Kitchen Garden Forum

I discovered yesterday the wind has snapped off the top third of my only Black Hungarian Wax chilli plant which has three branches on it, lots of flowers and is bearing its first small fruit. It snapped off at a stem joint and although it looked virtually dead by the time I discovered it, I put it in water overnight & it has revived beautifully. So can I save it and get it to re-root like tomatoes do as I want to save seeds from it?

If I leave it in water for a few days will it start developing roots, or would I be better dipping the stem in hormone rooting powder and putting it straight into some damp compost? Any suggestions please?

I don't really want to guess about the best way to save the broken stem, and suspect anyway that under such stress the stem might abort any flowers or fruit already formed and concentrate on surviving by putting out new roots. Good luck with that. But what about the other two-thirds of the plant? If there are leaves there, I would have thought it is highly likely that the plant will put out new shoots from the leaf axils, as happens when you deliberately pinch out the top of plants to make them bushier. Also, if the stems are brittle, it may be an idea to give them some support with canes.

It will re-root, just like tomatoes, either in water or compost.

Good luck!