Help Funky Goings On With Cayenne Plants

[phil_GT]

hi there all.

im a complete beginner when it comes to growing my own vegetables

last year i grew tomatoes (which varied in quality)

this year i decided to grow some gardeners delight ( after talking to other halfs grand dad)

i also fancied trying out growing some Cayenne Chilli's

all was well until earlier when i notices some Funky Goings On With them.

they have just started to flower, however now all the joints from the main stem seem to be going black, any idea what this is, is it terminal and will i get peppers Etc Etc.

(Cant you tell im a noob)

[Matt94]

any chance of a pic?

[phil_GT]

see images

sorry for quality there from the phone

[Matt94]

ok, thanks for the pics - now i see what you mean by the dark stems, however dont worry some varieties do have darker stems in places, so you have nothing to worry about, your chilli plants look in perfect condition to me

[phil_GT]

cool, thanks for the info, was just a little worried.

i started these plants months ago indoors on a heat pad out of abour 20 seeds only 7 plants actually grew properly without flopping etc

do you know how hot the cayenne pepper is, i like spicy food and i believe these would be a medium pepper from the packet?

also i believe these arnt hardy plants, so in winter would you leave them to die off or would you put them in the shed/spare room and keep moist over winter?

[Matt94]

well heres the scoville scale - it breaks down the heat of different chilli's, for example a cayenne is 10 times more hot than a jalapeno, but a scotch bonnet can be 10 times as hot as a cayenne! TBH i dont use them in our cooking, but i grow them just for fun!

Anyway yes chilli's are perennials - but they can easily be killed off by frost, so they need to be brought inside over the winter. Some people leave them as they are and bring them in, however you can also cut them down to a more managable size! a chilli plant can last for around 3 seasons if you look after it!

heres the scoville scale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

[GreenTricky]

yeh its normal, mine are the same

[phil_GT]

jesus, i had jalepino at subway and i thought they were hot.... never mind cayenne, lets see how much i eat.....

will be putting em in any mince dinner i make cottage pie, spag bol, or just a spicey savoury mince

will also throw them in slow cooker with stew

[Matt94]

sounds good to me - just dont add the seeds in your first dish that your make with the chilli's - as its the seeds that 'hold' the heat.

[phil_GT]

lol good advice....... just looking for recepies now, one says to melt cooking chocolate mix with cayenne seeds and pour into ice tray for chilli chocolate........ that sounds rather warm.....

[Sarico]

i also have the same black armpit on my pepper and they are ok... but yesterday i found 1 chilli 2 inch long but still green and i really wanted to taste it... tit was flavorless i mean not spicy at all... i feed the plant once a week and water them but stay a bit on the dry side... what's happen? what am i doing wrong?

[taff]

it's not ripe, let ir ripen, then taste it.

[Sarico]

it's not ripe, let ir ripen, then taste it.

i thought that you can still eat when they are green... so cayenne is spicy only when is red not green

[taff]

you can eat them green, but i think they doi get spicier when ripe, and when exposed to sun and there really hasnt been much of that

[chris]

I thought I could take heat, until I tried a scotch bonnet. Tiny bit, was almost sick. Jalapenos are the hottest I'll grow now

My stems are similar too, btw.