Spicemad

Hello from North Wales, on this somewhat cool, windy and partially overcast day. As of writing this post, it has just finished bucketing down with rain and now the sun is shining, but for how long, I wonder? Yesterday, it pretty much rained non-stop all day, and quite heavily at times too. Sadly, you know what that means, right? The weather has definitely started to change for the worst now and the 2024 chilli growing season is almost finished. Then again, the weather here in the UK is unpredictable at best, so it could change and turn quite nice again for a while. We can only live in hope! The chilli plants have done remarkably well this year considering the poor weather and the late start. I'm now beginning to wonder whether chilli plants even like sun or whether they just tolerate it because they have no other choice. 😁

The porch plants have been producing very well. I've been picking green chillies from the Bangalore Torpedo plant for several weeks now and using them in my Indian curries. I'll most likely harvest the remainder of them at the green stage and freeze them for later use. I'll just leave a couple on the plant to ripen so I can save seeds for next year. I've also been picking and freezing ripe Mako Akokosrade chillies for several weeks. A few weeks ago, I marked out two pods for seed saving and I'll leave those on the plant for a few more weeks yet before de-seeding them. At the back I have a Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet plant and a Chocolate Habanero plant. Both have lots of pods on, but given how the plants weren't started off until April there is still a few weeks remaining before the bulk of the fruit ripens.

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 21st September 2024

The Aji Largo plant has produced a respectable amount of peppers given the terrible weather it has had to endure. However, it's only now that the first pepper is starting to ripen, so Gods only know how long it will be before the others begin to ripen. There are some good-sized peppers on the plant too. Along with my other C. pubescens plant, it will be moved into the glasshouse in a few weeks once the remainder of the tomatoes have ripened. There is no room at present.

Aji Largo - 26th September 2024

Aji Largo - 27th September 2024

I have two Bell Pepper plants and both have done quite well. Over the last few weeks, I've picked quite a few of them at the green stage to use in salads and stir fries, and the ones shown in this next photo have been left on the plant to ripen. Some of the peppers on the plant shown below have grown very large. The other plant has produced peppers that start off purple and are smaller and thinner-walled. I have no idea what colour they ripen to because I haven't had a ripe one yet. The seeds for both plants came from a packet labelled as 'Spectrum', so they could be any colour.

Bell Pepper - 26th September 2024

The Fatalii plant has performed very well in a 5-litre pot in a window, which is less than ideal conditions for most chilli plants. Since harvesting the remainder of ripe chillies the plant has now produced another 10 pods (that I can see). This variety is definitely not a great choice for window growing, but it can be done.

Fatalii - 23rd August 2024

The San Isidro Rocoto plant is doing okay, but as with its cousin, Aji Largo, the weather hasn't exactly been kind to it this season. It is growing very slowly and a couple of weeks ago some of the top growth was damaged in a hailstorm. It too will be moved into the glasshouse in a few weeks.

San Isidro Rocoto - 26th September 2024

The Scarlet Lantern plant was slow to get going but it has now produced a respectable amount of chillies. I've no idea how long they will take to ripen, but given how it is a Peruvian variety it should be able to handle slightly lower temperatures than many other C. chinense varieties. If the weather gets too cold I will move it indoors to give the chillies chance to ripen. We haven't come this far just to give up! The first photo was taken on the 7th September and the other two were taken yesterday.

Scarlet Lantern - 7th September 2024

Scarlet Lantern - 26th September 2024

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion plants have been like pod factories this year. I already have a decent amount of ripe ones in the freezer and they will be used up over the coming months in chicken phall curry and in batches of hot sauce. Here are a few photos that were taken over the last month or so.

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 23rd August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 27th August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 7th September 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 26th September 2024

Due to a lack of time and poor weather conditions I haven't had the chance to take photos of the plants, but here are a few photos showing some of my recent chilli harvests. All but four of the Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnets that are shown in the following photos were harvested from just one plant growing in a 5-litre pot in a window. The bulk of Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnets, Chocolate Habaneros, Moruga Scorpions, Aji Largos and San Isidro Rocotos have still yet to ripen. Fingers crossed that there is still enough time left for them to do so.

