[BigA]

I'm growing some chilies this year (from seed).  They're healthy looking plants in pots in the greenhouse about 18 inches tall.  They're producing loads of white flowers but most of them aren't fruiting.   I leave the greenhouse door open each day for pollenating insects.

Does anybody have any tips for getting more chilies on a plant (I have one chili growing at the moment from 5 plants!  Lots of flowers have fallen off.

[polly tunnel]

Big A, I have exactly the same situation I will watch for the Yodas' answers eagerly!
Polly

[richyrich7]

Are you feeding them bigA ? treat them like tom's for food and you should be ok, you could always pollinate them with a small soft paintbrush, Think I read on here that they don't like too wet soil.
Aidy grows them so I'm sure he will have some tips for you.

[BigA]

Yes, I'm feeding them with tomato feed once a week.  I water them each day, but not too much.  There are lots of insects in the greenhouse during the day, so I would have hoped they would do the pollinating work for me  

[newbiegrower]

i have a chilli in a pot and I feed it weekly with tomato feed plus I have put kitchen foil shiney side up around the base so it covers the top of the pot with no soil showing so what sun we get actually gets reflected back up to the flowers and help the chillis grow and it works

[mushroom]

Have you tried growing from seed like, buying a scotch bonnet pepper, saving the seed then germinating it? Any success? Thinking of doing this later in the year, then planting outside next April/May. We had maybe 1 air frost last winter.

[Sadgit]

what size pots do you all grow them in? I have about 60 chilli plants on the go in 6in pots.

[Stevens706]

I had to re-sow my chilli’s this year, I had run out of bought seeds so used ones from last years dried chilli’s, they germinated fine but because they are late they have not flowered yet. Might be growing Quatermass chilli’s this year but its fun to wait and see. Also I intend to bring my plants into the conservatory this Autumn to overwinter and be early next year.

[richyrich7]

what size pots do you all grow them in? I have about 60 chilli plants on the go in 6in pots.

10" pots

[BigA]

Mine are in 6 inch pots.  The roots are starting to grow out of the bottom, so they're probably ready for repotting.

[nobby]

stop feeding your chillys
all that dose is produces lods of leves and flowers but no frute
treet them mean and thay will do as thay are tould

[Fat Hen]

I agree with nobby about the feed, no feed till produce fruit and then only half strenghth.  Chillis need large pots say 10", or grown in border.  I only have small area so grow in 10" pots, and even they become unstable as the plants grow especially when loaded with lots of chillis.  

On saying that after a bumper year last year (had loads of fruit by this time), this year dissapointing.  Also the slow growing birdseye type are doing better than the habs/scotch bonnets, cayenne etc, in fact they are procucing lots of small pearls of fire.

With this atrocious weather there doesn't seem to be the insect life to provide pollination.  I reckon if weather picks up and wind drops then things will start to improve.

[GrannieAnnie]

I started my chilli growing by saving some seeds from an Apache F1 chilli plant bought at the garden centre.  This was before I knew anything about F1 hybrids.  Apache F1 are a small fiery chilli, but because F1 saved seeds don't grow true, the chillies produced were much larger than the parent, but just as hot, and I grew from their saved seed the following year, they were lovely, in fact still got some in the freezer!

[Sadgit]

what size pots do you all grow them in? I have about 60 chilli plants on the go in 6in pots.

10" pots

I think I need bigger pots....

What size in Litres is 10"?? Cheers

[Aidy]

Do bear in mind its still alittle early (well for me anyhow) the chillies will produce when good and ready, I will use tom food once they are producing lots of fruit, I also give them a shot of epsom salts every couple of weeks, one teaspoon to a gallon, you should be ok with 10 inch pots, I use growbags and will have three in each. You could try using a fine spray to give a tiny squirt at the flower to help pollinate but I reckon give them a few more weeks and you will wont know what to do with them. I think this weather is also screwing things up, its hot then cold, everything is growing really weird for me this year, we are eating our red cabbage which in theory should be ready in about 3 weeks from now  :roll:  lettuce and chard have bolted, million green toms but none going ripe, last year we was eating them now, so mother nature will do her part just be a little more patient.