On 6 Sep 2004 06:38:16 -0700, Mike Lyle wrote:

"Phil L" wrote in message ...
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
:: The message
:: from "Phil L" contains these words:
::
::: Just a quick one:
::: I planted some chilli seeds from some dried chillis which I got
::: from Spain last year...I wasn't really expecting them to grow but
::: they did...I planted them because the chillis we get over here
::: are not hot enough for me and these have a nice flavour too, even
::: dried...anyway, I planted 15 seeds and 12 of them grew, they shot
::: up to about six inches and stopped, round about July, since then
::: they have grown about 3 inches and I have repotted them in 9 inch
::: pots, two plants in each - they haven't flowered or anything but
::: the stems are quite woody and sturdy, which makes me think that
::: they may last a few years?
[...]
::
I haven't had a flower on them yet so I'm not expecting anything this year,
I'll bring them indoors in a few weeks time.

:: Give them plenty of water and some fertiliser from time to time
:: and they should be fine.
::
:: When they begin getting a bit straggly, you can prune them, and
:: they will grow new scions from the stem, or any remaining nodes.

But these ones haven't flowered. Unless I wanted to experiment, I'd
compost them, myself: you should expect a good crop in the first year
from sowing, and if they don't pay their wages in the first year, I
don't see the point of betting on them doing it in the second.

I very much doubt if you've got a variety which will crop outdoors in
British conditions. They might have done better on a sunny windowsill.
There's also the matter of strength of flavour: some chillies which
blow your head off when grown in a hot climate may produce much milder
offspring further north, even under glass. The number of varieties is
bewildering.

Ones that have fruited should certainly do so again the following
year; and, as Rusty says, you can cut them right down to a node and
they'll shoot up happily, especially if you repot them into fresh
mixture. But I haven't had such good crops the second year as the
first, so if you want a lot it's best to sow fresh every year
(February for me).

Mike.

That's been my experience as well. If you keep them in the house during
winter, they'll tend to attract aphids and get sickly. They need a lot of
light and longer days. I normally loose around a third of the plants, so
I've given up and replant every year.

--
Tim C.