Chilli Harvest - 27th August 2024

Chilli Harvest - 31st August 2024

Chilli Harvest - 2nd September 2024

Chilli Harvest - 7th September 2024

Aji Mochero - 7th September 2024

Chilli Harvest - 26th September 2024

I hope that your chilli growing season has been bountiful and that the Chilli Gods have blessed you with lots of wonderful spicy goodness! 😛

CC - PP - FF - 33 - 66 - △△

Greetings, chilli fans! The weather this summer in North Wales hasn't been great at all. The light levels have been pretty low for the time of year and the temperatures haven't been great either. We've had some days that have been fairly hot and sunny, but for the most part it has been overcast and cool. It's surprising how much light and heat the clouds have blocked out this year. As a result, the growth of the chilli plants has been much slower than usual. To add to that, some of my plants weren't started off until late March and early April, so this has set them back a fair bit. However, I'm happy to report that things appear to be coming along nicely now and all of the plants have set fruit.

This next photo shows the chilli plants in the porch. Somewhere in this mini jungle is a Chocolate Habanero plant, a Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet plant, a Bangalore Torpedo plant, a Mako Akokosrade plant, an over-wintered Malawi Bird's Eye plant and a bunch of small cacti plants (hidden behind the chilli plants and out of sight). I moved the chilli plants out of the porch recently to have a juggle around because one of them was blocking out a fair amount of the light. Since moving them back in I decided that taking them out again to get photos was a bad idea, so you'll just have to settle for the following group shot! 😁

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 15th August 2024

As usual, the Aji Largo plant is growing outside in a 12-litre pot but it has been quite slow growing due to the weather. However, it has now gone into fruit production mode and has set lots of peppers, a few of which have already reached full size. If need be, both of my Capsicum pubescens plants can be moved into the glasshouse later in the year to allow the peppers to ripen. However, I'm hoping to avoid that if possible because once inside the greenhouse the earwigs have a tendency to make holes in the peppers. They don't seem to have a preference between ripe fruit or unripe fruit; they just make a hole in one pepper and then move on to the next.

Aji Largo - 11th August 2024

Aji Largo - 17th August 2024

Aji Largo - 11th August 2024

The Bangalore Torpedo plant has grown very large and has set lots of fruit. When I juggled the porch plants around recently I tied the plant up to give the branches some extra support.

Bangalore Torpedo - 15th August 2024

Both of the Chocolate Habanero plants weren't started off until April, so as you can imagine, with the weather we've had this summer both plants are further behind compared to where they would normally be had they been started off at the same time as the rest. The plant shown in the photo below is growing in a 5-litre pot in a window and has already set fruit, some of which are already a respectable size. However, its counterpart growing in the porch in a 7-litre pot is only now going into fruit production mode. This isn't a problem because there's still plenty of time for the fruit to grow to full size. The plants can stay in the porch until Christmas if need be.

Chocolate Habanero - 15th August 2024

The Fatalii plant is growing in a 5-litre pot in a window because I wanted to experiment. In previous years, whenever I've tried to grow this variety in a window it always dropped its flowers and I was forced to place it in the greenhouse to get it to set fruit. However, this year I did things slightly differently and it has produced about 25 chillies, most of which are an average size. I picked four ripe ones from the plant a day before this next photo was taken, and I've since given the plant a dose of something to encourage it to produce more flowers. Hopefully, I'll get a few more chillies from this plant before the end of the season.

Fatalii - 15th August 2024

The Mako Akokosrade plant is growing in a 7-litre pot in the porch and it has now gone into full fruit production mode and has set lots of fruit. I've already harvested one ripe chilli from the plant, which was the first one to set on the plant a number of weeks ago. This is the first time that I've grown this variety in the porch. In previous season, I've always grown it in a 7-litre pot in a window and it has always performed very well. The flowers produce lots of pollen and the plants set fruit very easily. This is a very tasty African variety, and one which I highly recommend to all Capsicum chinense lovers out there!

