Chilli Reviews

[Scarlet]

A thread to review your favourites or worse chilli varieties. Chillies that are easy to germinate, slow to grow, late fruiter, small crops, good crops, best in the green house, performs well outside or small enough for the kitchen windowsill? Easy to overwinter,good for drying, pickling or good to cook with? Chillies that you grow every year. Photos are very welcome, I love photo's.

[Vickilou]

This is such a good idea :
My chillies that do the best are Apache and cayenne
Ones I struggle with are ........ All the others

[Philthy]

Nice idea, Scarlet
Okay, here's one from me:

Fuego F1 Italy (muddled up varieties, whoops! not Tokyo Hot - though that is a cayenne too)
In the cayenne family. Capsicum Annuum. Plant stays fairly compact and has a good structure. Ideal for growing in pots. The strain has the endorsement of the RHS with an AGM award (it must've been trialled at some point and deemed a solid choice for British growers). It fruited well for me in it's first year and also when considering the volume of fruits vs the size of the plant at harvest time. Not small chillies either; each one averages 5-6" length, not quite a finger for width. They start off green and mature to a deep wine red colour. Flavour is very good. Indeed it does seem well suited for the British climate; it'll still produce a decent crop (and ripen) in cooler weather under regularly grey skies (I grew this last in 2012 which was a particularly poor year for chillies). I've always grown it under glass so I can't say how it'd perform if grown outside, but apparently it has potential for outside growing (good to know if the GH is getting crowded )
Fuego was one of the first plants I grew when I started getting into chilli growing. Not grown it recently as I've moved on to more exotic fare, but it's a reliable one that I'd happily recommend to newcomers and seasoned growers alike.
USES: Versatile allrounder - thick'ish walled pepper, use as per any cayenne. Good for Mexican, salsa, salads. Great sliced on pizza. Also dries well for flakes.
HEAT: Typical for a cayenne pepper. 5/10
OVERWINTER: No overwintering success from two attempts (not to say it can't be achieved, but knowing it's criteria I personally wouldn't bother again).

[Small pumpkin]

I will join in with this thread properly later in the year. But from memory the chilli I was most impressed with, the year before last was Thai dragon. Heavy cropper. Good bit of heat.

[jackarmy]

Ceyanne has to be one of my favourites , just a great all rounder.
Have a few different ones, Black Naga , Padron , Hungarian Black Wax , Red Habanero Facing Heaven ( all courtesy of Scarlet) on the go this season so lookng forward to trying these .
and Red Mozano which im really looking forward too, oh and Satans Kiss

[sparrow100]

My all time favourite is Padron. I have 8 plants in flower buckets outside when temps get more civilised and these give us a weekly hit of tapas peppers till the frosts arrive. They get hotter as the season progresses, and by about October we can't eat them grilled anymore, they're just too hot.

I also like:
Chenzo F1 - compact little plant about 45cm high with arching branches. Has black chillies that turn red gradually. Lovely heat to them and each plant gives about 100-150 chillies.

Trepadeira Werner - little white bullet-shaped chillies that turn yellow, orange and red in turn, getting hotter as they ripen.

Am growing many kinds this year and am looking forward to posting pictures and reviews later on.

[SusieG]

I shall be watching this thread with interest.
My only foray into chilli growing was last year, bought 3 small plants ( just named Hot Chilli, from Tesco) and potted on as they grew.
Had an amazing yield, was still eating them until January this year ...! (Fruits being picked and kept in an open container)
So, this year, without any pretence of knowledge/experience, I chose the seeds because I liked the name/picture...
It'll certainly be a massive learning curve - I already know that choc habs are notoriously difficult to start - I'm buying a heated prop to give them a better chance next year.
Today I'm going to pot on Hot Pepper Ancho as they are at the 'true leaf' stage now
I shall be keeping them on windowsill until they're a bit bigger - unless anyone has advice???

[Lisasbolt]

I also love Padron, they are always the quickest to germinate. Think i have got a good 10-15 plants for this year. Also love cayenne, cannot be it for sweet chilli sauce. My Jalapeños were going great till aphids came and took most of them, but i started off some more and they are growing away, i wanted a glut to jar and pickle but do not think that will happen now.

