the plot, and are just now ripening fast: they'd better crack on though, it's getting really cold at night

[Mrs Jackson]

I've grown loads this year and the ones that did the best were in flower buckets using a mix of 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite and 3 parts compost, they seem to like fairly good drainage. They were fed with 1/2 strength seaweed feed once a fortnight while they were growing then half strength tomato food once a fortnight when they were flowering/fruiting. The chinenses (habaneros, scotch bonnets, etc) do much better indoors or in a greenhouse. The chinenses we had outdoors vary from still only having 8 leaves to being about a foot tall with one pod. The indoor chinenses are about 4 foot tall and covered with chillies. The other chilli species seem to cope with outdoor conditions much better so we don't bother having any of those outside. Mind you, the weather and cimate are probably a bit easier for them down here!

Mrs J

[HotStuff]

The 4 Chilli plants I managed to overwinter gave a bigger crop this year than they did last.

[danmon_81]

yep...2nd year you should get more!

[cupcake]

The prairie fire are covered in pods! The over wintered cheyenne has doubled it's harvest. My rocottos are still green and have a reputation for being miserly with the pods in their first year. The scotch bonnets and fatallis have only a few, BUT I sowed in March! I shall try and set my seeds off in January next year in a heated propogator. Why don't you google chilli forums? There's a wealth of info out there!

[amandaandherveg]

Thanks for all your help, I now know much more for next year.

Plants aren't overly leafy as I only fed them after the fruit started to form. I have taken in as many from the GH as I can fit onto the windowsills including 3 x Prairie Fire, 1 x Lemon Drop, 3 x Purple Tiger, 1 x Maui Purple, 1 x Cayenne, 2 x Hot Wax and a few more peppers.

Reading a few of the posts leads me to believe that I may have restricted their growth by using small pots (most of them only 6 inches high or so) but they didn't ever appear to get potbound?

[Caro]

I find this site very useful for all things chilli related ....

growing chilli peppers thechileman.org

This was my first year too and chillis have been my favourite thing; already have seeds of several new varieties to try next year!

Caro

[danmon_81]

^^^^ great site with links to a forum - chillis galore i think! Check out the forum there's a guy from australia documenting his growing...think he's groeing every variety in the world!
Just ordered some more seeds for next year...now where do i put my brassicas???