Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[Mitzi]

Fish pepper: I've got quite a few pods set now, although they are still small. They are all plain green though, no stripes, even where the leaves around them are very variegated. Do the stripes develop as they grow or are they present from the start?

[Chris11]

Fish pepper: I've got quite a few pods set now, although they are still small. They are all plain green though, no stripes, even where the leaves around them are very variegated. Do the stripes develop as they grow or are they present from the start?

Recently got some more Fish seeds in a swap elsewhere, after not getting any germination from old seeds this year. Looking forward to having these next year

Mitzi, hope this helps. Picture credit: Smithsonian Gardens

[darraghb]

The Fish peppers look interesting. Are they hot?

The hot summer has really done well for the plants this year. I had more room so was able to pot up earlier and to larger pots. Around 50 plants, all fairly health. There seemed to be a lot less greenfly and slug damage this year although I am finding little Caterpillar holes is some of them.
Plan is to freeze enough to do a years worth of cooking, dry enough for a years supply of chilli oil and try making a few types of sauce.

Successful plants were
Jalapeno. Starting to go red now. These get used in fresh Taco's. Can't wait
Cayenne
Long Thin Cayenne,
Ring of Fire,
Ghost pepper although not certain that this is what it is. The chillis look nothing like they are supposed to. Seeds were bought cheaply from China before I realised I should use established shops.
Lemon Drop
Devil's Tongue Yellow
Red Hab
Peach Hab
Chocolate Hab
Orange Hab
Vietnamese Pepper. Lovely hot pepper I got in a meal in Hanoi. I asked the waiter for a chilli from the kitchen and brought it home and dried it. Mine are smaller and thinner than the original but with the thin flesh it should be perfect for drying and making Chilli oil.
Thai hot Dragon. Bought from B&Q. The only one not grown from seed.
Bhut Jakokia. These did much better than expected. While the plants are small, there are plenty of decent sized peppers. Unsure what I'll do with them. Probably make a hot sauce.

[darraghb]

Finally worked out how to upload photos.
These are the main ones. About 20 plants between teh 4 types. These will supply the quantity for freezing.

[darraghb]

Extra hots for oil and sauces.

[Mitzi]

Mitzi, hope this helps.
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Not really; mine are just plain green with no white on them. That pic almost implied they start white then gradually go green, orange, red.

[Philthy]

darraghb - Those plants look fantastic! Well done
What is the pot to the left in your last photo? The plant is quite flat looking; have you recently pruned it or is that the natural shape?

I'd definitely agree with the positive effect of so much warm sun; my own plants having endured enough set backs earlier in the year and following an extensive clean up a month ago, are now thriving at last
In another bizarre twist, I've not hand pollinated a single flower this year, but there's no shortage of developing pods; a squadron of wasps(!) seem to have taken an interest in my GH. As the door and vents are open 24/7 in this heat they come and go as they please. Every time I go in there, there's been at least four of them buzzing around going plant to plant, I just keep out of their way and let them do their thing, and they afford me the same courtesy. Their arrival may be connected to the proximity of a wooden table in the garden not too far away that they have taken great interest in in recent weeks. At first I thought they might be planning a nest underneath it, but then I observed them landing on the surface and scraping tiny bits off, so they'll be nest building nearby I'm guessing.

I'm growing the red version this year but it is very behind, and the tips with the flower buds on got broken off in Saturday's storm, so I haven't even got any pods set yet. I think there's approximately zero chance of getting ripe fruit

Mitzi, could you bring your plant back indoors and put in front of a tall'ish window? As alluded to myself, that extra warmth could well encourage a second flush..

[Mitzi]

They look brilliant, darraghb.

I think Fish is supposed to be a mild to medium pepper but it will be quite a few weeks before I can find out for myself, as mine have only just started setting pods.

[Mitzi]

Mitzi, could you bring your plant back indoors and put in front of a tall'ish window? As alluded to myself, that extra warmth could well encourage a second flush..

At the moment I think it's getting more sunlight and plenty of warmth outside. I'll bring it in when the weather cools. My other half has got a bit antsy this summer about the indoor plants; I need to leave it out as long as possible.

In any event, the pot it's in won't fit on my windowsills so it would have to be repotted smaller; I suppose that might concentrate its mind on fruiting but I'd rather leave it in a big pot for as long as I can.

[Small pumpkin]

Fish pepper: I've got quite a few pods set now, although they are still small. They are all plain green though, no stripes, even where the leaves around them are very variegated. Do the stripes develop as they grow or are they present from the start?

The stripes are there from the start. I've just taken a couple of pic of mine for you to compare with.

Most of the plant and quite a lot of lemon drop


Not all the pods have stripes


With stripes. it took me ages to find a baby with obvious stripes ( that I could get the camera anywhere near)


Starting to colour up

[the big lebowski]

disatster ! i just got home and id left the window open ,must have had a windy spell as the window blew shut and my orange hab was on the window sill and got decapitated

guess ive got the plant im going to use for cloning now then

[Mitzi]

TBL oh no, that's dreadful. Did you have any pods from it yet?

The stripes are there from the start.

Mine aren't. Obviously not going to be striped then.

[the big lebowski]

no pods yet but it has 30 flowers on the top ,ive now cut the damaged section out ,i have the bottom part with 8 leaves on it and the top part in a jug of water

[Small pumpkin]

I'm bored! so I'm going to bore you all with a chilli update just a general overall view of both sides of the tunnel.

[1Bee]

That is stunning, SP...