I'm sure polinating the plant yourself won't hurt but I just left my chilli
to itself last year and I'm still eating the fruit !

It was the first edible plant I'd ever attempted to grow and it couldn't
have been easier. Great for the beginner

HTH

Jim

"Sarah Dale" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 19 Feb 2003 15:46:02 +0000, sprocket wrote:

I recently bought a mixed variety pack of chilli seeds from Mr
Fothergills

do any assisted polination once the flowers appear - I dont plan on
letting
too many bees into the flat so will I have to do this myself in order to
get

Hi Sprocket,

Either you're early with your chillies or I'm late...

Anyhow - pollination, as your plants will be indoors, you will have to
pollinate the flowers yourself to get fruit. Worked for me last year!

You need a small soft paintbrush and a steady hand. When some flowers have
opened up fully, dip *dry* paintbrush fully into flower, wiggle round on
the bit in the middle of the flower, remove paintbrush, repeat action on
all reamining flowers, and return to the first flower and do it again.
Repeat at intervals as you get more flowers maturing. Be careful, I found
the flowers fell off quite easily! Pick the fruit when it has grwon to
size to encourage further flowers. You should be able to crop through to
September indoors.

HTH,

Sarah