I've grown my chillies from seed and now have 16 plants ranging from 8"-18" in height until yesterday they were in 1 litre pots.
Yesterday I transferred them into 10 litre pots with john innes no.2 and a couple of handfuls of perlite.
I am now concerned however that I have chosen the wrong compost as it seems to be heavier and not drain as well as I thought it would?
Have I chosen the wrong thing? Should I swap it out for generic MPC and just add more perlite and vermiculite?
All advice welcome.
I wouldn't worry too much. Chillies tend to take abuse pretty well in my experience. The perlite will help with drainage. Try not to over water them and i'm sure they'll be fine. Main thing is to keep them warm and get them as much light/sunshine as possible to maximise your crop.
IF you do have some MPC to hand you could try swapping a couple and see if it makes a difference. It does sound like you've gone up in pot size quite a big step - you might find they dont' grow much for a few weeks while their roots explore all the space they have now. Generally it is better to pot up through the sizes in small increments.
Lot of good info on this site which might help.
Last year I successfully grew a chilli plant (seeds from family plants in Italy, but I'm sure it's all v similar) from a tiny bit of compost in a plastic cup, to a much bigger pot. It grew to 2.5ft tall and produced about 30 chillis
This year it's 3ft tall and is flowering heavily
It took months and months and months and months - I'm saying this because it's worth keeping the faith. It was absolutely ages before it started flowering. Then another month or so before little chilli buds appeared
Then another month or so before they stated getting to any decent length - 1"+
Then another month before they got to like 2-3" chillis - green at this point.
They remained green and seemingly 'finished' (but not turning colour) for ages. I just kept lightly watering as and when needed. Then legitimately another 1-2 months before they turned black->red (they go black first - that was a shock).
I cut mine off when they were 60%red 40% black and let them turn red for a few days afterward
This was with very good compost (home made) and in a warm / sun exposed greenhouse.
... I kept it indoors this winter and it's now finally back out in greenhouse, stood next to two new plants of its own making (seeds from last yr)
Enjoy the process and good luck
I have asked the question of a friend who has started up a small chilli farm :).
Will report back...
I'm not sure I like the sound of Flannol's home-made compost.. 🙂
Do people keep them indoors or covered, I kept one outside last year and it did well until winter when it died, I'm now wondering whether I just grow a new one each year and plant out when it's nice enough outside
They need good light to grow in (green house ideally, so I believe), or the plants grow long and spindly.
One of mine died due to a breeze through an open window too, so avoid wind 😊
Tried over wintering ours, indoors. It made it to March. They’re fine out doors in the summer once they’re big enough, in a very sunny spot.
Not much to add other than that with 16 plants you're going to have chilli's coming out your ears! I grew my "ring of fire" in standard compost in a pot moved inside outside depending on weather last year and had 30-50 chillis out of it in about a month and a half. I have 10 this year all outside in the hope I can get a big enough harvest to make hot sauce.
Huh, mine (Hungarian Black + Hungarian Hot Wax) said "harden off and plant out" on the side of the seed packet, so I did.
They're still alive and some appear to have tiny flower buds on...
I've grown mine in the shed before. They didn't survive the Scottish winter but I have brought them inside before and they survived fine. Have grown a new batch of red Cayennes this year and will bring the best ones in to over winter. Need something more interesting as well.
I pot mine in 50% peat free compost and 50% coir. I buy my coir in bricks then Soak them.
Also spray the leaves in diluted seaweed, that gives them a boost.
We start ours inside in a heated propagator around Feb and pot on inside til it's warm out. Spend about 2 weeks hardening off in the day and then they end up outside in pots and in the ground. We've never bothered with perlite just whatever compost, they just want to be dry and warm, preferably hot if you have a sheltered sunny spot. Just barely water them. Cayenne do well in UK considering they are a hot chilli, jalapenos also prolific and you can take them green to chop and freeze. We've got about 10 maturing plants with some fruit growing and other 4 from later sowings just in case the earlier ones failed. We'll freeze the fruit and get through it over winter.
When we had a greenhouse 'big jim' were good, got a few big fruits on each plant with nice heat for salsa without blowing your head off.
I've just moved mine to the front garden for a bit more sun, it's definitely a bit long and spindly but has plenty of flowers so seems to be doing ok
I have two spaghetti, two fairy lights, two some thing dawns (but one looks very different to the other, it's like a 3inch high perfectly formed bush) all sitting on a windowsill doing okay facing southwest.
How do you know when the pot is big enough?
From my friend the chilli farmer
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Should be ok I think. Believe John Innes is a Loam (Broken down turf stacks) based compost with extra nutrients and maybe some peat.
A standard mpc will usually be 40-70% peat based plus whatever compost they have on hand.
If I remember correctly, John Innes is usually better draining than most standard mpc's.
I do put quite a lot of perlite and vermiculite in mine but know people who have success using none, you just have to be more careful with watering - only water when the plant starts to droop.
I've had drainage problems before and tried all sorts of potting mixes but to be honest none had as much effect as simply drilling extra holes in the bottom of the pots, as many as possible.
Hope that helps!
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Remember to help cross pollinate them to, once they start to flower brush flowers with a small fine paint brush.
I have found best to grow in greenhouse and when hot to water twice daily but in non peat compost that drains well and has some stones in bottom, so the coli doesn't retain a lot of water, so they take the water they need, but don't sit in it if that makes sense.
If you have a glut of chillies you can dry them in airing cupboard, or this is a great recipe to go with cheese or anything you tend to use a pickle with:
I've been tempted.
Mine arent doing too well, I succesfully grew Apache before but I think they are one of the easier ones, got tonnnes of little chillies of that as it seemed to reflower several times during the season.
Remember to help cross pollinate them to, once they start to flower brush flowers with a small fine paint brush.
I did this and Im convinced it boosts the number of fruits you get as every flower is potentially a pepper as long as it gets polinated.
This time round I ordered some online as 'mature seedlings' as it was already late in the season, so I planted them in the veg patch about 3 weeks ago. Kind of a botch job really but they are really struggling to recover from the shock of transport and transplant and aren't really doing much, I think the very hot sun the other week may have knocked them back too, as I didn't pot them or give them much TLC, just bunged them in the ground and hoping for the best...just about surviving I would say!
For reference, I've got 2 Piri piri, 2 Jalepeno and one Jamaica hot. Any insight on how robust these verieties are?
Trouble is i don't think it has been consistently warm enough for them outside really, i think they are a greenhouse crop really.
I normally pot on in whatever I have to hand, pay no special attention. I have a mix of indoor and outdoor plants. First chilli well on its way
First chilli of the year
Long time chilli grower. Better in greenhouse than outside but will do perfectly well in sheltered sunny spot outside. I use quite a rich compost (think tomato standard) but do not over-water. Putting the excess of a glut into the freezer is an excellent way of preserving them.
>'m excited by my chilli's weirdly the most bushy and healthy looking one with the start of flowers is only about 4inches tall.
I am also attempting okra in a tomato cage.
