Newbie - are my chillies ok?

[Sam2702]

Hi everyone, I've been dipping in and out of The Grapevine for a few months and have found some really helpful things on here. This is my first year growing vegetables and most things seem to be coming along ok. I just have a quick question about my chillies... I am growing Unwins Caldero chilli peppers (trailing variety) and they are only a few inches tall (picture attached). I sowed them in April and they have been in the greenhouse up until the last couple of weeks, since it's been hot and I've brought them outside in the daytime. Have I done something wrong or will they grow bigger - they don't seem to be doing very much at the moment.

Thanks for your help.

[sam82smith]

Hi Sam. Chillis do take a long time to grow, yours looks perfectly fine to me. I normally start mine off indoors late Feb/ early March to give them a head start. At the moment whilst the weather is nice they are living outside in a sunny sheltered spot and they have really taken off and started flowering.

[rustylady]

Your compost looks a bit dry, are they getting enough water?

They will love the temperatures in a greenhouse at the moment, as long as you keep it ventilated so it doesn't get too hot.

[Two_Sheds]

RustyLady's chillies are always bigger than mine, even though my gh is bigger & sunnier than hers. She always uses bigger pots for hers, I guess that's the key

[rustylady]

Keep them growing in 3 inch pots till the roots fill the pots, then pot them into the bigger ones.

Plenty of water (from the bottom) at all stages till they start ripening.

[Sam2702]

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses so far. I'll go out and water them now, I read somewhere on here that if your pots feel heavy then they have enough water so maybe it's just the top that's dry, I'll check. Everything is doing so well do far, I just hope I get a good crop and not just nice green leaves!

[JoeDaStudd]

My jalepenos looked like that only a week or two ago now 1 has started to set fruit, another has about a dozen flowers and the other two are catching up and have started to produce flower buds.
All as I did was water them and give them time.

[snakeshack]

bigger pots =more and bigger chillis,mine are in flower buckets now,they like tomato fertillizer too

[out in the cold]

I was looking at mine earlier and thinking that they were a wee bit slow in growing.


Have just potted on my Vampyre and will do similar with my Jalapenos and Chocolate Habaneros tomorrow when I have more time

[Sam2702]

Should I be thinking about potting mine on?

I am getting into my gardening but there's a lot to learn, especially what to do and when!

[rustylady]

Carefully tip one of the plants out of it's pot and have a look at the rootball. If you can see lots of roots round the edge of the compost then pot them on into bigger pots.

What size pots are they in at the moment?

[Philthy]

Also Sam your leaves look quite pale. Epsom Salts (available in any half decent garden centre) may well remedy that. It is a magnesium booster in granular form. Add roughly a rounded teaspoon of crystals to a litre of water and spray liberally over the foliage for a short term fix. Choose a dull day or evening to do this. Alternatively scatter the same amount over the compost surface and lightly mix in. The plant will do much better with uniform green leaves.

[rustylady]

^ ^ leaf colouring may be related to the length of time the plants have been in their present pots too. Probably run out of food, so re-potting would help.

[Sam2702]

They're in 5" pots so I'll do what you say and have a look at the roots. Thanks for the advice regarding the Epsom salts, I'll go and get some in the morning! They do seen to have tiny flowers appearing now so fingers crossed.

[jotley73]

Like the trooper pic out in the cold!