Growing Chillis – Advive needed ….

I have the following seedlings planted.

The mixture is Jalapeno & Habanero.

At what point do I take them out of the tray?

When I do take them out do I plant them into much bigger pots?

All help/advice as usual much appreciated 8)

From personal experience I’d plant them in a pot now and keep them in direct sun/warmth. May or may not be right, but it worked for me.

just take them out stick them into a bigger pot i tend to go for approx 10inch diameter per plant let them grow to about a foot tall then I snap the top off it seems to make the bush out more.

I would just like to say i am no pro thats just what i found works

just make sure you water and feed them on a regular basis. I found cold nights tend to muck things up so tend to keep then indoors for most of there life until the flower then chuck them outside and let the bees do what they do, that or tap each flower to help pollinate (sp)

As coffeeking, I’ve had them potted at about that stage in the past. It worked for me too.

Definitely take them out now and into some good potting on compost. Keep them in a warm and sunny spot (but not too much direct light).

When were they planted? They look a little small for May so you will need to feed well and kept in plenty of light to encourage growth and flowering.

Don’t forget you will need to ensure they are pollinated so on nice wind-free days get them outside for the bugs to do their stuff. Or get ticking with a small artist brush.

I didn’t manage to plant any this year (first time in several years) mainly due to last year’s crop being useless so I got disheartened.

EDIT – Mrlard covered most of what I said too 🙂

I tend to use between 6″-8″ pots, mine are a bit bigger than your plants and i’ll be moving them on over the weekend.

Which magazine rated New Horizon Multi-purpose Peat Free Compost the best peat-free one, Miracle Gro advanced (i think that’s the name) did well too. Westland West+ multipurpose is supposed to be good as well – I have found plants yield more with better composts.

They could probably move now, usual wisdom is to plant them on when the first/second set of true leaves are out. You can plant them quite deep – up to the base of the leaves – and they will root OK from the stem.

I normally move them into 3 inch pots, then into 8 or 10 inch.

Loads of useful info on here chillisgalore forum

Cheers.

Cool.

Thank you folks.

Plants are kept inside over night only going out during the day to bath in the sun.

Will go and get some larger pots at the weekend.

For those that have successfully gotten crops in the passed what have you used as potting material?

At present they are just in compost. Is this good enough longterm?

And put some gravel at the bottom of the pots before filling with compost – chilies dislike being too wet and need good drainage.

Don’t over-water as this encourages those horrible compost bugs (whatever they are called). Chilies like to be watered quite lightly – the compost shouldn’t ever dry out entirely but it SHOULDN’T get too wet.

You can plant them quite deep – up to the base of the leaves – and they will root OK from the stem.

Very good advice – apparently they like to be planted like that and are quite unique in this.

Don’t forget you will need to ensure they are pollinated so on nice wind-free days get them outside for the bugs to do their stuff. Or get ticking with a small artist brush.

Really? I grew a single one last year, in my living room. I got chillies (not many I may add) – can’t imagine it got many bugs from other plants in the area?

As MF says Chilies like light watering.

Avoid peat based compost too….

Doing a bit of a trial this year, planting my Chili seeds in a number of different composts to see which is best.

The Chili plants that are doing the best so far are all in peat free, cheap multi-purpose compost.

CK – yeah you do need to ensure they get pollinated to get best results.

The Chili plants that are doing the best so far are all in peat free, cheap multi-purpose compost.

Whereas some of my plants from the year before were in crappy asda compost and produced hardly any yield…

CK – yeah you do need to ensure they get pollinated to get best results.

Cheers, I’ll plant some more then!

Not a lot you can really do wrong with chillis.
– The bigger the pot the bigger the plant will grow.
– Don’t let them get dry as the leaves will shrivel & die (a healthy plant won’t have dried out crispy bits at the end of the leaves).
– Sure fire way to kill them is exposure to cold (keep them somewhere warm & well lit over the winter and they carry on fruiting).
– black/white/green flies all love to munch on your plants. If infected a regimented spraying with a soap solution will clear it eventually.
– If you keep getting flowers but no fruit then just rub each flower in turn transfering pollen around (earbud, paintbrush, finger etc)
– If the plant looks like its struggling (infested/lack of water/been to cold) removing all fruit & flowers will encourage growth

one thing to remember, as I discovered when my chilli plant died, they die every year , I think that makes them annuals? annuals wikipedia link

edit after reading my link I have found that they are tender perennials, grown as annuals..

and if you keep them indoors while they are flowering, you can help pollinate them by using a cotton wool bud, going from flower to flower like a bee would.

