Chilli Growing 2008



Growing Diary 2008
Here we go again with new selection for this year. We will sell any spare plants we have, plus the ornamental selection about May time from our market stall so don't miss out this year.

Other diary years to look at:

A few hot ones this year mixed in with some windowsill ornamentals. The chinense varieties are mostly Trinidad types. Chiltepin: (capsicum annuum) A wild variety of piquins also called bird peppers, wild bird peppers and birdseye peppers, usually round in shape and hotter than the Habanero. There are many local variants of this pepper. Good for over wintering. Antillais Caribbean: (capsicum chinense) This is the most aromatic of the Habanero type chilli. 2 to 2.5 inches long by 1.5 to 2 inches wide, matures from lime green to orange to bright red. Datil: (capsicum chinense) Heat, flavour and aroma are similar to the Habanero, except that the Datil is more fruity. The chilli can rate as high as 300,000 Scoville Units, almost as hot as the Habanero. Light green turning to golden yellow. Its name in Spanish means "edible date" Mustard Habanero: (capsicum chinense) This is a rare Habanero. Large plant (18-32") produce high yields of peach-colored fruits. White Habanero: (capsicum chinense) Small bushy chilli plants produce very high yields of fiery hot chili peppers of a lantern shape with a creamy/white coloured skin. A Caribbean variety, a favourite for its smokey taste and extreme heat. Pyramid: (capsicum annuum) Early ornamental and hot. Compact plant producing small, conical, yellow fruits with lilac shading, turning red when ripe, ideal for the conservatory or hot sunny windowsill. Etna: (capsicum annuum) An early, hot Italian chilli pepper. Compact plant which produces bunches of conical dark green fruits which grow upwards, turning bright red when ripe. Romanian Giallo: (capsicum annuum) Great chilli for the patio or windowsill, produces early. Vigorous, compact plant producing small, long, conical light green fruits turning yellow when ripe. Firecracker Pequin: (capsicum annuum) These striking multi-branching multi coloured plants with their brilliant coloured hot spicy fruits. Plants are soon covered with little cream, purple and orange that slowly mature to red. Brazilian Starfish: (capsicum baccatum) This tallish plant has a vine like habit and produces good yields of ¾" long by 1 ¾" wide starfish shaped peppers that are very pungent. The peppers mature from green to red. Chinese Pot Chilli: (capsicum annuum) Hundreds of chillis per plant. Tiny ½" long fruits all point up and ripen from green to red and and stay on the plant for a long time. Great for drying and grinding or using whole. ideal for the conservatory or hot sunny windowsill. Pusa Jwala: (capsicum annuum) Popular Indian hot pepper. This variety is also often called Finger Hot Indian Pepper. The umbrella type plant produces lots of fruits in green colour in early stage and later turning into red ripe. The matured hot pepper has high pungency, excellent to use fresh or dried. The fruit with wrinkled skin is about 4" in length. Purrira: (capsicum frutescens) These bushy plants grow to 18–24" and produce a profusion of 2in long conical shaped hot fruits that grow upright on the plant. The medium thick fleshed pods start off yellow and have a purple mottling before maturing to an orange/red colour Trinidad Congo: (capsicum chinense) In Trinidad, Habanero pepper relatives are called 'Congo peppers' and this one is an extra-large red Habanero type. At 2 inches long and wide, its peppers are significantly bigger and more ribbed than the typical red Habanero. They are also intensely hot and extremely productive, with large harvests of peppers. Trinidad Perfume: (capsicum chinense) This Habanero type variety produces 1 to 1.5 inch long by 1 to 1.25in wide 'turks cap' type pods which matures from green to bright yellow. The pods have a fantastic aroma and good smoky flavour with no heat. Yellow Trinidad: (capsicum chinense) Produces heavy set of 1-2 inch wrinkled deep orange-yellow fruits with very hot and strong smokey flavor. 7 Pod: (capsicum chinense) This variety is from the Chaguanas area of Trinidad and is extremely rare. In Caribbean regions it is also known as 7 pot as one pod is said to provide enough heat to spice up 7 pots of stew. Pods are Habanero like in there shape but have the characteristic 'pimpling' as found on another fearsome variety - the Naga Morich. Trinidad Scorpion: (capsicum chinense) The plants are tall, upright and reasonably productive bearing 2 to 3inch long pendant pods which taper to a sharp pointed 'tail'. The pods mature from green to orange and finally red.

