[mickeyboy]

Hi all, hope you have had a succesful harvest....
I am dedicating a 3 ft wide BED by 3ft deep and 3 meters long just for the growing of chillis. I have 4 of these beds, all with different types of soils. Could someone pleace advice as to when to strat seedling off, best position, type of soil and prep ect.
 cheers peeps....
peace.Mickeyboy

[Yorkie]

Did you mean to start this poll too?  Again the options don't make any sense?! 

[savbo]

have to forgive a newbie a wee error, I made plenty... can a moddy de-poll the posts?

M

[Faz]

Hey I just voted! 

[agapanthus]

Hi Mickey!
Is your bed undercover?
We had the best year growing chillis and sweet peppers in the polytunnel. Been cropping sweet peppers since june and they're still coming.
The best advice I can give is not to put manure in the beds and don't feed them. Sounds strange I know, but the poorer the soil, the better they produce.
We used a mixture of loam and compost for our beds and watered every other day, although sometimes every day, depending on the heat inside the tunnel.
I usually sow my peppers in January and keep them indoors until ready to plant out.
Hope this helps

[Yorkie]

Can't work out how to undo the poll so have just locked it for now 

[power_of_p3]

Hey mickey,

Like agapanthus said, is it undercover?  You can have chili plants in the open in this country but I haven't seen any real success with them.  I have mine in the greenhouse, so I get pretty good results.  After many telling me I was sowing my seed too early I went ahead and did it anyway in January last year, same with my tomatoes, and I have had amazing results out of those early plants and certainly more crop than the ones I put in a month or two later, although the chilis and peppers that I put in later and now still fruiting. 

Best thing I find is to find out when general planting times are and then just try a few different times, keep yourself a good diary and mark down which when they were sown, which germinated quickest, were the stronger plants and gave you the best and most in crop, and when the first and last harvest on them was.  That way you can make your own planting dates based on your weather and environment.  I usually sow them in batches of 3-5 to allow for the one or two that may not germinate.

BB ~~jo~~

[Chiswickian]

Mickeyboy you live in Sussex so should have success BUT the nice lady at cookoo box chillies advised me to treat 'em mean so that they produce more fruit and less foliage - I find this to be true. My chillis in pots always out produce those in the beds. If you have to put them in beds she suggested planting the pots in the ground to restrict thir roots. I have had success with Lemon Drops this year and less so with Cherrybomb (yet to ripen one) though Cayennes at the plot in a bed have produced a few decent fruit. Next year it's cack to Apache - a wonderful chilli IMHO

[agapanthus]

Don't think Mickey is talking to us

[Sweet Pea 2]

I thought I had been quite sucessful with chiillis this year.  Probably  nowhere near you guys.  I planted them outdoors in the ground (after bringing them up indoors - windowsill). Perhaps accidently had a mean streak, in that I hadn't realised that my nearby potatoes would almost overcrowd them.

I will be trying them again next year...I have plenty of seeds left, only planted six seeds this year, and have at least a dozen chillis in the freezer more still in the allotment.

[aelf]

I've plenty of fruit on my plants but they don't seem to be ripening The plants are in the greenhouse and are huge (6 feet tall!) I planted them in large plastic bags, so next year I'll go for smaller pots instead. I guess green chilli sauce it is then?!?

[power_of_p3]

hey aelf,

No need for green chili sauce.  This is a piece of advice I was given on one of the other threads on here 'overwintering' I think it was.  Just leave off the watering, apparently it's good for the plant to look unhappy plus it makes them ripen, I had this ame trouble with my joes long and I haven't watered them in like a week or something now and I have red chilis.  But I also hung a couple of banana skins in the greenhouse too, it can smell if not well ventilated but you will have ripe chilis and peppers in no time.

EDIT:  heres the link  http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=46294.msg543608#msg543608

BB ~~jo~~

[nickthegreek]

I bought a few padron chilli plants from the south west chilli farm gave a few to family and kept a few for my self the one that done the best was the one I put seaweed frsh from the beach in the bottom of the pot 4 times as many chillis than any other of the plants..

Next years I too am going to dedicate a small raised bed on my plot to padron chilli as I use them alot for starters and tapas dishes they are cool to eat with a dinner party etc as they say 1 in every 10 is hot and the rest are like normal peppers all you have to do is fry them in olive oil and then put some rock salt onto them

I also have growing scotch bonnets growing ok outside in pots and nagas although the nagas are not producing big fruits at all...

[aelf]

hey thanks for the link! I'll put some bananas in the greenhouse and no more water! Gonna treat em mean 

[power_of_p3]

you're welcome aelf, glad to help.

hey nickthegreek, sounds like you have quite the chili addiction there i was hoping to grow scotch bonnet next year, tell me did you grow from seed or buy plants for that.  if seed, did it germinate easily cause jalepeno are a pain to germinate, i got nothing off of them this year.  hopefully i will be able to overwinter them and get a cro next year though

bb ~~jo~~