Hi Guys,

This is my first post and I am a total novice so please excuse my total lack of knowledge.

I have decided to grow chillies this year as I love eating them and so far so good, I have 26 plants in total with a mixture of regular chillies, Habanero, Japaleno and Serrano and quite a few are starting to grow buds.

I do not have a green house but I do have a conservatory so have been keeping them on/near the window sill in there. As you know, over the last few days we have had very hot weather and I expected the chillies to love this but every day I come home from work and they look like they are about to keel over and die!! I water them in the morning and my wife gives them a little drink at lunch time but by the time I get home they have wilted and look very sorry for themselves. They perk up as the temperature drops but I am concerned that this is damaging them and could affect the fruit they 'may' produce. I know that chillies like sunlight and heat but as there is no air flow in the conservatory so am I suffocating them?

It does seem that the plants that are away from the window sill are affected less so should I move them from the direct sunlight while the weather is so hot?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have other queries but will post these later.

Thanks in advance!

Stevie
(Novice Chilli Grower)

Stevie wrote:
Hi Guys,

This is my first post and I am a total novice so please excuse my total
lack of knowledge.

I have decided to grow chillies this year as I love eating them and so
far so good, I have 26 plants in total with a mixture of regular
chillies, Habanero, Japaleno and Serrano and quite a few are starting to
grow buds.

I do not have a green house but I do have a conservatory so have been
keeping them on/near the window sill in there. As you know, over the
last few days we have had very hot weather and I expected the chillies
to love this but every day I come home from work and they look like they
are about to keel over and die!! I water them in the morning and my wife
gives them a little drink at lunch time but by the time I get home they
have wilted and look very sorry for themselves. They perk up as the
temperature drops but I am concerned that this is damaging them and
could affect the fruit they 'may' produce. I know that chillies like
sunlight and heat but as there is no air flow in the conservatory so am
I suffocating them?

It does seem that the plants that are away from the window sill are
affected less so should I move them from the direct sunlight while the
weather is so hot?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have other queries but will
post these later.

Thanks in advance!

Stevie
(Novice Chilli Grower)




Your supposed to break them in gradually. A little sunlight, a little heat,
a little cold.
Then more.

Greg

Stevie wrote:
Hi Guys,

This is my first post and I am a total novice so please excuse my
total lack of knowledge.

I have decided to grow chillies this year as I love eating them and so
far so good, I have 26 plants in total with a mixture of regular
chillies, Habanero, Japaleno and Serrano and quite a few are starting
to grow buds.

I do not have a green house but I do have a conservatory so have been
keeping them on/near the window sill in there. As you know, over the
last few days we have had very hot weather and I expected the chillies
to love this but every day I come home from work and they look like
they are about to keel over and die!! I water them in the morning and
my wife gives them a little drink at lunch time but by the time I get
home they have wilted and look very sorry for themselves. They perk
up as the temperature drops but I am concerned that this is damaging
them and could affect the fruit they 'may' produce. I know that
chillies like sunlight and heat but as there is no air flow in the
conservatory so am I suffocating them?

It does seem that the plants that are away from the window sill are
affected less so should I move them from the direct sunlight while the
weather is so hot?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have other queries but will
post these later.

Thanks in advance!

Stevie
(Novice Chilli Grower)

Not knowing your climate makes it hard to say if outdoor growing or behind
glass is preferable. Similarly not knowing where you are makes it hard to
guess what you mean by "very hot weather" Do you have a figure in mind?
Here "very hot weather" means over 40C, YMMV.

What size pots are they in? If you have them in small pots they will suck
all the water out quite soon if in the sun and then they will wilt, this is
not good for growth as they will not photosynthesise properly while wilted.
Chillies need to be in full sun to bloom and to fruit well, this implies
having a steady supply of soil moisture as well.

Lack of airflow indoors may produce extreme temperatures but unless you say
what the temperature reaches in this conservatory we are all guessing. A
common problem with closed environments is that the humidity and
condensation encourage harmful fungi which can be very destructive.

David

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your input so far. By hot weather I mean North West England so temps around 27 degrees C but higher in the conservatory.

They are getting a steady amount of moisture and no obvious signs of funghi. They are all sat in 5" pots at the moment and some of the plants are getting on to 10 inches tall now. Is it time to re-pot them?

I am reluctant to put them outside, as they will get destroyed by pests.

As mentioned before, once the room cools and they had had a drink they perk up nicely with no obvious ill effects. Most plants have small buds at the very top now and are a nice healthy green with no discolouration so maybe I am worrying about nothing?

Stevie

They have been broken in mate, steadily getting more and more heat and light as the seasons have altered it's just that recently it has been very warm here or at least for NW England but chillies are supposed to thrive in the heat so I was concerned I was doing something wrong.

Cheers,
Stevie

Stevie wrote:
Hi Guys,

Thanks for your input so far. By hot weather I mean North West England
so temps around 27 degrees C but higher in the conservatory.


I would be opening windows if it was much hotter than that.

They are getting a steady amount of moisture and no obvious signs of
funghi. They are all sat in 5" pots at the moment and some of the
plants are getting on to 10 inches tall now. Is it time to re-pot
them?


If they wilt every afternoon they are NOT getting a steady amount of
moisture and in 5" pots I am not amazed.

I am reluctant to put them outside, as they will get destroyed by
pests.


You can get plenty of pests indoors too if you are not careful.

As mentioned before, once the room cools and they had had a drink they
perk up nicely with no obvious ill effects.

Yes of course but what you don't see is that they shut down their metabolism
while wilted.

Most plants have small
buds at the very top now and are a nice healthy green with no
discolouration so maybe I am worrying about nothing?

Stevie

You are not going to get mature plants with good fruit in 5" pots.

D

Thank you for your help David, it is appreciated.

I have moved them to larger 12" pots now and I am much more vigilant when it comes to keeping them watered. The weather has cooled somewhat in NW England so now we are getting little in the way of good strong sunlight but they seem happy enough and are growing at a real pace now. We are starting to get plenty of buds and some are starting to flower. This brings me on to my next question.

Pollenating:

I have read that once my plants flower I need to start pollenating them with a soft artists brush. What is the need for this, will my plants not produce fruit without this?

Stevie

Stevie wrote:
Thank you for your help David, it is appreciated.

I have moved them to larger 12" pots now and I am much more vigilant
when it comes to keeping them watered. The weather has cooled somewhat
in NW England so now we are getting little in the way of good strong
sunlight but they seem happy enough and are growing at a real pace
now. We are starting to get plenty of buds and some are starting to
flower. This brings me on to my next question.

POLLENATING:

I have read that once my plants flower I need to start pollenating
them with a soft artists brush. What is the need for this, will my
plants not produce fruit without this?

Stevie

There are a few plants that produce fruit without pollination but chillis
don't. Most edible fruiting plants benefit from insects to do the job (in
some cases it is essential) but some like corn are wind pollinated and some
will do it any way they can. As best as I can determine chillis will do
better with bees to pollinate them but you will get some fruit without.
Whether you want to go to the trouble of hand pollinating to make up for the
lack of bees is up to you. I grow outdoors and I have more bees than you
can wave a stick at so I cannot speak from experience about what happens to
chillis without bees.

David