Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[IainM]

Hello, IainM

Great progress for your first foray into chilli growing! Your plants are looking great
A few mishaps along the way is inevitable, don't worry about that. Always good practice to sow and pot on a few more than you think you'll need overall and then you're covered for any losses, plus you'll get the option later on of thinning the nursery to your strongest performers.
Your 'Blue Peter' grow light rig is inspired. Looks to be effective too, not bad for an ultra budget setup!
Don't know your location but certainly here in the southeast it's way too early to be thinking about moving plants outdoors into an unheated GH space just yet, whether that's a popup or permanent structure. Winter seems to be lingering this year and it's the overnight temperature drops that will cause harm to young tender plants like chilli. Even mature plants don't have much more resilience; I got caught out myself a couple of years ago when moving some overwintered plants back out to my GH in April after a fortnight of decent spring sunshine, thinking it was a sign of things to come, and then there was a sharp cold snap lasting several days that damaged all the plants, killed a Carolina Reaper, and set everything back. So May is a more realistic time to be transferring plants to the big wide world (for me at least).

On a side note and not related to any of the above I really like the colour of the wall (green one) in your pictures, very complementary. Added bonus it makes a great backdrop to your chilli plants for future photos...

Thanks Philthy, good to know. I was planning on hardening off in the last two weeks of April if the weather picked up, then leaving them in there overnight from the beginning of May. Doesn't look like that's going to happen now so I'll delay until the weather picks up properly. Also, if I start hardening off at the weekend I can get them in the GH for a few hours for a couple of days, but as I work full time, would they then be able to stay out from morning till evening for the rest of the hardening off period before I leave them out all night, or would this be too much for them? Also, is 2 weeks adjustment time about right for chillies? Too much, too little? Do I just play it by ear?

Funnily enough that green wall was painted the day before I took the photos, courtesy of our boiler guy's insurace, after he did a routine service and forgot to reconnect one of the pipes. Insulation in the loft was sodden and water damage right down the wall. All sorted now though, and the room is much nicer now it's newly decorated.

[Jimmy]

As I said I got my chills in last night 8 varieties.
And just finished the toms this dinner time, 15 varieties.
Whew!
Jimmy

[Mitzi]

Hope you've still got time for a good crop this year, Jimmy.

[Jimmy]

Hope you've still got time for a good crop this year, Jimmy.

Packets said sow March to April !
Jimmy

[jackarmy]

Well heres some of my babies for this year

oooh, thats not a very good pic
List is

jalapeno
jalapeno m ( dont ask me what the difference is lol)
cayenne
Komodo Dragon
Gorong Yellow
aji omnicolour
Ring of Fire
Nigels Outdoors
Red Roccoto
Basket of fire
And loads n loads of Basque chillis

Milas Bulgarian pepper and
Redskin pepper ( f1)

and that is my lot for this year unless i find a perty one in the GC, doubt thatll happen tho

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

I Know I seem to be posting more often than not on my progress! But they have just come on "Leaps n Bounds" since potting on!



Yeah! I get the fact the "Hots" n "Super Hots" are gunna take a little more time, and a little slower developing, but most now want potting on again!

But to try encourage them, I have picked up a little plug in blow heater!



The idea being, as it is adjustable with regards to speed and heat output! Is to just blow a very gentle breeze of warmth over the plants to encourage strong stem growth!

Here! Who am I kidding! As if I know what I'm doing! ............

Jack! Under your recommendations! The "Basgue" are in! Top left hand tray!



So happy to see how they turn out!

[jackarmy]

Trust me Deano Padron with a bite .
A big bite but not big enough to break the skin, if you know what i mean

[4Shoes]

Chris11 Challenge



Just took a moment to look at the Chris11 Mystery Seeds today

aka - The Lucky dip seeds from Chris - See Blog area for more details

In summary I believe there are up to 12 different varieties of Chilli in the packet. I planted 2 seeds per pot and have potted on. 6 did not germinate. Today assuming that 1 seed from each variety did germinate, my guess is that the following pots are similar.