[TrixC]

I love padrons too but my stars from the last few years have been Portugal and Aji Amarillo.

Portugal is an annum variety. I like it because it's reliably productive, very early and makes nice big chillies which are the perfect size for cooking. They are hot but not overly so.

The Aji Amarillo is a baccatum variety originating from Peru. The fruits are a beautiful golden orange colour and the plants astonishingly prolific, I probably got close to 100 fruits off a single plant last year. I dry them and grind them up to make the most delicious chilli powder, it's more spicy and fruity than hot. The plants are also quite easy to overwinter, my plant is 3 years old now.

The other three year old plant I have is Rocoto Yellow. It's a pubescens variety with hairy leaves and purple flowers. The fruits are shaped like small bell peppers with thick fleshy walls and black seeds. Because it's so fleshy it needs to be eaten fresh and I mainly use it for salsas.

[Philthy]

Bird's Eye Africa
The strain grows wild in Africa and is cultivated to a degree. It is also known as Piri Piri chilli. Any fans of Nando's restaurants (South African origin serving Portuguese inspired food) might recognise the Bird's Eye taste as it is the main ingredient in Peri Peri sauce. It is Capsicum Frutescens, and a close relative of the Tobasco chilli.
I grew Bird's Eye a few years ago. I got a well structured plant in the first year, but the flowering was rather poor. (That's okay, I wasn't expecting much in the first year anyway). It overwintered successfully, and the plant grew well again with plenty of foliage, but flowering was sporadic and fruit set underwhelming. Nothing worth picking. Overwintered once more, and though it put out new shoots it took forever to get going to the point of exasperation. It went on to form a bushy, well proportioned shrub almost, with more flowers this time, but fruit set was again poor. I got a few fully formed fruits but none ripened. I retired the plant at this point.
In conclusion this plant needs heat to fulfill it's potential. Sustained heat and plenty of sunshine.
My setup of growing just in an unheated GH clearly is not sufficient for Bird's Eye. Indoors or in a heated conservatory I'm sure it'd be a different story. As a plant it works well in a pot. Increase the pot size periodically if you want a bigger plant (it can get to 2m in height).
It's also worth noting that the plant maintained good health regardless of fruiting ability, and seemed largely untroubled by the usual chilli pests.
USES: Soups, stews. Hot sauce. Chicken dishes. Makes a nice seasoning but I've only ever used commercial brands.
HEAT: Very hot 8+/10
OVERWINTER: Recommended.

[HoneyChild]

It's origins can make Bird's Eye a bit tricky to grow in the UK.

Oh dear, the only chili seeds I've sown have been Bird Eye from supermarket chillies. I really need to come up with a plan B soon.

[spamvindaloo]

First chillies I ever grew were bird's eye with the seed saved from a packet of chillies bought in asda. I think every seed germinated and the plants were covered in fruit. Shame I don't particularly like bird's eye chillies ....

[Philthy]

I wouldn't worry too much, HoneyChild. They're all subjective reviews anyway
I'm actually going to edit that line out as on reflection it shouldn't make any difference - afterall Scotch Bonnets from the Caribbean, Bhut Jolokia from India, and countless others from hot parts of the world can all be grown here if conditions are right.
The review measures performance over three consecutive seasons so it's a good indicator for me as to the long term prospects of this strain of seed in my setup. I'm just sharing that really; it is by no means a definitive write-up.
Grow the Bird's Eye plants and then let us know how you get on with them
(Be aware though that Bird's Eye the name can refer loosely to several other chilli varieties, namely those grown in southeast Asia - if you know where the seeds came from then no problem). Good luck!

[Scarlet]

As Bramble (I think ) said in the Tom thread, everyone's growing experiences are different, we all use different compost, feeding regimes, some use GH, other the kitchen windowsill but even so these personal reviews are really helpful.

If I'm to believe every thing on the back of each seed pack I'm going to get a bumper crop after 30days ! So not quite so helpful.

I'm going to post soon...just been run off my feet lately. Easter school hols!!