RETURN OF THE CHILLI KING

[ROD 'MR CHILLI' HOLMES]

Good afternoon one and all.

For your information Mr Chilli is back and is looking forward to a great summer of all things 'scoville'.

Had a very good year (06) with the most fantastic crop of 'Padron de piemento' Other success stories included:
Hungarian Hot Wax
Thai Dragon
Numex Twilight
Aji Lima
Agi Panca
Tabasco
Hot Tepin
Pinocchios Nose
Hot Cheyenne
Early Jalapeno
Ring o' Fire
Prairie Fire
Red Cayenne

All of the above performed better than expected (Global Warming ?). All grown outside on an allotment with a constant South-Westerly, straight in the ground, no pots, no fleece etc etc

Anyone wanting a chat or answers to 'all things great and chilli' add to the page. (Hopefully I will know the answer)

Regards

Mr Chilli

[cevenol jardin]

Chillis & peppers are some of my favourite things to grow. Is Padron the green type that are used for Spanish Tapas sometimes called Russian Roulette? If so i need to add that to my list.

My selection of Peppers for this year are:
Sweet Pepper
Doux D’Espangne
Quadrato d’Asti giallo
Doux Tres Long des Landes
Topepo Rosso (round Italian)
Medium chilli
Golden Greek Pepperoncini Pepper (for pickles)
Ciligia Piccante (Italian round for stuffing)
Pimiento L Pepper (for paprika powder)
Barcelona Red Round (self saved for use fresh, stuffed & preserved in oil)
Hot chilli
Cayenne (as always for dried chillis and powder)
Lemon Drop (under Kokopelli guardianship)
Romanian Hot Antohi Chile Pepper
Kashmiri (for Indian cooking thanks to collin for the seeds)
Thai Red Peppers (self Saved for use dry or fresh)

[Marge]

</taking off hat to both of you>

[Marge]

Amidst all the other stuff I had to do today I (& Retired Father) repotted all the chillis I sowed early on this year... and boy, were there loads of plants to repot!

There are 8 pots on my bedroom windowsill and 7 on in my computer room (better than calling it a junk room ), and as I didn't have room for them all in the house I have decided to try some outside by a south facing wall. Some are in pots and some are in situe with cloches.

There was about 85% germination and the plants have gone from strength to strength. The big question is what am I going to do with all these chillis?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Marge, if you ever think what you are going to do with them, do let us all know.
Maybe supply all the resturants Oop North

[cevenol jardin]

Way to go Marge

I dry some chillis and string them as presents for friends at christmas. They look gorgous my friends love em.

[Colin_M]

Chillis & peppers are some of my favourite things to grow. My selection of Peppers for this year are....

Hi CJ, are you going to try the Trinidad Seasoning peppers this year? Mind you I can understand if you don't have room!

Colin

[cevenol jardin]

Hi Collin
I've got the Kashmiris you gave me well underway 4 plants about 3" high. But not sure about, the trinidad Seasoning peppers this year. I don't know what they are need to find out so i'll know what to expect and how to use them.
What i might do is sow them in August in pots in the house. That's what i did with the Thai chillis last year and it worked a treat they are about 14" high now and starting to flower so they are about ready to plant out in the tunnel to get my earliest chilli crop i would say about may fingers crossed.

[cevenol jardin]

Mr Chilli
Here's 3 questions -
you said

[quote="ROD 'MR CHILLI' HOLMES"]
Had a very good year (06) with the most fantastic crop of 'Padron de piemento'

is this the pepper used green in Spanish Tapas bars can also be called Russian Roulette?

Do you have a picture of last years crop.

Do you fancy swapping seeds for any of the peppers i am growing for padron?

[Primrose]

A question for Rod Holmes please. I've read that it's possible to hard prune back chilli plants at the end of their summer fruiting, bring them indoors and they will flower and fruit again. I tried this last autumn & got a few flowers and a couple of tiny fruits but my plants, once indoors, were overcome by whitefly.
Has anybody adopted this practice and can you reap a second successful crop if you keep them well fed?

[Colin_M]

I've read that it's possible to hard prune back chilli plants at the end of their summer fruiting, bring them indoors and they will flower and fruit again.

Even without pruning, you can get some chillis to flower & fruit outside our Summer months. I regularly over-winter chilli plants in a conservatory (had one lot of Trinidad Seasoning on the go for 5 years).

I always assumed that the plants I had came from an equatorial region, so were happiest when the day lengths were more equal than our Summer.


Colin

ps the problem I've always had with overwintering peppers indoors is heavy aphid attacks in the spring.

[Szmiti]

I also tried bringing indoors peppers at end of last year - all large, strong, healthy plants. Within a week, everything (including the room they were in) was infested with whitefly - and that was that .... Few days after - when deciding on what to do - couple of huge caterpillars appeared (seemingly) from nowhere and ate what was left Won't be trying that again !

Currently 11 types of peppers on the go now indoors - some chilli, some sweet, some strong (Jalapeno). Just need a bigger garden now - what with all other other things planned ...

[Primrose]

Well I suppose it's reassuring to know that even in Hungary you have the whitefly problem although I'd imagined that possibly a harsher winter climate there might have deterred them. I just wish I knew what triggered this whitefly epidemic because when I grow my peppers and chillis outdoors in the summer I never seem to get a hint of them. Perhaps they don't thrive in atmospheres where there's a breeze and that indoors where the air is completely still, it's an ideal situation for breeding. Funnily enough, yesterday I put outside two basil plants which were infested with whitefly on my kitchen window sill. I sprayed them with water until they were dripping wet and put them outside in the sun where there was a slight breeze. Today when I checked them, the infestation seems to have greatly reduced.

[Geoff]

RHS mag this month has a chilli article.

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
White Fly are a bane of many gardeners lives because once they are there they will remain there however hard they try to get rid of them.
However with your Basil plants may I suggest before you dowse them with water you lift up the leaf and on the underside you will note the scales which are the next generation ready to hatch out. If you rub those out and then hose down I feel that you will actually get rid of them eventually. Keeping the scales down is certainly the way to proceed. By hosing, the WF that are existing, will be deterred from laying any more eggs on those plants.
Sadly without chemical treatment when you spray water all you are doing is moving the WF onto other of your plants or what is worse onto another gardeners produce. So they are just as likely to be back with you shortly because by hosing you do not resolve the problem.
JB.