[mike2niner4]

thats terrible!:(          

[Bombers]

I'm Gonna try removing a few fruits on 4 of the plants, and leaving the rest alone..... See what happens ehh! .....T.B.C.

[redfire]

Nice peppers, The plant looks really healthy, do you give it any feed?

I've found that Chilli peppers are much the same as sweet peppers for growing and i've never treated them any differently.
I've grown peppers for about 6 years now and this year i've gone a bit barmy!! I've got 15 varietys growing and have 50 plants.

I've never limited the fruit on any chilli plant 'cos iv'e read you can get between 50-100 chillies from some varieties, on a single plant. I might try limiting a couple of plants to see if the quality of the fruit improves.

I've made chilli oil with some of mine before. Gives an added bite to anything you cook :twisted:


This is the GH at the moment.



Some of them are fruiting but the more exotic are not there yet, but they'll come.

Here's some so far......

Big Banana



Aurora



Marbles



Tiny sweet pepper (This pepper is fully grown and the whole plant is only the size of my hand!!)



This year I built myself a little light unit to help them along. It's only some 2x1 and tin foil with two flouresent grow light tubes, It cost about £20 pounds altogether and it's worked brilliantly......



I love growing peppers, just because they can be so different in colour, shape, taste and even heat rating. Marvellous little beasties    

Anyone know a good recipe for chilli chocolate?

[Big Jen]

Great pictures and nice healthy plants as well.
I am growing about 10 different ones this year just for a bit of fun. They have been very slow to get going but are now growing like mad, cant wait to get some fruit.
Ive got a sweet banana pepper and a hot banana chillie, should be interesting if they get mixed up :!:

[Porffor]

Omg and here i am about to post my pride and joy peppers.. and look at yours!!
I'd love a real greenhouse and your light unit give me ideas as I have some old tubes and a light unit from my 3' fish tank (I upgraded the lighting for plants etc at Christmas). Great idea....

Anyway.. here are my babies..
Noticed today that they are losing some pepper babies though. Big one has only that one left now and the others have lost some.. thankfully one plant still has lots on it, but will they grow back? Am thinking it's because they are in small pots.. will know better next year.






Click on the images to enlarge..

[Bombers]

Lovely pics Redfire. especially like the Big Banana and the Aurora! Are they in 10" pots??
Yes I do feed them. With Tomorite, as tomatoes/cukes - once a week. Next year i'm definately inspired to have a go at some different varieties of Chilli's if they'll grow in my conservatory.

Porffor.. Are you feeding your peppers as you said that they are losing some baby one's? I think you're right about the pot size... I was woried that mine were only in 8" pots. :roll:

[Porffor]

I am yes, I did intend to repot them but they started flowering and then i was scared i'd lose the lot!  :? As it's my first year I'm happy with the 3 tiddlers to be honest, next year I'll know better!

[Bombers]

I am yes, I did intend to repot them but they started flowering and then i was scared i'd lose the lot!  :? As it's my first year I'm happy with the 3 tiddlers to be honest, next year I'll know better!

Yes, That's why this forum is soooo good!  We all learn from each other... Brilliant!

[redfire]

I feed mine with a thing called "chilli focus". Specially for peppers apparently :!:  But in previous years i've used tomorite.

Yep, all mine are in 8 inch pots (5 litres I think).

Are you losing actual peppers or are you losing just flowers/flower stems.
I had a problem once losing flowers/stems and I started to self pollinate them instead. I had a lot less dropage after that, and more peppers . Some people say that you don't need to self pollinate but it can't do any harm to try it and see.

I don't know if that helped my cause or not but it worked for me. A lot of its about trial and error.

Also, how often do you water your peppers? Mine only get watered about every 4/5 days, (unless it's really hot) but I give them a good soaking. I read somewhere that they like regular watering not just as and when. And I feed them every other watering, about every 8/10 days.

