Chillis. Green chillis.

It has not been a bumper year for chillis - just an OK one. The weather this year has been very strange, and the chilli plants got off to a slow start. Not many fruits have ripened yet, just a handful really. They need more sunshine! However there are plenty of green fruits on the plants, and I am hopeful that most of them will eventually ripen.

Fuego F1

These two are "Hot Portugal", the first type to ripen. I have had five ripe fruits from this one so far. This year I have not fed my chillies very much. Last year I gave them regular doses of 'Tomorite' tomato feed but I felt that they put on too much lush growth at the expense of fruit - and the fruits did not have a lot of heat. However, my plan to also give them less to drink this year has been thwarted by the weather...

None of the plants have grown very tall. The tallest is about two feet  / 60cm, which is considerably less than last year. The bamboo canes I provided for them have turned out to be largely unnecessary.

Fuego F1

Fuego F1

Amando

This one looks a bit camera-shy!

Amando

These are my "Turkey" chillies. The plants have gone very bushy. The one on the right in the recycled chicken manure tub is the most vigorous of all my chilli plants this year. Its sibling (at left of this photo) is a bit smaller.

They now have dozens (hundreds?) of fruits forming.
 



None of the fruits have ripened yet. Will they make it to maturity before the Autumn sets in? They were probably expecting temperatures of 40C+ like their parents had...

Seeing them develop I now think they look uncommonly like the ones that were regularly served at Breakfast in the hotel where we stayed on our holiday last year. I wonder why?? [The hotel was Bordubet, close to Marmaris in Turkey].

I think our mild UK weather is also partly to blame for the lack of heat in many of my chillis. I'm sure that some good strong sunshine and high daytime temperatures would add a bit of zing to them. No chance of that this year, I'm afraid.