That particular fruit (which was the very first one to set) exhibits the characteristics of one of this variety's parents - "Bird's Eye Baby", whereas most of the others look more like the other parent - "Jalapeno", being longer and more bullet-shaped.
Actually most of them are what I would call "wedge-shaped", like this one:
One aspect of my trial has been to grow my two plants in two different composts to see if it makes any difference. One has been in Levington's John Innes No.2, and the other in Melcourt Sylvagrow (peat-free). The plant in Sylvagrow has grown taller and stragglier than the one in John Innes, which is stockier and more compact.
Both plants have set quite a few fruits, as seen here:
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| This is the plant in John Innes No.2 |
The plant in Sylvagrow, whilst it has plenty of fruit, has smaller fruit, many of them like the ones in my first photo. They also seem to be a much darker shade of green. Whether this is anything to do with the compost is a moot point, but it seems likely, since all other factors are the same. Both plants are in identical pots and have been treated exactly the same.
I'm looking forward to being able to taste ripe fruits from these two plants pretty soon. My recollection of the taste (as experienced last year at Stephen's Challock Chilli Fest) is of a fairly mild heat, but very fruity taste.
I was going to ask how your Winter Banana was doing, I bought one after reading about yours. I have 10 really good-sized apples on mine, which is also in a container. It's the only one of my new trees which has fruited successfully, so i really hope they are good!
ReplyDeleteI've been reading up on them, and it seems they do produce very big fruit, and late ones. I'm now considering buying another tree of a different variety, to act as a pollinator.
DeleteI'm curious as to the pots that your Challock Chillies are growing in Mark - as they're different to your usual black pots, is there a reason for pots with lids? I've tried looking back through your archive but can't find anything so please enlighten me! :)
ReplyDeleteThose pots were originally marketed as tomato-pots, but I found them too small for that purpose. They are good for the smaller chillis plants though. The cover serves two purposes - it helps to support vertical canes, which are pushed through holes, and they also reduce water-loss through evaporation.
DeleteMore info on the green pots is in this post:- http://marksvegplot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/potting-on-chillis.html
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