Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[Small pumpkin]

More.........are you board yet?

This is farmers market jalapeño. He's very different pods covered in corking and a very hairy plant. Can't wait to try one.







A couple of my basket of fire plants because they are look stunning ( well I think so )

[Scarlet]

OMG! Just fabulous photos - you must be so chuffed.

[ChilliWilly70]

More.........are you board yet?

This is farmers market jalapeño. He's very different pods covered in corking and a very hairy plant. Can't wait to try one.

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A couple of my basket of fire plants because they are look stunning ( well I think so )

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Definitely growing basket of Fire next year they look superb.

[IainM]

More.........are you board yet?

Nope, keep 'em coming!

[Small pumpkin]

OMG! Just fabulous photos - you must be so chuffed.

Yeah I am well on my way to beating last years 32kg

[Scarlet]

^^^^ such a show’off

[IainM]

I've got some pics too!

These were all turned into powder.


These were harvested a few days ago. Top row: HG4 Comet's tail, aji Peruvian, padron, cayenetta. 2nd row: apache, paper lantern, lemon drop, golden ghost. 3rd row: tabasco, chocolate habanero, cherry bomb, medina. 4th row: loco, aji omnicolour, "scotch bonnet", kitchen pepper, Carolina reaper, Trinidad perfume. Bottom row: Jalapeno (red and green), Jamaica yellow, birds eye and hot burrito.


... and turned into these, well most of them. I had to add a couple of yellow/orange sweet peppers to make up the yellow one, and a load of tomatillos for the green one. Garlic and salt in all of them. They probably would've fermented by themselves, but I added some lactobacillus from the pellicle of a sour beer I had fermenting. They've really kicked off. The yellow and red ones are escaping from the jar!

[Small pumpkin]

Nice harvest IainM. Those jars look so pretty! I've never tried fermenting.

[Scarlet]

Me neither! Let us know how it tastes

[IainM]

Will do. It might take a while. Tabasco mature theirs for 3 years. I won't have the patience for that.

[robbra]

Nice crop and pictures there IainM.
In the top picture what is in the jar to the right, looks interesting?
Rob

[IainM]

Nice crop and pictures there IainM.
In the top picture what is in the jar to the right, looks interesting?
Rob

Ah, that is a 1.7L jar of mixed pickled chillies. The one next to it is pickled jalapenos. I've been trying all sorts to not waste the glut. Drying, making powder, pickling, making jams and sauces, and fermenting. Still so many on the plants too!

[4Shoes]

I've got some pics too!


These were harvested a few days ago. Top row: HG4 Comet's tail, aji Peruvian, padron, cayenetta. 2nd row: apache, paper lantern, lemon drop, golden ghost. 3rd row: tabasco, chocolate habanero, cherry bomb, medina. 4th row: loco, aji omnicolour, "scotch bonnet", kitchen pepper, Carolina reaper, Trinidad perfume. Bottom row: Jalapeno (red and green), Jamaica yellow, birds eye and hot burrito.
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Much impressed Iain. It also makes me feel much better. I've been harvesting Chocolate Habanero and I was thinking they are very small . But they are small when you see them in a picture like this. Well done

[4Shoes]

Been out harvesting the seed for next year. I was able to get quite a few Isolated, but amount of seed per pod variable. Still a few not at that very ripe stage so will be a week or so for next batch.

Going for the remove seed from pod and leave to dry on kitchen paper method. Check in 10 days etc.

So far got seed from

Golden Cayenne
Bulgarian Carrot
Hungarian black
Pot Black
Ring of Fire

Sweet Pepper
Palermo Red Pointed.


Did the taste test last week and the Red Scotch bonnet and others were not very hot, so going straight to pickling jar.

[Mitzi]

Can someone please point me to some guidance on how to overwinter chillies? I have tried several times, but failed. Thanks.

There are many schools of thought on this. Last year most of my plants stayed in the house all summer, on windowsills, so I just trimmed them back lightly and left them exactly where they were - some were in heated rooms and others in unheated (but temp doesn't drop below 10*C.) The ones in heated rooms even produced a few pods over winter. So that's one method - just treat them as houseplants. They need less feed & water than in summer because even though they are warm, light levels are low, so they don't grow much. This method has a high likelihood of infestation with aphids and other pests as there is still plenty of greenery for the little b*ggers to feed on.

Other people use the dormant method which has been described above. Some people cut off all the leaves and basically cut them back to stumps. Personally I'd find it tricky to get that balance between getting them cold enough to put them to sleep and getting them too cold and it killing them. I tried to dormant-overwinter my baccatums in the garage last winter but none of them survived. I hadn't cut them back much, just let the leaves fall and then tried to keep them frost free and slightly moist but never wet. I failed. Think they might have got too cold.

Other people bonchi them - hard prune both the roots and the top growth, put them in a very small pot and keep them trimmed back so they take up much less room and form miniature plants.

I think really it's a bit hit and miss and I'm going to have to use a combination of methods this year. Other half won't let me fill our bedroom windowsill with them this year (got fed up of being unable to close the curtains and all the greenfly). So they will be in the north-facing rooms instead. Also they are almost all outside in large pots, which won't fit indoors, so I will have to root prune to fit them into small enough pots.

As I think someone else has mentioned, when pruning the top growth, don't cut it back all the way to where you want it - leave on a bit extra, as you pretty much always get some die-back.