		Feb 16: All of the above varieties have been sown today, plus a selection of others to be sold at Farmers markets in about May time. All seeds have been sown into Jiffy Pellets which require a soaking in warm water first to swell them up. Propagated this in in the Vitopod which has been set at 25C for germination. First of the earliest were starting to show in 4 days. The Jiffy pellets are retaining moisture quite well and have only required an occasional water during the week.
Mar 16: After a month, the Jiffy Pellets, have done well, easy to use, held moisture well considering they are in a warm environment, plus less mess than using soil cells. This year we have had a good germination rate obviously some are better than others but we have all plants up on our original list we set about to grow. I will probably cut off the net bag when we transplant as chilli roots don't seem vigorous enough to get through them to me. Any seeds which haven't shown in 2-3 weeks were replaced with fresh as I cant afford to wait and would rather try another. Will wait a bit longer to transplant as the next stop for them is outside in the greenhouse and weather is still a bit too cold to move them, so they will have to continue to enjoy the benefits of the conservatory where they seem to enjoy listening to Planet Rock.
Mar 21: Most plants now have 4 leaves and the roots are starting to show through the jiffy pellet bag so will be transplanting the Jiffy Pellets straight in 6cm pots. I have never known such a cold wet day for replanting, so had to work in the kitchen with a sack of soil, mess everywhere. Plants drooped alarmingly as usual but soon picked up and are now back in the heated Vitopod.
pH 7.0 calibrated	Time to sort out the hydroponic gear, new set of batteries and time to calibrate the EC and pH pens for accurate readings. Small amounts of pH buffer and EC conductivity fluid are poured into a small beaker and the pens adjusted with a fine screwdriver to the correct setting for the fluids. Now I can mix solution to soak the 3 inch rockwool cubes in (pH 5.5 EC 1.0) for the 5 plants which will end up in the NFT tank.	3 inch rockwool
	Jiffy pellets are a tight fit into the 1 inch holes so a little bit of scraping the sides back and they drop in. These will need to show good signs of the roots coming through before moving into the NFT tank. Time now to give them some artificial lighting and as last year will use the 200W blue CFL's. Weather Update: Temp this morning was 1C and on and off all day was rain, sleet and snow flurries.	Apr 27: Have moved five plants into the NFT tank as roots are now showing well thro the 3inch rockwool cubes. These plants will be grown with Ferro nutrients. 3 plants which are a bit more advanced from earlier planting have had the roots washed of soil and are in clay pebbles in the Wilma 4 pot, these will be grown in GH 3 part nutrients. Both have been set at about pH 6.0 EC 1.6. The rest of the plants are still in the conservatory as light and temperature is still down for April giving poor growing conditions.
May 1: Whitefly and Greenfly are big problems again this year especially as the plants are on a go slow towards growing, here a few remedies we've tried, chemical Provado's Ultimate Bug Killer and a few naturals like Pest Off, and SB Plant Invigorator, which are the soapy based ones, to the smelly Neem Oil which smells of garlic/onion which probably repels them, but they soon come back, seems to be best with a small brush on the smaller plants as they easily come off.	Pest Control	Whitefly (top) Greenfly (bottom)
Need a few thousand of these!	Predators will also help, included the 46 different ladybird species in the UK, including 3 'new' species which have become established in the last few years. I have put several on the larger plants and they are still helping me, I suppose its the free lunched I provide. Of the newer varieties, the Harlequin, has a black body with two or four red spots on unlike our common 7 spot.	4 Pot Wilma
4 Litre Pots	GS 200 NFT	Wilma 4 Pot now contains two Trinidad Scorpions, one 7 Pod and a Congo Red, while the GS 200 has a mixture of five Habanero's in, all settled down to a PH of about 6 after 2ml of PH down for the GH 3 part nutrients. The rest of the bunch have all been planted in 4 litre pots and are all in the greenhouse from the conservatory which seems even later than usual this year. Some later sowings by 6 weeks have even caught up with the earlier sowings as usual, they just do not grow very well in Feb/March weather.