Have my Cayenne chillis stopped growing ?

[VJay]

Cayenne chillis supposed to be like this:





but mine are like this and its November:



Planted in April, only watered when dry, feed twice after flowering in late July and moved indoors when the temperature started to drop below 10, last month.

....some of the longer ones are soft, the rest of them are tight

[Seamus]

hey vjay, mine did the same as yours, but they r very hot, so much so that i cant use more than 2 in any dish, hotter than any cayennes i have ever bought, how r yours in the heat dept?

[Alice]

Your chilllies look great Vjay. Be happy.

[HotStuff]

So presumably you're worried that they're not as long as they should be? Like Seamus asked, how do they taste? When you say planted in April, did you grow it from seed? Where did the seed come from? If the fruits taste good you could try overwintering the plant and see what happens next year.

[esrikandan]

I'm not convinced they're Cayenne - mine are long from the start and go red as they ripen up. The leaves also look quite big for Cayenne. But the plant looks happy, and as stated before, if they taste good then I suppose it doesn't matter.

[harrybrew69]

i agree with esrikandan my cayenne are still growing in the greenhouse and they are quite tall plants with long fruits like those in your first photo i think they could be a different variety

[sarraceniac]

I'm not convinced they're Cayenne - mine are long from the start and go red as they ripen up. The leaves also look quite big for Cayenne. But the plant looks happy, and as stated before, if they taste good then I suppose it doesn't matter.

Agree. In fact I am pretty convinced they are not pure cayenne. If the seed, or plant, came from a reputabtle source then the plant was in all probability sold in good faith. The trouble with chillies is that they are promiscuous. If a little insect or whatever comes along carrying the pollen of another variety of chillie the plant doesn't say 'Is this Cayenne (or whatever) pollen because I don't want mongrel off-spring' it just accepts a spot of illicit pollination and the (grand)kids may look (and taste) nothing like mummy plant. This of course is why there are 100s of cillie varieties. They are dead easy to hybridise.

So you may never be certain exactly what variety you have got there. But I agree with everyone else. If they are tasty and have the right SHU for you then just enjoy them. If you really hate them then sell the plant for Children in Need or similar and try again with fresh seed.

[VJay]

The plants not from seed, bought the plant in Lidl's and it was sold as cayenne. They're very hot chillis, so hot you can't really taste them, nice though.

Some of the bigger ones (which are only 1/4 the size of a cayenne) are starting to go soft and wrinkly, would that mean that's as big as they'll grow.

Would I be better picking them asap incase the rest of them go the same way?

[Mrs Jackson]

I wouldn't be surprised if some small children had been swapping labels around in Lidl's!

Mrs J

[sarraceniac]

Some of the bigger ones (which are only 1/4 the size of a cayenne) are starting to go soft and wrinkly, would that mean that's as big as they'll grow.

Would I be better picking them asap incase the rest of them go the same way?

Yes and yes.

[Llamas]

Also some chilli species do better in their second year (habaneros etc). Our cayenne is in it's 4th year and it churns out more than we can use, very nearly year round. You can expect production to go down eventually, and it seems to vary from person to person, but I'd definatly suggest trying to overwinter it!

[cupcake]

I bought 2 "cheyenne " chilli plants from our local nursery, one turned out to be an orange pepper and the other a red pepper!

[sarraceniac]

I bought 2 "cheyenne " chilli plants from our local nursery, one turned out to be an orange pepper and the other a red pepper!

Never. Not from Reighton, your favourite, my favourite, everybody in this area's favourite? You mean even they are human?