Recommend a chillie variety

[marshbrewer]

After successfully growing a green pepper plant last year for the little ones brownie gardening badge, we want to grow some chillies this year. I'd like a nice juicy variety, hot but not Naga type hot, as I mainly want to put them in salads. Jalapeno would seem the obvious choice, but I thought I'd ask in here as I know there are a few chillie growers among us. Is there a better choice that is fairly easy to grow?

 

[foxy]

After successfully growing a green pepper plant last year for the little ones brownie gardening badge, we want to grow some chillies this year. I'd like a nice juicy variety, hot but not Naga type hot, as I mainly want to put them in salads. Jalapeno would seem the obvious choice, but I thought I'd ask in here as I know there are a few chillie growers among us. Is there a better choice that is fairly easy to grow?

I keep away from the bred varieties now, I am pretty sure Jalapeno is the hottest natural chilli so that and any others lower on the Scoville scale growing the Cayenne chilli would be good for kids they grow in abundance, dry them and you will have enough for 2 or 3 years.

Little known fact chillies are not actually hot just our senses reacting to the chilli chemical make up, birds can eat them without feeling any of the heat and the seeds get spread after passing through the bird and picking up its own supply of nitrogen.

 

[Subtle Duck]

Hungarian hot wax is always a good variety to grow and slightly hotter than jalapeños. If you want a pretty plant try numex twilight.

 

[Clint]

After years of growing hideously hot varieties this year I'm growing jalapeno,Cayennes and maybe one other...
I'm going to have a good crack at aubergine too.

 

[johncrobinson]

The best chillies i grew were from a Walthamsow fruit and veg stall they were green when i bought them,I let them go red then planted the seeds.The plants were FAR more vigiourus than seeds from a garden centre packet.

Now I live in Scotland I dont really get enough sun to grow them in a year so now i grow the plants year 1 and get a crop year 2.
Lincoln should be fine (indoors)

TIP start them off as early as you can Febuary is good.

 

[Horners]

Thai dragon I did last summer were ace. Nice long fruits and a hundred of them on one plant. Might be a bit on warm side for a garden salad but a thai beef salad definitely...

 

[johncrobinson]

If you like ginger wine a bit of chilli in it is a nice addition.

I agree with clint some varieties are just silly hot.!!!!!

 

[Hanglow]

I've grown chillies for about 7 years now and have also settled on not so hot ones after growing some of the stupid hot ones. Just too much for me!

Aji Limon are easy to grow, produce a lot of peppers and overwinter well. They are fairly hot but have a great flavour

There are a whole different variety of jalapenos now, you can get orange and purple ones if you like jals but want a bit of variety

Biquinho are really tasty and look good, they take a long time to ripen but overwinter fine. Small plants and very small peppers

Bishop's Crown are easy to grow and produce nice looking peppers, they can get pretty big as plants.

This year I have some biquinho and espelettes I overwintered, and will grow Aci Sivri, Kashmiri, Alleppo and some more early Jalapenos from seed. I'll start this weekend with heat mats and grow lamp

 

[marshbrewer]

Thanks for all the great replies. I've ordered some Jalapeno, Cayenne and Thai dragon seeds and I'll see how I get on.

 

[Stockport1]

Please check your finished chilli fruits. If there is a tiny black mark on the skin or what looks like a tiny black hole. Discard them. I grew chillies last year. Had an abundant crops. Some of them were the naga and scorpion varieties. As a previous poster mentioned the heat doesnt affect some animals birds or insects. I found after cutting the affected ones open the was a small grey maggot inside. Obviously laid by a flying insect. If unsure cut the affected ones in half and check before using. Sorry to be negative. I'm from the NW of England. Not some tropical country. I was very surprised.

 

[Hanglow]

Good protein :)

 

[Stockport1]

Of course!