11a, 8a, 8b - Purple Leaves
6a - Lime Marble / Tiger Leaves
7b - Leaf shoots at leaf joints
1b
7a, 1a - Late Germination, smaller plants
5b - Narrow Leaf
3a - Wide Leaf
5a - More Upright leaf
9b - Green stem (all others have purple tinge)
12a, 3b - Purple tinge to stem and leaf edge
4b - Large plant - Dark Green
11b, 12b, 4a - narrow leaf - Lime green Colour.

I have an idea on Purple plants, but all others are still a mystery.

For next picture will try to remember to order them by height

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Sorry Bud!

How rude!

Many thanks for shipping em my way!

[jackarmy]

Mate, your more than welcome, i have loads n loads of Deanos Rosellas

[Philthy]

Yeah, a couple of weeks is about right as a guide, but there's no exact figure. It'd likely be a longer process still if your ultimate goal was to grow chilli plants actually outside, but it's unlikely you'd match performance of growing under glass or plastic, so those environments would be your best bets for success, and crucial I'd say to have a chance of cropping the likes of Bhut Jolokia, Fatali, and 7 Pot. Aji types such as Lemon Drop (good choice ) are usually a bit more tolerant of 'cooler' conditions once established. (I've grown a mature Padron outside in a sheltered, sunny corner and that managed a reasonable crop).
When and how to harden off depends really on your individual circumstances, chiefly weather conditions local to your area. As your plants will be moving from the artificially stable warmth of the house, with boosted light, to less favourable, fluctuating conditions, so the timing needs to be right for that switch to not cause too much upheaval and risk affecting growth.
This weekend is supposed to be fairly decent so a few hours in the GH might be beneficial. But as soon as the sun disappears the temperature will quickly drop.
But on the flip side, during the week say you leave the plants in the GH in the morning and disappear off to work, the sun comes out during the day, and those smaller pots will quickly dry out. Would the plants survive until the evening? On the other hand you don't want to be regularly soaking them as wet compost is not conducive to healthy plants, and the wet is exacerbated when conditions turn cool again. April is an unpredictable month of highs and lows, and this one is likely to be no exception.
So in summary I'd be inclined to leave the plants where they are for now, where they're doing well, and where they're A LOT easier for you to monitor and keep healthy. Let them get better established, and potted on to something a little bigger, (and therefore less reliant on you), before moving them elsewhere. If there are sunny days between now and then, ensure good ventilation within the room and lower /turn off other sources of heat. As for watering while your out, a morning drink should suffice but for peace of mind consider a tray with some capillary matting; water that and stand the pots on top and they idea is they take up what they need but aren't stood in water. Also that'll encourages roots to spread downwards.

Things have usually settled down and warmed considerably by May so that'd be a better time to harden off, and by mid June overnight temperatures will have stabilised above 10 Celsius, which is generally viewed as marker by which the plants will maintain active growth, so it's usually safe to leave windows and vents open 24/7 should you want to.

[Chris11]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]79329[/ATTACH]The Lucky dip seeds from Chris - See Blog area for more details

In summary I believe there are up to 12 different varieties of Chilli in the packet.

I have an idea on Purple plants, but all others are still a mystery.

Very close, there were actually a baker's dozen of 12+1

At this stage, I would agree on being confident about the Purple ones.

Next stage is to try and identify how many different species there are, and which ones are which

[Tripmeup]

Packets said sow March to April !
Jimmy

If you have somewhere to keep them until green house time then better to sow earlier if you can Jimmy

[Jimmy]

Just got 4 Apache Chili plants £1.99
and 4 Alicante Tomato plants £1.99
from Aldi
Should give me a good start.
Jimmy

[4Shoes]

Very close, there were actually a baker's dozen of 12+1

At this stage, I would agree on being confident about the Purple ones.

Next stage is to try and identify how many different species there are, and which ones are which

Must be a bit like Pot Black

So currently sorted to 12 possible varieties. None showing any indication of Chinese type leaves, but may be a bit early.