I’ve given up keeping them from one year to the next, hardly worth the effort

Mine are coming on well. Transfer them from the propagator to 3″ pots now until they become approximately 30cm tall and then tease out the growing tips. Mine are being tansferred to 10″ pots this week and then introducing them outside during the day and back inside at night for a week until acclimatised.

edit after reading my link I have found that they are tender perennials, grown as annuals..

Yeah I managed to get my one last year to last over winter, but it died this year when I left it without water for 3 weeks. Oops.

Anyone keep seeds from one season to use for the next?

I have done this in the past with differing results. The best results I ever had was with a bought (given as a present) plant from Homebase – the next season I used seeds from one fruit and got a great crop. The following season the seeds from the second plant didn’t produce anything of note.

Anyone keep seeds from one season to use for the next?

I tried this year, planted my collected seeds in blocks of nine, with the collected seeds I only get 2-3 plants from each block.

Compared with newly bought seeds, I get the odd single seed fail, if that.

Been told not to bother by other allotment holders & to always use fresh new seeds, but thought I would give it a go.

BTW, got a raised bed from last year that must have 2000 small self seeded tomatoe plants from last year!

😉

Whereas some of my plants from the year before were in crappy asda compost and produced hardly any yield…

Not used the Asda compost, so cannot comment, but I am trying out six different typs/makes of compost this year, to see what difference they make, too early yet to come up with outright winner mind.

Has anyone used Osmocote slow release pellets with Tomatoes/Peppers/Chilis, how did you find if so?

ooh what do you feed them? Small children? Cats?

Has anyone used Osmocote slow release pellets with Tomatoes/Peppers/Chilis, how did you find if so?

I normally just use Tomatorite – I assume as they are eaten you need to use fruit-specific feed. I have no idea whether Osmocote is or not though.

blimey fruit specific feed need to get down my LGS!

😀

I assume this is only because you are ingesting it so if you do feed, it needs to be edible.

My brother only ever uses old teabags.

Don’t feed the plants until the fruits are set or you’ll get lots of leaves and hardly any fruit.
Best results I’ve had were using a mixture of sharp sand, vermiculite and peat free compost in equal amounts (by volume)
I found the best way to water was to stand the pot in a tray of water for an hour or so and keep the leaves moist with a trigger spray but don’t spray in strong sunlight as the droplets act as little lenses and burn the leaves.

Tomatorite is my feed of choice as well, works well. As above, don’t over water and get ’em in a nice warm spot of the garden. I tend to train mine up a bamboo pole or arch, depending on size, as I’ve found that a taller plant tends to grow more and larger fruit.

Don’t feed the plants until the fruits are set or you’ll get lots of leaves and hardly any fruit.

That’s a good point HD, should have mentioned that in my post 😉

Re feeding, I like an early feed on potting out to kick start some growth of the bush, then let ’em starve until the fruits are out and start feeding again.

Wishing I had planted some seeds this year now. Especially as I recently saw a fantastic hardwood cold frame for next to cheap in TK Maxx too – it would have been perfect for my needs.

You still can – will only take a few weeks to come up now.

Every time I have planted seeds late (ie after March), I haven’t had a crop – I think it is our exposed location and the amount of sun we get at our house later in the season.

I guess no harm in trying though as I have packets and bowls full of seeds…

bit of advive needed also 😉

my chili peppers are about a foot tall now and have starting budding, never grown anything from seed before

is it too late to transfer them to bigger pots? i must have six or seven in too small a pot now

Blimey they are doing well but YES – get them moved.

You should be able to carefully tease the roots apart with your fingers.

managed to keep one of last years going and now producing the first chilies of the year. The plant looks a bit scraggy though.

my Mrs pissed herself laughing at the rufty tufty mtb crowd going all gardeners world.

Who are you calling rufty tufty?