My tiny chillies

[deathbysnails]

Hi all,
Long time away from the forum having realised that I ought to be working instead of vicariously enjoying everyone's gardening exploits. Anyway, I'm back with a question.

I have had a habanero plant living on my windowsill since last summer. Last year it provided me with an abundance of good sized chillies which were amazingly tasty and spicy. Perfect. It lived quite happily over the winter in the kitchen and started flowering again in March, but all the peppers have been tiny: about the size of large peas. They're still fairly firey but I'd really like them to be normal-sized once again. I've tried replacing the compost in the pot but this doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[deathbysnails]

Hm - no response to this. Is it because the solution is really obvious, really obscure or simply really dull?

Ah well - I shall carry on with tiny chillies; better than none at all I guess.

[Flummery]

No response from me - because I have no idea! I've never over-wintered a chilli but I know some people here have.

[northepaul]

This is probably obvious so please dont shoot me if you have already tried it, but what about feeding them some tomato food?

[falkon]

either feed it or try repotting it with fresh compost

[crazii_c]

i had this happen to my chilli last year, but it was outside. i put it down to not enough water or food for it to form the fruits properly. so ive learnt my lesson and my chillis are getting more tlc this year.

[deathbysnails]

Thanks all. I have tried repotting, and feeding. Maybe I need to give it a more serious feed. TLC must be the answer. Will try that later...

[chilliking]

repotting should help. when over wintering i always repot with some fresh compost to give them a boost. also there is probably not enough sunlight at the minute to create big fruit - especially if you are growing on a windowsill, not in a greenhouse.

[Timmykins]

I had this problem with some 2 year old chillies plants (birdseye) living in the kitchen. After the last crop in november, it instisted on chucking out even more flowers. 3-4 months later I only had tiny little pea size chillies. I put it down to the poor winter light and inconsistent temperature. It returned to "normal" production after a prune, feed and warm 12+ hour days.