[Closed] Caring for a chilli plant

I'd be interested to hear peoples experience of this too as I have a chilli plant thats sprouting loads of chilli's and I cant eat them fast enough!

Off the top of my head I'd say - place it in a well lit spot, but not right next to a window with hot midday sun pouring through it - you'll burn the leaves and make it feel really ill. Ensure the temperature does not fluctuate too much, or ever get too chilly or drafty - a sheltered, well lit spot in a regularly used kitchen say would possibly be ideal, rather than right next to a radiator in a lounge. Water sparingly - only when the compost gets dry to the touch on top - do not allow it to stand in water, (or on the other extreme - the compost to ever become completley bone dry, crispy and dessicated!). Feed with weak tomato food once every 3-6 months or so, depending on croping rates (i.e. more fruit produced by the plant will require more regular feeding) - remember though - less is more - when it comes to feeding. Depending on the age of the plant, you may have to wait until next summer for fruit (chillies) to be produced.

Good luck - plants are ace! 😀

If you've ever grown tomatoes, just do that; water each day if in full sun, every couple if more shaded, bit of "food" every so often, as yours has already been started this shouldn't be too often, maybe once a quarter or so.

Def keep out of frost, they don't like it at all and'll die rapidly.

Remember, smaller = hotter when harvesting, obviously depending on the variety as to how hot that can be.

I need to finish the paving so I can get some more plants and start growing stuff again.

I got told you need to spray them with with a fine mist of water from one of those bottles with a trigger
Helps to set the fruit or something

if the plant is producing more than you can eat, just pick a load of them and then dry them - i think you just hang them up in front of a window.

Don't leave them outside in a temporary greenhouse during gale force winds or your greenhouse and chilli plants will end up 3 gardens away. OOOOPS!

I grow chilies and have had success for the last few years. No-eyed-dear has good advice but can I add...

Juvenile plants need caring for as NED says but adult ones are much more hardy and can live outdoors until nights get frosty and the compost can be allowed to dry a little between feeds. Basically you can do pretty much as you like with an adult and it should fruit. In the spring when it flowers you will need to leave it where insects can get to it in order to pollinate it (or Google brush pollinating).

I have just pickled seven big jars full of Jalepenos 🙂

Chillies can be frozen well.

They're really easy to get decent crops from. I got too many for me to use by picking the seeds from a chilli bought from Tesco and planting them up.

One tip though: if you grow indoors, keep an eye out for bugs.

I had about ten healthy plants which got completely destroyed by thousands of aphids (or some other flies green/white flies) while I was on holiday for a few days. They were totally covered and even the insect killing sprays didn't get rid of them. 🙁

Also if you want to keep the plants small and bushy (some will grow to be pretty large!) find a point where branches are sprouting out sideways from a stem, and nip the top off. It'll make the plant 'fill-out' rather than keep growing upwards.

My plant produces masses of tiny red-hot chillies. Chilli oil is superb for use in curries etc. - just add lots of fresh chillies to a bottle of extra virgin oil, leave for a week or 2 and you´ll have a taste better than anything you can buy.

you can always freeze the chillies - just pick them off and chuck them in.

or make some chilli jam - uses quite a few chillies and goes well with chips 😛

I'm turning my extra chillies into piri piri sauce, (oil, garlic, lemon juice, chillies, paprika) through a blender and then fried. Soooo spicy!!!

Piri piri chicken and chips mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

We grew three apache's this year, got enough chilli's off them to fill a 1KG Clover tub, and there stored in the freezer for use of the next year.
Nice hot, but not ridiculously hot, chilli's.

I didn't acutally do anything with them other than plant them in a grow bag and water them when I did the tomatoes (everyday during the summer), ace plants. Going to try and bring them in so they survive the winter.

buy it a scarf

Thanks for all your help guys.

So indoors or outdoors (with winter inside) is fine?

