Advice and Tips for Growing Chillies

We've been growing chillies since the 1970s, so it's no wonder we're pretty good at it by now. Whether you want to grow chillies in one of our chilli growong kits, your own pots, or your garden, we can help you on your way to bumper harvests.

Chillies are one of the most popular plants to grow at home and with good reason. They add flavour, have health benefits and look gorgeous.

Bumper Harvest Producing Growing Kits

Our Gardening Angels grow a huge variety of chillies, from the super-hot Dorset Naga and Trinidad Scorpion, to the sweet Choricero and fruity Aji. The bumper harvests that our chilli pots and planters produce, means we always have plenty to share with visitors.

Where to Grow

The key to growing successful chillies is to find a sunny, sheltered spot and keep them regularly watered and fed.

The great thing about chillies (and sweet peppers) is that there are so many varieties to choose from. You can find a variety that is perfectly matched to your growing space and location.

Small varieties such as ‘Apache’ are perfectly at home on the windowsill but if you have the space in your greenhouse there is a vast array of flavour sensations to tantalise your taste buds.

Varieties to Grow

Chilli plants grow into small or medium sized plants from half a meter to two meters tall. How big they grow depends on the variety so choose a size that is going to comfortably grow in your space.

The colours and size of the fruit also vary. Although they all start off as green, they can ripen to red, yellow, orange, purple and even brown, again dependant on variety. If you are growing chillis for the kitchen rather than decorative, then be aware that some varieties such as Trinidad Scorpion can be extremely hot so choose with care.

Chilli Species

Chilli varieties are bred from several different capsicum species. The most common include annuum, chinense, baccatum, frutescens and pubescens.

Annuum are the most common species across the world and include the popular varieties such as Cayenne and Jalapeno as well as bell peppers.

Chinense chilli plants are quite delicate, and are best suited to growing inside. Habanero chillies are of the chinense species, along with the Trinidad Scorpion

Baccatum chillies originate from South America and can grow upto 5 feet tall. They include the Aji variety.

Frutescens are from Brazil and the Mexican city of Tabasco (giving its name to the popular variety). They are a bushy species growing up to 4 feet.

Pubescens are also known as Rocoto and originate from Bolivia. These are hardy plants with a long growing season.

Some of our favourite varieties are described below along with their relevant species.

Mild

• Fresno Supreme (annuum) – excellent for stir fries etc., thick, mild flesh.
• Pasilla Bajio (annuum) – Part of the Mexican Holy Trinity, zesty fruit are dark and brown.
• Padron (annuum) – Spanish tapas pepper is mild when small and green, and hot if left to mature.
• Hungarian Black (annuum) – Short, brown/black fruit with good flavour.

Medium

• Georgia Flame (annuum) – Sweet and spicy, thick flesh.
• Krimson Lee (annuum) – Excellent choice for pizza, thick sweet flesh
• Portugal (annuum) – Medium hot, large cayenne fruit, one of the first to begin to fruit
• Rocoto Red (pubescens) – Resembles a small bell pepper, sometimes called ‘Gringo Killer’, slow to mature
• Joes Long Cayenne (annuum) – One of our favourites, good for paprika as it dries well.

Hot

• Friars Hat (annuum)- Attractive, short, squat shaped fruits are brightly coloured, slow to mature
• Ring of Fire (annuum) - Thin, cayenne type fruit are good for drying and very hot.
• Pusa Jwala (annuum) - Popular in Indian curries, excellent knobbly feature.
• Trinidad Scorpion (chinense) - So called because the curl at the end of the fruit resembles a Scorpions tail, exceptionally hot.
• Chocolate Bhut Jolokia (chinense) - A chocolate coloured version of the Guinness Book of Record’s hottest chilli in the world
• Bih Jolokia – Another name for the Bhut Jolokia

Sweet

• Tasty Grill Yellow (annuum)
• TastyGrill Red (annuum)
• Corno Rosso or Corno del Torro (annuum)

Sowing

To grow successfully from seed, chillies require an optimum temperature of 18° to 22° with plenty of bright light. The seeds need to be germinated indoors to protect them from the cold.

If you have a heated greenhouse or propagator, seeds can be sown as early as February but for unheated greenhouses, sowing is best left to late March or early April.

Sow seeds thinly in trays of moist seed compost and place in our Vitopod heated Propagator. Take care not to over-water as the compost needs to be moist but not soggy. Once the seeds have germinated and grown two true leaves, pot on into 75mm pots or rockwool cubes and grow on in a warm, light space.

Once the plants have established a healthy root system, at approximately 25-35cm high, plant out into final position.

