It's now reached that point in the season where everything starts coming together nicely and all my efforts are rewarded. The freezer compartment starts to fill up once again with wonderful spicy goodness and I get to taste new varieties for the first time, which is always fun! As much as I like chillies I don't always eat them on a daily basis, and even now I still have a fair amount of pods in the freezer from last year. The green ones are usually the last to get used up, so this year I intend to leave the chillies on the plants for as long as possible to ensure that nearly all are ripe before being picked. There's a lot of ripening taking place here now, so I think it's time for an update.
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| Chilli Harvest - 9th September 2019 |
Two weeks ago the
Red Mayan Habanero plants were treated for aphids, but before doing so I picked off all the old green chillies and removed some of the lower growth to allow for more light and better airflow. No doubt this will have set them back by a few weeks, but it's no big deal because if necessary they can remain in the porch with the heater on until Christmas. Welcome to the chilli plant luxury hotel and spa!
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 9th September 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
The
Chocolate Habanero plants have been very productive this season, which may be due in part to me hand pollinating the flowers. This variety is always worth growing because the chillies make for an excellent hot sauce. Both plants are several weeks behind the rest of the tribe because the seeds weren't sown until around the 10th March.
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| Chocolate Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Chocolate Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
Jalapeño M chillies take an entire age to ripen and so far I've only picked about eight. Two chunky pods were de-seeded on Sunday evening and a third one is marked out, but looking at how many seeds I have from the first two pods it already appears to be enough. My seed stock for this variety needs replenishing because the old batch was saved in 2015.
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| Jalapeño M - 8th September 2019 |
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| Jalapeño M - 8th September 2019 |
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| Jalapeño M - 8th September 2019 |
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| Jalapeño M - 8th September 2019 |
The
Ring of Fire plant has produced lots of wonderful spicy goodness, and most of the chillies have now been picked and
frozen. The remaining ones are going through the ripening process as I write this and should be ready for picking in a couple of days.
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| Ring of Fire - 8th September 2019 |
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| Ring of Fire - 29th August 2019 |
Picking ripe chillies from the
Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero plant is an almost daily routine at this stage in the season, and just when I think I've picked them all I catch a glimpse of something yellow from the corner of my eye and find another cluster hidden away beneath the foliage.
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Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019
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| Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019 |
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Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 9th September 2019
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I've still not had any ripe chillies from the
Cap 1445 plant yet, but that may be about to change now that the weather has turned autumnal. It appears that this variety requires a fairly long growing season. Once the tomato plants have finished it will be moved into the glass house so the remaining berries have chance to ripen.
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| Cap 1445 - 10th September 2019 |
The
Mini Rocoto Brown plant was moved numerous times throughout the summer and didn't appear to be doing much, but now the nights have become cooler it has started producing a lot of flowers and even looks to have set a few fruits. I don't know what will become of this plant to be honest. If it sets fruit then it can spend winter in the glass house, but if not then I'll take it down and start a new one next season.
I don't think it's very keen on the compost either. Normally I make up my own mixture using two types of compost with a couple of additions, but when I came to re-potting this plant I'd ran out of my usual mixture and had no choice but to use bog-standard multi-purpose compost instead.
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| Mini Rocoto Brown - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mini Rocoto Brown Flower Bud - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mini Rocoto Brown Flower - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mini Rocoto Brown - 8th September 2019 |
The
Mako Akokosrade plant is growing in a 7-litre pot in the bedroom window. The pot is raised off the floor by about two feet to ensure that the top of the plant receives sufficient light to prevent it from growing leggy. It has remained the same height all summer and appears to be very happy where it is.
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
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| Mako Akokosrade - 8th September 2019 |
I love the flavour of these
Aji Mochero chillies, and they pack a nice amount of heat too. I think the plant has performed very well considering it's growing in a 5-litre pot on a kitchen windowsill and only receives direct sun from about 3PM until sunset. Several people have commended on how attractive this variety is, and they're not wrong either.
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| Aji Mochero - 8th September 2019 |
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| Aji Mochero - 28th August 2019 |
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| Aji Mochero - 1st September 2019 |
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| Aji Mochero - 1st September 2019 |
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| Aji Mochero - 9th September 2019 |
The
Habanero Numero Diez plant is another variety growing in a 5-litre pot on a kitchen windowsill, and in terms of fruit set has done very well. Most of the chillies have been undersized, but there have been some very large ones, two of which have now been picked and set aside for
seed saving.
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| Habanero Numero Diez - 8th September 2019 |
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| Habanero Numero Diez - 28th August 2019 |
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| Habanero Numero Diez - 8th September 2019 |
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| Habanero Numero Diez - 8th September 2019 |
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| Habanero Numero Diez - 8th September 2019 |
I picked a glut of ripe chillies from the
Malawi Bird's Eye plants about two weeks ago and they're now in the process of setting more fruit. Some of those chillies can be seen in the photo below this next one. When the plants require water next I'll give them a light feed. I don't feed smaller fruiting varieties as often as the larger ones.
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| Malawi Bird's Eye - 8th September 2019 |
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| Chilli Harvest - 29th August 2019 |
The
Aji Guaguao plant has set more fruit since the last update and I noticed earlier that another four pods are starting to ripen up. This variety is obviously not one that's well suited to being grown on windowsills, so please don't let my ramblings put you off from trying it. When grown under optimum conditions the plants can be very prolific.
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| Aji Guaguao - 8th September 2019 |
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| Aji Guaguao - 8th September 2019 |
Aji Rainforest is a variety that requires a fairly long growing season. Most of the Aji Lemon chillies have now ripened, but so far I've only picked about four ripe ones from this plant. In previous seasons when all
Capsicum baccatum varieties were grown in 7-litre pots the Aji Rainforest chillies were some of the last ones to ripen up.
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| Aji Rainforest - 25th August 2019 |
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| Aji Rainforest - 8th September 2019 |
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| Aji Rainforest - 8th September 2019 |
I've grown
Aji Lemon many times since 2009, but none of the plants ever produced chillies as large as some of the ones I've had this year. I don't know why that is; perhaps I went a bit mad with the feeds. The chilli shown in this next photo is just an average-sized one though.
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| Aji Lemon - 8th September 2019 |
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| Aji Lemon - 9th September 2019 |
So as you can see there's lots of ripening taking place here now. The Red Mayan Habanero plants are still flowering and setting fruit and the Mini Rocoto Brown plant has still yet to decide on what it wants to do. Apart from that everything is going as expected.
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| Chilli Harvest - 30th August 2019 |
The chillies shown in this next photo have been set aside for de-seeding, which is something I'll get around to doing in the next couple of days. Chilli seeds can last for many years if stored correctly, but as a general rule I like to save new ones every four years or so, just to be on the safe side.
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Chillies for De-Seeding - 10th September 2019
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I'm really impressed with how well this season has gone considering the weather hasn't exactly been chilli plant friendly. It won't be long now until it's time to start making more hot sauce and another batch of curried apple and chilli chutney. All hail the Chilli Gods!
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.jpg "Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019")
.jpg "Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 8th September 2019")