I have killed a number, a couple of links :-

http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/pages/growingtips.html

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/chilipepper.htm

I found when very small that covering them in clingfilm to increase the humidity worked best. I have 6 all grown from seed but none big enough to produce yet ... next year I hope 🙂

our young plants suffered for being outside this year. They are staying in a sunny window now, might put them out in the summer though.

still got 4 or 5 really tasty hot chillies off them though

All of my chilli plants have died after first fruit.

I'm very interested in this and have a question; in the fridge I have some chillies (not dried) from the supermarket, if I split the chillies and plant some seeds in some compost in a pot and put it on a sunny windowsill etc... will they grow?

Oh yeh my other problem is that I was bought a kit with 6 different types of chillies, all different heats etc & I planted them all carefully labelled etc, however they didnt appear to work so I took them out of the pots & put the compost in a bigger pot... which is when I noticed 6 plants growing, so now I have no idea which ones are which ... should be fun finding out 🙂

In the winter cut them right back and leave them somewhere dark and cool. In spring put them in the sun, water them and cross your fingers. You can normally get 2 or 3 seasons from a plant.

I'm very interested in this and have a question; in the fridge I have some chillies (not dried) from the supermarket, if I split the chillies and plant some seeds in some compost in a pot and put it on a sunny windowsill etc... will they grow?

m_f when you say "right back" do you mean lop all leaves off and back to a stem, or just prune harshly?

M_F, I'm interested in further info on cutting back too.

Just prune right back - leave more than the stem but take off all the fruiting bits basically. You can't go too wrong unless you forget to water them completely like I did last year 🙁

And if you have any mites/bugs/spiders living in the soil don't bother - just bin them and start afresh.

It doesn't always work though, and some plants won't flower again.

I've grown mine from seed (supermarket, Wahaca etc) and they're great. I have mine in a south-facing window, so they get a lot of sun and sprout accordingly. The first two I had took about 6 months to grow to fruiting, but since then have only gone about 2 months without flowers or fruit, which is ace!
I water mine a lot, keeping the compost damp (but not flooding it), and also use very dilute tomato plant food. They don't like draughty places, but once they're established they're pretty hardy - I pruned mine extensively and they've just sprouted back and flowered again.
When it comes to flowering, I use a cotton bud to ensure that they're pollinating - no pollination=no fruit.

Great thread...answered lots of my questions. I too bought a variety pack of six and ended up with about 200 seedlings!! 😯

Labelled them up, but now the writing has rubbed off the labels so don't really know which is which!!

They are only just beginning to fruit as I started too late this year.
Is it worth bringing them inside now(first frost last night) and will the chillies continue to grow even though it's not warm and sunny?..(not that it was in the Summer!!)

... chilli plants really won't like frost!

Bring them inside - quickly!

If you've got chillies on the plant they'll continue to grow inside quite happily.

Baby bio every month water every couple of days. Mine is about 1 year old and has taken over the windowsill in my kitchen along with the basil plant. I'm on my 3rd crop in 12 months. If you wait long enough the green chillies mature and turn to red (on my plant anyways 😉 )

Should you use Baby Bio on a plant used for food? Serious question. I use tomato food and pretty much all recommendations are as such.

My brother chucks old tea bags on his and they always do well too.

Herbal Tea Bags ... see if I can get ginger already with the chillies 🙂

baby bio is the same type of fertiliser that you'll see used for growing your supermarket fruit and veg (ish) ...... so don't be worried....

baby bio is the same type of fertiliser that you'll see used for growing your supermarket fruit and veg (ish) ...... so don't be worried....

Fair enough - it was just a question to which I didn't know the answer.

dim problem...

[i]If you wait long enough the green chillies mature and turn to red (on my plant anyways)[/i]

Yep mine did too (two different varieties), though apparently it doesn't increase the 'heat' of the chilli, just a different colour, according to a workmate who used to grow them a lot.

Just wrap me up in a nice warm blanket (with Kylie as a water bottle!).