Chilli Plant Update - 31st May 2024

The chilli plants are coming along nicely, and last Saturday all of them were re-potted into their final pots and moved into their permanent positions for the growing season. This year, I'm using peat-free compost and I decided to experiment early on with different potting mixtures to see which of them works the best for germinating seeds. The first seed sowing took place on the 19th February and most varieties took a long time to germinate and the germination rates were quite poor. The variety that germinated the fastest and had the best germination rate was Fatalii, which germinated in about seven days and had an almost 100 percent germination rate, which is quite interesting. Most of the other varieties took about three weeks to germinate.

I germinated a few batches of seeds for each variety in various potting mixtures and eventually found a mixture that works very well. The final seed sowing took place in early April (or there about), and the Chocolate Habanero seedlings and Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet seedlings that I decided to keep were from the final seed sowing because they looked the healthiest. As a result, those plants are only about seven or eight weeks old as of writing this and they can be seen in the photo below (the first plant on the left in the second row up from the bottom, and plants one, two and three from the left in the bottom row). After finding a seed sowing mixture that worked very well I then based the main potting mixture on that, except I changed the ratios and added one more ingredient. We'll see how well it works over the next few months. Since the last update, I also sowed seeds for Aji Mochero and Scarlet Lantern, both of which were sown some time during March.

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 15th May 2024

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 15th May 2024

To be clear, peat-free compost is not a problem. Peat is not the be all and end all of a good compost mixture. The problem is that here in the UK most of the commercially sold peat-free composts are of very poor quality and many growers struggle with them as a result. They are comprised of ingredients such as coconut coir, composted garden waste, green waste, composted wood chips, forest waste and composted bark. Some brands also add horticultural grit, horticultural sand (sharp sand) and gravel. The texture of many peat-free compost brands is often times very poor and it isn't uncommon to find large pieces of wood, twigs, pieces of plastic and large stones.

I only started using peat-based compost around 2018. Prior to that time, I always used peat-free compost for growing chilli plants and the results were always very good. New Horizon peat-free compost used to be manufactured by a company called Sinclair before Westland bought the company and changed the mixture. One of the ingredients they removed from the mixture was the green waste, which turned a very good product into a very poor one. I think one of the main issues with the peat-free composts being sold in the UK is that the ingredients haven't been fully composted down before they are mixed, bagged and sold.

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 24th May 2024

Anyway, I've been very busy over the last few months and re-potting the chilli plants was out of the question until last Saturday, when I managed to find a few spare hours to do so. The Chocolate Habanero plants and Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet plants would have been fine in their second pots for a few more weeks, but while I was at it I decided to give them some new shoes also. It saves me having to make up more potting mixture in a few weeks time.

Compost Mixture - 25th May 2024

Compost Mixture - 25th May 2024

Compost Mixture - 25th May 2024

Filled Plant Pots - 25th May 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 25th May 2024

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 25th May 2024

Mako Akokosrade - 25th May 2024

These next photos were taken between the 27th and 30th May and show all but one member of this year's chilli plant tribe. The tribe has now started banging the war drums! 😁

Aji Largo - 27th May 2024

Aji Mochero - 30th May 2024

Bangalore Torpedo - 30th May 2024

I have no idea what colour peppers these Bell Pepper plants will produce. The seed packet was labelled as 'Spectrum', which is a bit like a lucky dip. I'm hoping that one of the plants produces orange, yellow, brown or dusty pink coloured peppers. All of the Bell Pepper plants I've grown up to now have produced red peppers, even though it stated on the seed packets that they could be red, orange or yellow.

Bell Pepper - 30th May 2024

The Chocolate Habanero plant shown on the right in this next photo is grown from seeds that I purchased a couple of years ago. The plant that I grew last year was also grown from the same seeds. The two remaining plants are grown from my own seed stock. Last year, I just wanted to try something different to see what the results would be. Both strains are very similar. The two main differences I noticed are that the strain I normally grow is slightly smaller and it produces larger fruit.

Chocolate Habanero - 30th May 2024

Fatalii - 30th May 2024

Mako Akokosrade - 30th May 2024

The Malawi Bird's Eye plant shown in this next photo is an over-wintered plant. It spent the winter in a kitchen window without any leaves. A few weeks ago, I removed most of the old compost, trimmed the roots and re-potted it into a larger pot. It has bounced back very nicely and has already set a lot of chillies.

Malawi Bird's Eye - 30th May 2024

Orange Habanero - 30th May 2024

Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet - 30th May 2024

This year's Peruvian White Habanero plant is growing in a 9-litre pot. This variety has a compact bushy growth habit and is very well suited to being grown in a window. Normally, I grow the plants in 7-litre rose pots, but this year I decided to go a little bigger.

Peruvian White Habanero - 30th May 2024

San Isidro Rocoto - 30th May 2024

Scarlet Lantern - 30th May 2024

The Moruga Scorpion plant shown on the left in this next photo is growing in a 7-litre pot and the one on the right is growing in a 5-litre pot. The plant on the right forked/split very early but the plant on the left has still yet to do so. The plant on the left is growing in the porch and the plant on the right is growing in a bedroom window. It's not easy being a windowsill farmer. You get some very odd looks! 😎

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 30th May 2024

Chilli Plants in the Glasshouse - 30th May 2024

All of the chilli plants were also given their first full strength dose of fertiliser yesterday evening. I'll see how they get on, and if all is well they can have their second dose in about two or three weeks, by which time they'll be a lot bigger and much thirstier, especially if the sun decides to make an appearance. We've had a lot of rain here in North Wales over the last few weeks. I've even started building an ark just in case!

Below are a couple of photos of chilli plants that were grown in peat-free compost back in 2012 and 2013. The photo of the Red Rocoto plant was taken some time during the winter and shows the plant over-wintering in the front porch. Most of the peppers had already been harvested by that point and the remaining ones that can be seen in the photo ripened up very slowly over the winter and were ready for picking in early spring. To say it was a generous plant would be an understatement! The Caribbean Red Habanero plant was a monster and I wouldn't like to guess how many chillies I had from it. Both plants were grown in New Horizon peat-free compost when it was manufactured by Sinclair. 🌹

Red Rocoto - Winter 2012–2013

Caribbean Red Habanero - 16th September 2013

I hope everyone has a fantastic growing season and a very bountiful harvest. May the force be with you. All hail the Chilli Gods! 👽