Mako Akokosrade - 15th August 2024

The Malawi Bird's Eye plant is an over-wintered specimen and one which has remained as a small, prolific, low-lying bush. This next photo was taken on the 3rd August and shows the ripe chillies on the plant before being harvested. The second photo shows the harvested ripe chillies, and the third photo was taken on the 15th August and shows the second batch of ripe chillies on the plant. Those chillies have now been harvested and can be seen in the chilli harvest photo (the first ripe pickings of the season) at the bottom of this blog post. This is a very nice variety and the chillies make an excellent addition to any chili con carne or spicy curry. I'll be taking the plant down at the end of the season and starting some new ones off next year.

Malawi Bird's Eye - 3rd August 2023

Malawi Bird's Eye - 15th August 2023

The Orange Habanero plant is a bit of a runt and is growing in a 5-litre pot in a window. It has remained quite small all season and has been slow to grow and produce. However, it has now set a respectable amount of average-sized chillies.

Orange Habanero - 15th August 2024

As with the Chocolate Habanero plants, both of the Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet plants were also started off in April, and as a result they too are behind the rest. The plant shown in the photo below is growing in a 5-litre pot in a window and has now set a respectable amount of chillies for its size and growing location. Its counterpart, growing in a 7-litre pot in the porch, has only recently gone into fruit production mode but has already set a good amount of pods.

Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet - 15th August 2024

In my wisdom, I decided this year to grow the Peruvian White Habanero plant in a 9-litre pot in a window. This was a mistake! Although the plant has done very well and has produced a respectable amount of chillies, it has grown too large, and providing it with sufficient light has been quite challenging, especially with the low light levels we've experienced this summer. It hasn't grown leggy but I have had to do an occasional bit of pruning. With this variety having a compact bushy growth habit I assumed that growing it in a larger pot indoors would be less challenging compared to other varieties with different growth habits, but one thing I've noticed when growing chilli plants indoors in large pots is that often times the fruit can be undersized. A couple of years ago, I decided to grow all of my porch plants in 10-litre pots and that also turned out to be a mistake! The problem is, when growing large plants in a small space they all compete for light and in the process of doing so none of them get a sufficient amount. Growing chilli plants indoors is a bit of a balancing act.

Peruvian White Habanero - 15th August 2024

The San Isidro Rocoto plant is growing outside in a 12-litre pot alongside its cousin, Aji Largo. Just like Aji Largo, it too has also been slow growing and has only started setting fruit in the last two or three weeks. This doesn't concern me much because here in North Wales the chilli growing season normally ends around mid to late October. If the peppers haven't ripened by mid-October then both of the Rocoto plants will be moved into the glasshouse, where they'll be at the mercy of the earwig army!

San Isidro Rocoto - 11th August 2024

San Isidro Rocoto - 17th August 2024

As usual, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion plants are growing like weeds. I have two plants this year. One is growing in a 7-litre pot and the other is growing in a 5-litre pot. Both plants have spent the growing season outside in the glasshouse. The plant in the 7-litre pot suffered from a bad aphid infestation early in the season, and as a result it caused some of the leaves to become misshapen. However, the new growth is fine. There are full sized chillies on both plants and lots of smaller ones still in the process of growing. I picked a semi-ripe pod on Friday to put into my chicken phall curry, and that pod can be seen pictured next to the Fatalii chilli that I'm holding shown in one of the photos at the bottom of this post.

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 15th August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 17th August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 15th August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 17th August 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 15th August 2024

These next two photos show the first ripe pickings of the season.

Chilli Harvest - 15th August 2024

Fatalii and Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 15th August 2024

Despite the weather being mostly overcast and cool this summer, the chilli plants have still used a respectable amount of water, which I suspect has something to do with the peat-free compost I'm using this season. Even when the weather is rubbish like it has been this year, with a bit of perseverance and TLC the plants normally get there in the end, it just takes them a bit longer to do so. Anyhow, if you've managed to read until the end I hope that you have a great growing season and that you are rewarded with lots of spicy goodness. All hail the Chilli Gods! 😛

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