Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi,

I've grown lots of chilli plants this year - mostly successful. Plants inside and out have loads of fruit.

However, I have one 'ghost chilli' plant in the kitchen window which is flowering but is then not fruiting (I.e flowers falling off). It's a heathy plant - pinched out, yet still 3 foot tall, but the only one of this variety (other seeds didn't terminate). It gets watered and has slow release feed in the pot.

I've played at being bee in case it's not getting pollinated. However, Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks in advance.

Pawty

I wonder if your kitchen environment is too dry Pawty and whether misting it daily might help. I often find with chillies and peppers that for some strange reamson the early fruits don't set and drop off and then suddenly for no apparent change in conditions the fruit suddenly start setting. I think you just have to be patient with them. Might also help to give it a change of environment and put it outdoors for a holiday on warm sunny days, or even warm days when there's a little damp drizzle.

Is the pot size big enough ? Could it possibly be potbound if roots are showing through the bottom holes in the pot ? One other thing worth checking. The compost may look damp on top but still be quite dry in areas in the pot. When I removed my chilli plants from their pots at the end of last reason, despite the fact I'd been watering them regularly there were patches of dry compost in the middle of the root balls. A jolly good soaking every so often is probably better than a little every so often. They can be thirsty plants when growing rapidly.

I always mix chicken manure pellets in with my compost which seems to suit them.

Fine spraying with water might help the pollination, especially in the dry atmosphere of the kitchen.

Hi,

Thank you. I'll give it a try. This particular chilli is in a large pot - all are watered from the base so I can keep an eye on it. It's interesting, I have four chilli plants in the kitchen - the other three which are different varieties all have lots of fruit.

We harvested our first red chilli from one of the plants in the spare room yesterday - had a nice heat, but not too hot. There's going to be more than we know what to do with before long.

Pawty

Well don't worry about a surplus; they freeze beautifully !

Primrose, do you just freeze them in a poly bag as they are or do they need any preparation?

I just put my chillis straight in a bag or tub and they keep for ages. I do de seed the bell peppers and long pointy ones before freezing though.

I only grow Hungarian Wax now (one of the larger varieties) and just put them whole in a bag in the freezer. Every so often we will cook them down into a chilli paste which will keep for months in a small jar in the fridge. This makes cooking easier as we can just take out a small teaspoon of the mixture and add to whatever we're cooking which eliminates the problem of chopping up and possibly rubbing your eye by accident (or somewhere even worse if you're a chap !)

I have taken to chopping up surplus chillies and freezing in that form. Then you can add a sprinking as required. I have frozen Red Savina on hand for times of need. You do of course have to be quite careful what you do with your fingers after chopping up a batch.