Spicemad

Well, the chilli growing season is now coming to a close and to be honest I'll be glad to see the back of it. It's been an odd season for sure, what with the slow growth due to the poor weather we had in July and my constant uphill battle with aphids on most of my indoor plants. Treating plants for aphids has been an almost regular task this season, but as soon as the first chillies started ripening I resorted to washing the aphids off with a hosepipe instead, just to keep them under control. When the bulk of chillies had ripened I harvested everything on the plants that had aphids and then took them down. I've also taken some plants down because they'd nearly finished and I needed to make more space.

We had new windows fitted recently, something which should have happened in February but didn't due to the Covid-19 situation, so all but one of the porch plants were moved into the glasshouse a few weeks ago so we could get through the front door. Those plants are still in the glasshouse and I have no intentions of bringing them back in unless it gets really cold. I've also moved several of the plants from the walk-in plastic greenhouse into the glasshouse so they could receive more light. These next two photos were taken this afternoon and show the chilli plants in the glasshouse.

Chilli Plants in the Glasshouse - 24th September 2020

The varieties that have now been taken down are: Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero x2, Mako Akokosrade, Peruvian White Habanero x1, Aribibi Gusano, Ring of Fire, Aji Mochero x2, Heat n' Neat x1, Inca Red drop x2 and Fidalgo Roxa. The rest of the plants still have lots of fruit yet to ripen, so they'll be staying on for a while longer. I also have an outdoor plant that didn't do very much during the summer, and three weeks ago it suddenly sprang into life and has now set lots of new fruit. If they grow to a good size then I will bring the plant indoors for a couple of months so they have chance to ripen.

These next 51 photos were taken between the 20th August and 24th September and show some of the varieties that have made a regular appearance in this year's posts.

Both Aji Mochero plants have now been taken down and I have a good-sized bag of ripe chillies from both plants. Most of them will be going into a batch of hot sauce over the next few weeks.

Aji Mochero - 16th September 2020

The Alberto's Locoto plant was moved from the garden and into the glasshouse about a month ago and I've been picking ripe peppers from it for a few weeks now.

Alberto's Locoto - 24th September 2020

Alberto's Locoto - 20th August 2020

Alberto's Locoto - 24th August 2020

Alberto's Locoto - 26th August 2020

The Aribibi Gusano plant has now been taken down, mostly because it had finished fruiting and also because it had aphids. The plant has been very prolific and plenty of these chillies have made their way into homemade salsas this year.

Aribibi Gusano - 20th August 2020

Aribibi Gusano - 16th September 2020

Both Chocolate Habanero plants are still with us for the time being and the first ripe chillies were picked about a week ago and have now been frozen.

Chocolate Habanero - 16th September 2020

Chocolate Habanero - 30th August 2020

Chocolate Habanero - 16th September 2020

The Habanero Numero Diez plant has produced a nice amount of chillies, but as predicted, most are undersized just like those from last year's plant. As mentioned in a previous post, I won't bother growing this variety again. I'll just stick to growing Orange Habanero instead.

Habanero Numero Diez - 16th September 2020

The Mako Akokosrade plant has now been taken down because it only had about 20 or so peppers remaining and also because it had aphids.

Mako Akokosrade - 20th August 2020

Mako Akokosrade - 16th September 2020

Mako Akokosrade - 20th August 2020

Mako Akokosrade - 16th September 2020

The Red Mayan Habanero plant is the only plant now remaining in the porch. As mentioned in the previous post, some of the chillies have an odd shape, but the plant has done much better than I thought it was going to do. I was intending to make a batch of hot sauce using some of these, but I'll most likely just keep them for day-to-day cooking instead.

Red Mayan Habanero - 16th September 2020

Red mayan Habanero - 16th September 2020

Red Mayan Habanero - 16th September 2020

Both Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero plants have now been taken down and were the two plants which were worst hit by the aphids. The Aphid God was very unkind to these two girls! However, I've still ended up with an excellent amount of chillies from both plants and I'll be making a couple of batches of hot sauce with them in the coming weeks.

Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 26th August 2020

Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 16th September 2020

Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 26th August 2020

Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 16th September 2020

Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero - 17th September 2020

As mentioned at the start of the season, I had no intentions of posting photos of any new varieties until I knew for certain that they were true to type. I now know that six of them are true to type, but there's one that I'm still not sure about, one that I definitely know isn't true to type and one that may have crossed at some point and will therefore not be shown on the website. Here are some photos showing four of the new varieties. You can find more photos of each one by clicking on the links and visiting the individual pages.

Both Peruvian White Habanero plants have done very well. One was grown in a 7-litre pot in a bedroom window and the other was grown in a 5-litre pot on the landing windowsill. The former has now been taken down because all of the chillies had ripened and because it also had aphids. However, the latter growing in a 5-litre pot hasn't been hit with aphids at all and still remains. Most of the chillies have now ripened but I'm leaving them for a while longer yet because this is the plant that I'll be saving seeds from for future growing seasons.

Peruvian White Habanero - 28th August 2020

Peruvian White Habanero - 16th September 2020

The Peach Habanero plant has done very well and I'll be growing this variety again for sure. Under better growing conditions I think this variety would be like a small pod factory. The chillies have a distinct sweetness and an excellent amount of heat.

Peach Habanero - 16th September 2020

Peach Habanero - 30th August 2020

Peach Habanero - 16th September 2020

The Paper Lantern plant has been an excellent producer and is still in the process of producing more fruit. There won't be enough time left this season for the new chillies to ripen unless I bring the plant indoors, but I still won't say no to a few extra green ones. This variety is known for being extremely prolific when grown under optimum conditions, but being battered by wind and rain at the front of a walk-in plastic greenhouse isn't exactly optimum, in my opinion.

Paper Lantern - 16th September 2020

Paper Lantern - 9th August 2020

Paper Lantern - 12th July 2020

Paper Lantern - 16th September 2020

Well, the Aji Largo plant, what can I say? This one has been an absolute pleasure to grow and has now become my favourite Capsicum pubescens variety. The plant did suffer from oedema at the beginning of the season when it was living in the porch, but it soon recovered after being re-potted and moved to a new spot in a bedroom window. The final pot size I used for this variety was 7-litres and it has been producing flowers and peppers all season. In fact, it started producing flowers very early on and even set four peppers whilst it was still growing in a small pot in the porch.

The stems on this variety are quite slender and flexible and I had a hunch that it would quickly turn into a Triffid if it wasn't controlled, so I built a cage around it using bamboo canes and then lashed an extra cane onto each side for training the main growth. The peppers have a great zesty flavour and an excellent amount of heat, and next year I'm going to grow two of these plants, one indoors just like this year and another one outdoors in a much larger pot.

Aji Largo - 16th September 2020

Aji Largo Flower - 15th June 2020

Aji Largo - 9th August 2020

Aji Largo - 16th September 2020

Here are some photos showing my three most recent chilli harvests. The first two were taken in August and the last one was taken about a week ago.

The varieties shown in this next photo are: Inca Red Drop, Mako Akokosrade, Heat n' Neat, Aji Mochero, Aribibi Gusano, Ring of Fire and Aji Largo.

Chilli Harvest - 21st August 2020

The varieties shown in this next photo are: Inca Red Drop, Aji Mochero, Mako Akokosrade, Aribibi Gusano, Heat n' Neat, Aji Largo, Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero, Paper Lantern and Alberto's Locoto.

Chilli Harvest - 26th August 2020

The Varieties shown in this next photo are: Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero, Fidalgo Roxa, Aribibi Gusano, Ring of Fire, Mako Akokosrade, Peruvian White Habanero, Red Mayan Habanero, Heat n' Neat, Aji Mochero, Inca Red Drop, Peach Habanero, Chocolate Habanero, Paper Lantern, Aji Lemon, Aji Largo and Alberto's Locoto.

Chilli Harvest - 17th September 2020

The rest of the chillies are still a few weeks away from ripening, and hopefully there will be enough time left in the season for them to do so before the weather really turns nasty. I shall be making lots of hot sauce in the coming weeks and for this I'll mostly be using the smaller-fruited varieties, such as Peruvian White Habanero, Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero and Aji Mochero. 👿

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Chilli Plant Update - 24th September 2020

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