Chillies - growing and overwintering 2018

[monkeyboy]

Yup as I posted above, they looked like weeds. Four padron pepper seeds were sowed. Three look like the one on the left. Only the one on the right looks as i expected. I have four jalapeno plants and they're more similar to the one on the right.

[Small pumpkin]

Mine are now huge!

Not to huge to post I hope

[Philthy]

Ditto. General observation though you might want to hold back on the watering; tops of your pots look like they're developing fluffy mould, and excessive wet likely to be a factor in your leaves yellowing. My plants are still indoors thanks to this erratic spring, just easier (for me) than back and forth for a few hours here and there. I'm watering barely once a week. If it hots up at the weekend as predicted I'll water more often but for now there's been no need.

[Mitzi]

Night time temperatures are forecast to be 10*C at least until Tuesday. Do you think I would be OK to risk some rocotos outside? What about my overwintered annuums?

(When I say outside, I don't mean in a greenhouse / polytunnel, I mean outside, fully exposed to the elements.)

I might try putting them out during the day and bringing them in at night for a couple of days and then risking them outside overnight after that. A centrally heated room to outdoors might be a bit too much of a shock - need to do a bit of hardening off, I guess. I have two each of La Paz Rojo and Pepper for Hell so I could try one of each outside and keep the other one indoors as an insurance policy, I suppose.

[Mitzi]

Righto, got round to taking pics:



Both plants came from the same pack of padron pepper seeds from moreveg.

I have no idea what those are but they are certainly not peppers. How disappointing for you.

[The robin]

Does everyone cut the top of the chilli plants to get a bushier plant and more fruit? I have grown chill is in the past but never carried this out

[Philthy]

Does everyone cut the top of the chilli plants to get a bushier plant and more fruit? I have grown chill is in the past but never carried this out

I did this for the first four or five years, topping at about 8", but in later years I've not bothered. I'd rather have the height now as it makes for better plants the following year, and better use of space this year. They always fork anyway as they develop, and if you do keep plants going one season to the next the following season's new shoots will be plentiful. I'd rather try to provide the conditions that encourage the plant/s to thrive and achieve a bushier specimen naturally.

[Small pumpkin]

I only tried topping once. Yes you get a bushier plant but it takes a long time for the plant to recover from decapitation. So you need a really long growing season to get the crop. The difference in amount of chillies isn't really worth it ( to me anyway). I managed to crop 32kg last year without decapitation.
Let them grow how they wanted and fed them regularly.

[the big lebowski]

yes i used to top my chillis but as sp said it does seem to slow them down , i havent seen a massive difference when i did it so i dont bother any more either ,those plants are looking great deano ,nice one

what do you feed yours with ? i use canna veg and flora

[gringo]

Apologies if this has been asked before, but it IS a huge thread to check through!

Inspired by this thread, last autumn I decided to try overwintering lots of my chili plants in my garage. I'm not that hopeful as I did some recommendations but not all. Question is- when will I know if it's been a waste of time or if it has worked? I.e. when would shoots appear, and if they do, will it be from ground level or from the old stem?

[the big lebowski]

you should have seen some by now ,are they in pots ? ,do they have light ? have you watered them ? ,it could come from either but most likely on the old wood

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

A quick q regarding fertiliser: I have some chilli focus but before I plant a couple of my chilli plants into my raised beds, would it be worth applying any slow release fertiliser? I have some Seafeed poultry manure and seaweed pellets which are 4-3-3. Would this be suitable, then start applying chilli focus once it starts to set fruits?

They are all still in pots and very healthy and the only feeding they’ve had so far is from the compost and a very weak feed of chilli focus.

[gringo]

you should have seen some by now ,are they in pots ? ,do they have light ? have you watered them ? ,it could come from either but most likely on the old wood

All in pots, I gave them a gentle watering once a week over the winter, I've only taken them out of garage into the light today.

[AmateurOne]

Chilli leaves holes appeared!!!

I’ve tried to upload a photo but no joy.

Went into the greenhouse this morning to open up and two of the leaves on one of my Dorset Naga have holes in. No slug trail that I can see. One has an egg shaped hole about 4c6mm the other has a similar shaped hole about 6x8mm and the entire ensue is eaten away. I have 19 other Chillis in here as well as various toms and sweet peppers all with no damage.

Help!

[Scarlet]

That will be a snail or a slug....they are crafty, check under the pots, they often get in the drainage holes and hide out there.
I'd take a trip R this evening with your your H and pick them off then....no doubt you'll find more than one.