What do I need to get sowing?

• 1. Seeds - From a Garden Centre or choosee from our range of starter seed packs
• 2. compost
• 3. Seed trays or small pots - For sowing your seeds until ready to re-plant at 25- 35cm tall.

Get your seeds off to a great start with our award winning Vitopod Propagator

Growing On

Traditionally chilli plants are transferred to larger pots. Chillies hate irregular watering as they are very thirsty - under watering or sporadic watering can easily stop the growth of your chilli plants, however over watering can be just as damaging as your chillies need good access to oxygen by the roots - little and often is the rule here.

Unless you are growing in one of our Chilli Growing kits with our plant nutrients, feed your chillies with a general liquid fertiliser until they are established. Following that use a high potash fertiliser to encourage your chillies to flower and fruit. Keep them weed-free and keep an eye out for the common pests.

For easy maintenance and superior yields (more to feast upon), a Grow Kit can make all the difference. Grow Kits ensure your plants will get just the right amount of nutrients and will never be over watered or under watered - helping to keep you stocked up with lots of lovely chillies.

What do I need to get growing on?

A large growing container/pot, or one of our clever self watering growing kits.

Chilligrow

Standard pots are fine, but our Chilligrow has been designed to provide the best growing environment for your plants.

Transfer your best 3 young plants into a Chilligrow and grow them into mature plants that will produce bumper harvests. The 7 litre SmartReservoir keeps your chillies perfectly fed and watered at all times without ever over watering.

Each pot is 6 litres, large enough for healthy root growth but small enough to encourage early fruit development, giving fruit time to ripen and giving the plant time to produce bigger chilli harvests.

The Chilligrow is drip-proof, meaning it can be used indoors and outdoors.

Price: £26.90

Caring For

When your chillies reach about 20cm tall give them some support by staking with a small stake and secure with garden twine. As they are getting taller swap the small stakes for a larger cane.

To help pollinate your flowers, using a moist watercolour paint brush gently 'paint' the inside of each flower.

If growing in a pot you can usually plant out at the end of May in their final container, but if growing in one of our Grow kits your chillies can into their final planting position much upto 3 weeks earlier.

One of the most important aspects of growing chillies is getting the watering right, they are very thirsty plants. During hot periods, especially if grown inside a greenhouse, you will need to water regularly, usually twice a day. As dry compost will lead to a check in their growth.

The first flowers will appear when the plants are still quite small. When this happens you will need to start feeding with a liquid fertiliser high in potash, any tomato fertiliser will be fine.

Need more advice?

Our Gardening Angels are always on hand to help you with any 'caring for' questions you may have.

Simply pop us an email at info@greenhousesensation.co.uk or give us a call on 0845 602 3774. We will have your questions answered in less than 2 working hours.

Pests and Diseases

Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails are the biggest problem for the Chilli grower, usual signs of a slug or snail attack are the usual slime trails, the young branches near the base of the plant have been stripped away overnight or often the centre of the leaves have been munched away.

These prefer dark damp places to live so basic housekeeping such as keep your plants free from any fallen leaves and manually remove any slugs or snails you find. Alternative methods to deter slug and snails include copper tape or rings, or sprinkling egg shells or used coffee grounds round the base of the plant.

Aphids

These can infest you chillies at any time of the season. They look like tiny white flecks usually gathered around the shoot tips, flower buds or young leaves. An easy solution to these pests is to spray your chillies with a very weak soap solution. Natural predators of the Aphid are lady birds and hover flies, attract these to your garden by planting marigolds and other bright flowers around your chillies.

Mould and Rot

If you are growing in pots, do not over crowd the chillies, keep them well ventilated, and water regularly but not too much. Symptoms can include mould on the leaves, soft fruit, and fungus around the stems.

The usual causes of this is over watering or under watering, so if you are growing in any of our Grow Kits you simply will not suffer with any of these problems.

Harvesting

You generally harvest from July to September using scissors or a sharp knife. You can pick chillies green or red, however there are some varieties of chilli that will not go red in this climate, and will remain green. However for most chillies they do turn red, and a general rule is the redder they go the hotter they will be. You can pick them green and they will turn red but they do wrinkle and dry out, we much prefer to leave them on the plant until they need to be picked.

Before the autumn frosts you will need to harvest the plants, a good tip is to remove the branches and hang them upside down so the fruit continues to mature.

Overwintering your Chillies

Overwintering Chillies

For bigger harvests of your favourite chilli you could overwinter your plant. We overwinter our Trinidad Scorpion, this year is its 5th year. Overwintered plants will usually produce a better crop in their second year as the plants can get started more quickly in the spring and enjoy a longer growing season.

