Jeff Taylor wrote:
Do any of you guys grow chilie peppers?
Yes! Although it would be fairer to say I *have* grown chili peppers
since I'm just ending my first year. 18 months ago I hadn't grown much
of anything, but last Christmas I decided I would plant some herbs and
some carrots, and things seem to have grown out of all control (sorry!)
from there.
I'm going to have a go with some in my conservatory this year.
I'd like to try a hottish one and a milder one and use them for cooking
and making chilie sauce.
Looking at various web sites shows that there is a huge variety to
choose from.
I find looking through seed catalogues overwhelming sometimes.
Does anyone have a favourite or recommend something for a beginner?
I would prefer a heavy cropper with large fruit (I guess :-) )
Last winter, as a present, I was given five little sachets of varieties
of chili. I think it was an offer from a magazine. Sometimes it's nice
to have decisions like that taken out of your hands. I sowed three of
them - Cherry Bomb, Jalapeņo and Numex Twilight. This year, I've sowed
some "Thai Dragon" just today (don't take that as advice though - I'm
sure it's far too earyly if I had any sense!)
Cherry Bomb was certainly the most successful. I could easily have had
enough from those plants alone, but Jalapeņo also did well, if a bit
later. It was an incredibly cool and wet summer, which is far from
ideal for chilis, but they didn't really seem to mind - they set fruit
and ripened outside as much as I could want. Numex Twilight matured and
ripened much later, but it's very pretty with the tiny upright fruits
turning yellow/orange -- purple -- red.
Not much to choose between the first two for heat - neither are hugely
hot - but Cherry Bomb is probably hotter. How you prepare them makes
much more difference - leave all the pith & seeds and Cherry Bomb is
"hot enough" (for me at any rate), but if you're careful to leave just
the red/green flesh you'd hardly notice they're there. That defeats the
purpose of course
I've kept two plants of each over the winter, and they seem to be very
happy inside despite the lack of light. They're still trying to flower,
but I'm having none of it until it warms up - last spring I found fruit
didn't really form inside anyway. They'll just have to wait until I
plant them out again. I've also just sown half of one of the other two
packets - Thai Dragon. Probably much hotter.
From what I've grown, the variety I'd recommend would be "Cherry Bomb"
without any doubt. But chilis seem surprisingly easy to grow.
Biggest problem inside for me was spider mite (I think) and fruit not
setting. Biggest problem outside was slugs & snails, though they seemed
to be equally happy to eat the garden twine used to tie them up as to
eat the plants! Neither was much of a problem.
Germination was surprisingly easy (if slow) in general purpose compost
on centrally heated windowsills - 29 from 30 germinated in 3-4 weeks,
with one runty seedling that lived and fruited but never grew as well as
the others. They need heat apparently though: it would probably be
harder outside or in a greenhouse.
Good luck!
Peter