[PembsPanther]

Morning all

Went to Homebase this morning for a rifle through the reduced plants I managed to pick up 2 of Jamie Olivers Hot Banana chilli plants, they were £6.99 each and I managed to get them for 20 pence each, as you can guess they are not in the best of condition, limp almost dried out leaves and looking a bit miserable in general. They both however actually have chilli's on them, I think one has 4 and the other 5 these again feel a little limpish and not crisp and fresh. For the moment I have just stood them both in a seed tray that has water in the bottom of it, the plan is to transplant them into 30cm terracotta pots with some lovely clover compost I have and mix some fish blood bone meal into the compost, I was then just going to leave them on the kitchen window sill for a while and see what happens.

Any advice? SHould I strip them of chilli's and leave or leave them alone?

Any pearls of wisdom appreciated

Thanks in advance

[Yorkie]

I'm not a chilli expert but that sounds like a reasonable plan.

For pots which have really dried out, I submerge them in a bucket of water for an hour or so, rather than hope that the dry compost will somehow wick up the water from the seed tray.

[PembsPanther]

Hi Yorkie

They are still in the seed tray at the moment as have been occupied with roots this afternoon They have soaked up the water well so will re-pot them tomorrow and see what happens fingers crossed they will recover as to whether or not they will offer up any more chillies is another story..................

[Lardman]

20p bargain    They're really nice stuffed and roasted.

Remove any peppers on there now, rehydrate the plants - you have to be really, really nasty to them to actually kill them, then get them in some nice clean compost.  Keep them warm for a few days if they were inside at the store and then out into the greenhouse.

[PembsPanther]

Thanks Lardman I was wondering whether or not to strip the chilli's off, should I also take off the leaves they are dead as a door nail TBH dried up and well dead............

Thanks again

[mattwragg94]

i agree with lardman - nip the chilli's off - they will be draining the plant - you can also snip the leaves off - if you look at the leaf joints - you may start to see small shoots, so dont take the leaves too far back - leave a bit of stem.

[PembsPanther]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated now have 2 bald hopefully on the3 road to recovery chilli plants

[Ice]

If the leaves are dead mother nature will make them drop off and heal the wound.

[JayG]

Definitely remove the chilli fruits and I'd omit the FBB too (they don't need heavy feeding and the smell of it isn't something I'd want to be getting a whiff of in my kitchen either!)

[PembsPanther]

Hello and thanks for the rplies

Good point about the FBB it does have a stench all of its own, I will leave this out

Hoping to get them transplanted later today.

[GrowGirl]

 the very same thing happened to my boss, yesterday,14 Set 2012, he went over to Carshalton to get an iMac repaired and on the way back he stopped at Sainsbury's Homebase on the Purley Way and came back with loads of "further reduced" plants, one of them was a Jamie Oliver chili plant called hot banana. So I put -hot banana chilli plant-  in Google, and your post on this site was number one page 1.!!  We have a derelict garden at the back of the office which we call the allotment.  It's early days yet however the £1.99 (was £6.99) Ben Lomond  blackcurrant bush has been duly planted. Hope your hot banana has been well advised.