Well it has been almost a month since i brought my chilli plants inside to overwinter them. As you can see from the photographs below they have burst back into life since i chopped them back in the middles of October. There are two main reasons the plants have sprung back to life: Heat: The…
Now that it looks like winter is fast approaching, i thought it was about time i started preparing some of my plants for the winter. As mentioned in our over wintering chillies article most chillies are not annuals as most people think. By taking your chilli plants you can get a massive head start on…
A question we are getting asked all of the time at this time of year is how to speed up the ripening process that occurs naturally in your chillies. In nature the two things that help your chilli peppers ripen are a constant warm temperature and long sunny days (lot of light). As summer fades…
Not sure when to pick your chillies? Learn how to tell when chilli peppers are ripe by colour, texture and variety — plus how to speed up ripening in the UK
About a week ago i noticed that one of my plants (an orange habanero) was infested with aphids. Aphids (sometimes called green plant lice) are small (usually, though they can vary in size quite a bit) green insects that feed on plants mainly in temperate regions. They quickly multiply and can be very destructive, usually…
As mentioned in my last update I put my plants under a cfl grow light to give them a boost having started off this season so late. As you can see from the pictures the plants have made great progress under the lights At the weekend I re potted the plants from the 3″ plastic…
The short answer: water chilli plants when the top inch of compost feels dry to the touch. In a UK summer this typically means every 2-3 days for container-grown plants, more frequently during heatwaves. Chilli plants hate both overwatering and underwatering — consistency is more important than frequency. That direct answer is what most people…
Up until a couple of weeks ago the chilli seedlings had been under regular flourescent tube lights down in the cellar. With the arrival of some good weather a few weeks ago I moved them outside into the mini greenhouse. Unfortunately the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse again – sunny…
Ok so the class of 2009 are well and truly germinated, one week after planting the seeds. To help speed things up i used a heat mat from a reptile aquarium (check out our post on speeding up chilli seed germination) to provide the seed trays with a constant source of heat. I germinated the…