The Chilli King

Growing Chillies In The Rain

Well, we’re still waiting for Summer to properly arrive here at Chilliking HQ and the rain is still falling. Despite all the grey clouds and rain we have had at least the temperatures haven’t been too bad (it was 17 degrees last night) and there has been some sunny spells to help get this years crop of chillies growing.

After a promising start the plants grown from the free Wahaca Serrano seeds in January turned out to be a disappointment. Many of the seedlings started off well but didn’t make it past about 10cm in height and only a couple have developed any further. Below is a photo of the best specimen….I guess considering the seed was free I can’t really complain.

Mean while the Aji Hots are currently producing some really beautiful little flowers….

Elsewhere in the chilli house the Trinidad Scorpion Moruga is looking incredibly healthy with huge lush leaves but no sign of any flowers yet while the various other plants are doing well with a few fruit starting to form here and there.

The only slight issue has been the annual aphid infestation that has (so far) only really affected the Cayenne plant. As ever I’m trying to resist spraying and am instead using my 4 point aphid control plan to minimize the damage. I’ve also got a crop of marigolds flowers growing which i’ll put in and around the chilli plants soon as they attract natural predators such as hover flies.

So al in all considering the poor weather it hopefully should be too long before we’re harvesting some chillies…