Kitchen Garden Forum

OK so I think I have tracked down Sweet Pepper and Chili plants, at a Tescos store !!! the other side of town, so I wont be able to pick up until tomorrow.

Advise please, how many peppers grow on a plant, so how many plan do I need? Same goes for sweet Chili?

How do I treat them, sticks like toms, remove side shoots like toms?

Same question for Aubergine plants, I just don't know their growing habit?

CJS

Peppers - if anything pinch out the growing tip not the side shoots which will bear the fruit.

See RHS advice here.

I don't pinch out the growing points of my peppers, chillis or aubergines. However, last year I snapped the main stem of two of my pepper plants whilst moving them and thought this had finished them off but they merely bushed out, flowered and produced fruit about the same time as my other peppers, so make of that what you will. My pepper plants last year - a long Italian variety, bore about three medium/large fruits and one or two smaller ones but I guess the yield will depend on the size of the pot in which it's grown. (Mine are grown in 10 inch pots)
I grow Hungarian Wax chillis - a largish mild variety and probably get 7 or 8 chillis from each plant over the season from plants grown in an 8" pot.

I usually put three small canes round the pots and support the plants with twine when the fruits set as they can get quite heavy. The chillies usually set lots of fruits but the larger sweet peppers don't have many, and the aubergines need a nice hot summer to produce a worthwhile crop, so here's hoping. The flowers still look nice even if they don't set many fruits.