I don't know if i'm right or wrong really, but it seems to work

Just for info, this is what i'm growing.....
Chocolate/Orange/Peach Habanero
Naga Morich
Naga Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia
Bih Jolokia
Goatsweed
Hot Lemon
Purira
Marbles
Aurora
Numex Bailey
Fatali
Big Banana (Don't know if these are hot ones or sweet 'cos i've lost the packet :roll:  Doh!!)
Hungarian Hot Wax
Mini sweet peppers

[Porffor]

Thanks for the tips really do appreciate them.
I left them alone when they flowered but the dropage has only been today really - think they may have dropped between waterings. they are about 50/50 flowers only and flowers with the tiny green pepper growth in it.

As said, first year and all that.. I didn't buy from seed, I bought them as seedlings in a garden centre, sadly there really wasn't any instructions so it's very much a trial and error thing. I wasn't even sure i'd keep them alive!  :oops:

At the moment I water about every 2nd or 3rd day, they get a lot of sun where they are as we have sun in the front all day long and I don't close the blind now they are there. So they get morning sun too.

I take it this is 'it' that they won't re-flower? Am still happy and will enjoy our peppers even if they never get big enough to stuff!

[gobs]

yes and they are fantastic to watch grow aren't they!! growing mine on my front kitchen windowsill 4 plants in 3 pots, but should've put them in bigger pots i think.  :oops:
Have 3 peppers and 3 mini peppers at the moment, biggest is about 2 inches long now!!!

2"!!!! :shock:  I thought mine were doing well... that's brilliant. Iv'e got 8 plants in 8" pots. I agree, that they are fascinating to watch grow. I've read that you should limit them to about 6 fruits to each plant, so I've started to remove some of the excess fruits.... I hope some expert will come along and advise me ? :?

First of all, well done! It's great isn't it?  I was tempted to harvest a couple today, but resisted.

About limiting to six, I don't grow them in pots, but am seriously inclined to say: stop wasting and ruining your harvest. Thin fruit out once some are edible and start with those.

Thanks Gobs. when are they big enough to harvest?  The information I had was as follows:-    

"Start picking fruit when they are green once they have reached the size of a tennis ball and the skin is smooth and glossy (probably at the beginning of August). This will ensure continuing new fruit production. A mature pepper will turn red (or whatever colour) at the end of the season but remember leaving peppers to fully ripen will halt new fruit production. Crops over about 8 weeks" -
Some of my plants have upwards of 12-15 fruits :shock: I really don't want to sacrifice 1/2 of them, but will they all mature??

 :shock:  :roll:

Size isn't everything. That will depend on variety. Green harvest stage is when the flesh thickened, hard to explain without touch and see , experiment is the best lesson, won't hurt the plant, take some of and if not ready they will taste watery with thin skin. Of course this will be also influenced by variety and watering practices.

I only leave the last set of fruit to ripen into the autumn, you want to milk them.

I'm growing to crop the early varieties from about next week into the autumn.

Chillies are easier in my opinion in quite a few respects, than sweet peppers.

Your question made me count the flowers on a plant today, I lost it around 40, and I am not taking a single one off. Never have.
 

Feed them, quite less, than toms, 2 weekly tom feed should be enough in rich soil.


Very nice lot Redfire.

[Bombers]

Californian Wonder is the variety.. and I have self polinated.. I know, what a sad person! I will pull them a little later now, to give them a chance. In fact I think I can see one ready now.............

 :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

[Big Jen]

WOW   :roll:

[Porffor]

lovely the massive pepper plant i saw in homebase had reds and yellows on them already.. they looked stunning I could eat a yellow pepper like an apple, well almost! lol I'm terrible if cutting one, half goes in my mouth the other half the pot or salad! lol

[SalJ1980]

its my first time growing anything at all
but i've got some pepper plants on the go, no sign of babies yet though...

Ditto...I sowed my peppers on 13th April, they took a long time to germinate but grew quickly once they did. They've been in a growbag in the mini greenhouse for about 3 weeks and are growing really slowly...took this photo this morning, they are now about 9 inches tall:



Any ideas, comments?