Friday, 15 July 2011

Chilli update

My chilli plants have already produced a lot of fruit, though none of them are ripe yet. I feed them once a week with proprietary tomato food, but what they really want is lots of warm sunshine (which is in short supply round here at present).

This is "Fuego F1".


This is "Hot Portugal"


This one is known to me as "Short Fat", but it's looking as if it might be "Cherry Bomb".



This is "Long Medium" - looking more like a Sweet or Bell Pepper every day!



This one is "Serrano". Usually the most prolific of the ones I grow, it produces masses of small blocky fruits. There aren't many just yet, but I expect there will be eventually.


The final one of the set is "Pinocchio's Nose". It hasn't set any fruit yet, but I think the first ones are about to form. It has fewer flowers than all the other, but that's probably because the fruits are individually bigger. Apparently they can grow to about 25 or 30cm in length, thought they always remain slim.



18 comments:

  1. You can try placing them near a wall that received many sun during the day. At night the brick wall will reflect heat to the plants.

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  2. What a lot of variety you have Mark. Hope they start to ripen for you soon.

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  3. Looking good :) i will have to het an updated photo of my plants up too. Cant moove in the back end of the garden for all the vegetables now they are taking over! My chilli plants are looking healthy too with some fruit or good growth following my wobbly start this year.

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  4. Looking great! I wish I planted more variety this year. First time grower actually. What's the best way for you to tell they are ripe to pick when green?

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  5. Beautiful Mark! I have some cherry peppers as well, they are an excellent pickling pepper.

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  6. Andrea: I'm not sure I can advise you much about picking chillis green. I normally only pick green ones at the end of the season, when I think they are not going to ripen before the frost comes. You wouldn't want to pick them when they are really immature though, so I guess you need to have some idea of how big the fruits are going to be, so that you can judge when they have reached a resaonable size.

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  7. You're growing a wide variety. I'm sure they'll start ripening soon, now where's that sun, we've got rain here today.

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  8. Great selection Mark, I must take a closer look at mine and do a post as I've been neglecting them a bit recently!

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  9. My bishops kiss chilli is getting lots of flowers on the end of little stems but they keep turning yellow and drop off. The rest of the plant looks healthy enough. Any tips?

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  10. I like the fuego ones best, just because of the name... it's a bit fabulous. Your photos are just wonderful, but what I'd like to know is what are you going to do with all your chillis this year??

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  11. Captain Shagrat: It is normal for a fair proportion of the flowers to fall off before setting fruit, especially early in the season. It always happens with me, but you just have to be patient. It may be that the weather conditions are not right or the pollinating insects haven't yet found the plants, but they usually come good in the end. Think positive thoughts and whisper words of encouragement to them! :)

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  12. So many kinds of chillies. And all so photogenic. Eager to see how they look when they ripen.

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  13. Andrea: Hi i have pickled many peppers at all stages of maturity. you will get more flavour if they have been left to ripen but pickling green is no problem too. i have a mini guide to preserving if you are interested.
    http://chillipepperheaven.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-preserve-chilli-peppers.html

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  14. Now Mark, I don't want to boast but... I've just discovered two red chillis in my garden. And it's winter here! Hope yours ripen soon. I'll stop complaining about our winter now.

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  15. They are looking grand Mark - mine are all just flowers at the moment, but there again I started them a lot later than you. Something I will attempt to remedy next year!

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  16. Mark, I have a chilli plant that was purchased at the Harrogate flower show but I have no idea what variety it is. There are so many flowers on it but only a couple of tiny chillis at the moment. Should I thin it out as it is looking rather bushy?

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  17. Alison: If it were me, I would not thin the chilli plant. I have never felt the need to do that. They seem to be self-limiting. The plant will produce as many fruits as it feels it can support. If it goes overbaord, some of the flowers or immature fruits will go yellow and drop off.

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