Sunday 13 January 2013

The 2013 Chilli plans

Like most gardeners in the UK at present, I'm currently making plans for what seeds to sow when the weather allows. I'm sure I'm not alone in being impatient either. I am always tempted to sow seeds far too early, and then live to regret it, condemned to a fate of daily carting of propagators from one sunny windowsill to the next for weeks on end. Chillis are usually amongst the first seeds I sow, because they need a long growing time if their fruit are to ripen fully.


This year I have seeds for 13 different types of chilli.


The seeds I have from last year are:
Fuego F1
Amando F1
Hot Portugal

And the new ones are:
Christmas Bell (red, aka Cardinals Cap)
Aji Limon (yellow)
Black Prince (purple)
Nu-Mex Twilight (multi-coloured)
Nu-Mex Suave Orange (orange)
Ancho (red - very large))
Heritage Big Jim (red - huge one)
Sumher (red - Turkish. Spicy rather than hot)
Cyklon (red. One for drying)
Garnet (Sweet Pepper, red)

Most of these seeds are from either Plants of Distinction or Victoriana Nursery.

In addition to these I also have seeds from some of the chillis that I have grown in previous years and the ones I brought back from our holiday in Turkey, which are throughly dry now:


I'm in two minds about sowing the 3 varieties I grew last year, which didn't do particularly well. Was it the atrocious weather that was to blame? Shall I give them another chance, or shall I concentrate on the new ones only? Look at these next two photos with me: the first one is from 2011, and the second from 2012. Notice the difference in the colour of the leaves on the chilli plants. The 2012 ones are very pale and yellow compared with the ones from the year before.

2011 Chillis

2012 Chillis

Some of the 2012 chilli fruits were individually quite nice specimens like the ones below, but there just were not that many of them.

2012 chillis - Fuego, Amando, Hot Portugal and Turkey

This picture is from 2010, the year I began blogging. Just look how many fruits there are on this plant!


I am hoping for a nice sunny Summer this year, because I really want a good crop of chillis this time!

11 comments:

  1. 13 varieties!!!!!

    If the 3 varieties have done well for you in the past then I'd blame the weather or alternatively a change in the compost used.

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  2. I'm in the process of finalising my chilli plans for this year,I may try Padron
    as one of them.

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  3. I'm sure it was the weather. We've never had so much rain from April to July. It was pouring all the time. Ugh!
    Maybe you could consider sowing some of the variety that grew well and try some of the other 10 varieties too. Maybe you could try a different colour like the purple or the yellow chilies.

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  4. Hi Mark, I'm of the thought of blame the weather. Your spring/early summer last year was just like ours in 2011. Nothing grew well except cold weather crops. I had no luck with peppers in 2011. I grew four varieties in 2012 with success! The different, sunshine :)Cheers, Jenni

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  5. I would give them another try it was almost certainly the weather. We had a great 2010 and 11 But last year was a wash out. Even at work they did not do as well and there they are grown in a huge polytunnel.

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  6. I also think is was the weather...and the bumper slug year. I germinated 24 plants last year, slugs ate all but 1 that I rescued and kept safe on the kitchen windowsill. Oh well, it will have a head start for this year:-)
    Can't wait to see all of the updates on this years lot of your chillies

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  7. That's a good selection of seed! I grew my hot chilis indoors and they still didn't do too great and they didn't acquire much heat as I think I harvested too early. P.S. your brussel sprout harvests in Jan look very good.

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  8. I'm blaming the weather for anything that didn't do well last year, well, that and slugs. You'll have quite a selection to choose from with all those varieties.

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  9. I too vote for definitely trying them again - I think you learn more that way. If you don't try them you'll never know how their performance compares with your new varieties.

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  10. That's a nice selection. I'm betting it was the cool wet summer and not the seed. Try again!

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  11. I had no luck last year with peppers but will also try again. Hopefully the weather behaves. Nice list of peppers, Cyklon sounds scary but how hot can a Polish pepper be.

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