So who's growing chillies 2021?

[Oneflewover]

I am! But then I do every year .

It's always tough to select what to grow but I've got Dorset Naga, Michael's Magic, Turtle Claw, Jamaican Jerk (all capsicum chinense), Tropical Orange (capsicum pubescens), and Madre Vieja (capsicum baccatum) in the propagator with reasonable germination so far.

I'll get my capsicum annuum sown at the start of March (they don't need so long a growing season) but haven't quite decided what I'll grow yet.

What are you growing / will you grow this year?

 

[Clint]

Arghh! I'm well behind!! I must try to sort it this week...
I'm only going to try and grow cayenne and jalapeno..
I've been prepping the poly tunnel...just need to be able to get to my parents as my dad has a load of well rotted pigeon muck...

 

[chillipickle]

Should get some planted this year, been a while since had a good crop.Do like a nice chilli kick, but flavour is just important, used to love red savina’s
couple of old pics...

 

[chillipickle]

Hope we can get back to some sort of normality, chilli festivals and craft beer+ sunshine!

 

[Oneflewover]

Arghh! I'm well behind!! I must try to sort it this week...
I'm only going to try and grow cayenne and jalapeno..
I've been prepping the poly tunnel...just need to be able to get to my parents as my dad has a load of well rotted pigeon muck...

Plenty of time to get cayenne and jalapeno started in my book Clint

 

[Oneflewover]

Should get some planted this year, been a while since had a good crop.Do like a nice chilli kick, but flavour is just important, used to love red savina’s
couple of old pics...

Nice! That yellow pepper is a beaut!

 

[BeerCat]

Jalapenos, chocolate nagas and penis chillies.

 

[chillipickle]

Bhut jolokia, pretty hot but lovely flavour.

 

[chillipickle]

Quality seeds if any one needs them.
https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

 

[Clint]

I used to grow and eat as hot as I could but although I still like the burn the increasing quest for hot is no good for anything the next day...

 

[chillipickle]

Same Clint, but these days it’s a lot safer going for flavour rather than chilled Andrex

 

[Clint]

 

[Hanglow]

From seed - spaghetti and kashmiri Chilli Pepper Seed 'Spaghetti'

overwintered - biquinho, jalapeno and aci sivri,

 

[Oneflewover]

From seed - spaghetti and kashmiri Chilli Pepper Seed 'Spaghetti'

overwintered - biquinho, jalapeno and aci sivri,

Have you grown spaghetti before? I grew it last year, and apart from the novelty factor of 10 inch chilies I was a bit underwhelmed in the heat and flavour departments.

Victorian nursery looks like a gem of a supplier though

 

[chillipickle]

https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/online-shop/chilli-seeds/biquinho-chilli-seeds/superb for oven baked pizza
easy growing all rounder.
https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/online-shop/chilli-seeds/apache-chilli-seeds/Amazing flavour and a good kick.
https://www.ukchilliseeds.co.uk/Red-Savina-Habanero-10-x-Seeds

 

[foxy]

Planted 4 varieties Habenero, Cayenne, Birdseye and Medusa. The Medusa is going more to the very mild, ideal for salads. My Habanero got lost in the great labeling disaster of September 2020. I also think some of my Birdseye may be mixed up with the Medusa.

Jalapeno used a few of these this morning making a Biryani as I didn't have any capsicum handy. On the right is Cayenne not ripened up yet I will dry these.


Birdseye and Medusa will transplant some of the Birdseye later we had some producing for years, even in the winter, though they looked very miserable.

 

[BlackRegent]

I have a large greenhouse in the garden which was there when we moved to our current house 6 years ago. I've grown chillies, tomatoes and cucumbers and some other bits and pieces. First couple of years were great and got some great crops, but it's been diminishing returns each year to the point that I may not bother to grow anything this year. The main problem is greenfly which seem to get worse year on year. It's the same depressing pattern - create lovely, lush plants. The greenfly appear around June/July time in biblical proportions. The plants are literally thick with them and I can never recover them back to health. I have tried bloody everything - squishing them, washing the plants, SB Plant Invigorator, pyrethrum and even Provado (I try to stay organic but I was desparate). They seem to just laugh it off and whilst it might reduce the population slightly they are back at it soon enough. It certainly doesn't kill them all stone dead!

I think a contributing problem is that with work and family life I often don't have the time to be checking the greenhouse several times a day.

But if anyone has some tried and tested methods for overpowering greenfly, I'd love to hear them as it's put me off greenhouse growing completely.

 

[JohnB]

Had a major problem last year with the whole lot of my young chili plants getting frozen off in the polytunnel, last week in May we had two nights at -4 DegC. This year I'm growing Machu Pichu, a coloured chili (ripen to brown) and I'm hoping to cold-smoke them to create Chipotle chili flakes. Also doing some bog standard mini peppers which did do okay last year, they were late sown so survived. I've been given a few seeds to grow, but I ain't got a clue what they are, apparently they're long and hot???

 

[barleytown]

Don't give up Blackregent.
Cured my greenfly problem by being a bit less kind to greenhouse crops. Lots of feeding = lots of green leafy growth =tasty greenfly lunch. Being slightly meaner pushes forward flowering and fruiting.

 

[BlackRegent]

Don't give up Blackregent.
Cured my greenfly problem by being a bit less kind to greenhouse crops. Lots of feeding = lots of green leafy growth =tasty greenfly lunch. Being slightly meaner pushes forward flowering and fruiting.

@barleytown
The problem is the greenfly congregate on new growth - so all of the growing tips and budding flowers get plastered. In practice this means the plants die back and the flowers don't get a chance to establish themselves. I would love to leave them alone and let nature take its course, but it just doesn't work.