Capsicum pubescens (such as our Rocoto Red chilli) tend to overwinter better than Capsicum annuum (such as Joe’s Long or Portugal).

What is overwintering?

Overwintering is the practice of providing a protective environment for a plant throughout the winter. The lack of light and the colder temperatures mean that plants don’t grow much at all between October and January, but an overwintered plant can get off to a head start when the light returns in February or March.

How to overwinter your chilli plant

For bigger, earlier harvests follow our Gardening Angel tips of how to overwinter your chillies;

Preparation

• Only attempt to overwinter your strongest looking plants as weaker plants will have a much lower survival rate. Choose only the healthiest pest and disease free plants.
• Pick - Harvest all the fruit from your plants, including the immature ones. If the plant has unripe fruit then you can ripen them off the plant. Try placing them in a bag with a ripe banana as the ethylene given off the ripe fruit will encourage ripening.
• Prune - Once the leaves begin to drop, prune your plants leaving about 10-15cm of the main stem.
• Pot - If your chilli has been grown in the ground you can carefully dig it up and plant into a pot. Any loose old compost can be gently removed, pot up in fresh multipurpose compost. You can also trim back the roots slightly and pot into a smaller pot to help concentrate the energy.

Overwintering Care

• Watering - The temperatures are lower so the plants will use far less water. Water less frequently to avoid damp conditions and deter mould build up. Check them once a week and water only when the compost is getting dry, this could be as little as every 2 - 3 weeks.
• Warmth - Keep your plants frost free, aim for between 5C – 12C. Anything over 12C will encourage your plants to grow and you don’t want this to happen until spring. We put our Trinidad Scorpion in a Vitopod heated propagator and set the thermostat to 10C. You can add extra layers depending on the height of your plant.
• Allow plenty of airflow around your plants to avoid bacterial and viral disease build up. With the Vitopod we recommend opening the vents fully.

New season

• In late February/early March, when the days start to get longer and the weather warms up your plants will start to grow. This is when you can turn the temperature up in your propagator to about 22C.
• Re-plant - By mid to late May your plants won’t need any further protection.
• For professional results view our multi award winning Vitopod Propagator and mini greenhouse.

Our Chilli Friends

Here at Greenhouse Sensation we have many friends in the chilli community who love the results they get from our planters and propagators.

Wiltshire Chilli Farm: Greenhouse Sensation tunnel - 6 Quadgrows, 2 Hydrogrows, a GS200 and a Octogrow - these contain some of the hottest chillies on the planet including the Trinidad Scorpion, Red 7pot, Douglah, Yellow 7pot and Devils Tounge

What Do I Need

To get started you will need

• 1. Seeds From a garden centre or choose from our range of new starter seed packs. Each starter pack includes 4 packets of seeds for £5.80./li>
• 2. Compost
• 3. Seed trays or small pots for sowing your seeds until ready to re-plant at 12 - 15cm tall.

To 'grow on' your seedlings you will need ...

A large growing container or one of our clever holiday-proof growing kits for a guarenteed succesful harvest

Quadgrow - For Bumper Chillies in soil...

Choose our best selling set of 4 Self-watering Pots

These sets of pots are perfect for growing bumper harvests of Chillies.

Even the thirstiest of Chillies are kept perfectly fed and watered at all times thanks to the 35litre reservoir, so you don't have to worry about holiday-watering.

The optional lids protect against late frosts and a frame is available to keep your plants on the straight and narrow.

In 2009 we harvested 7.9kg of fruit from one Quadgrow.

Price: £52.90 for 4pot kit.

Solargrow - For Bumper Chillies in pebbles...

Choose our Solar-powered Planter (Solar Panel included) - Solargrow

Raise bumper harvests of your chillies in this large planter which feeds, waters and super-oxygenates plants 2x every hour thanks to a solar-powered pump and solar panel (both included).

Even the thirstiest of Chillies are kept perfectly fed and watered at all times thanks to the 35litre reservoir, so you don't have to worry about holiday-watering for your chillies again.

Very simple to use - just keep the integral reservoir topped-up with our specially fomulated plant food and let the Solargrow do the rest.

“I gave up after counting 140 IIdi tomatoes on one truss” Mr Finlay reporting on the results from his first season using our Solargrow.

In 2009 we harvested 9kg of fruit from one Solargrow

Hydrogrow - For the Biggest Chilli Harvests in water...

For impressive professional results- Hydrogrow NFT

Grow the biggest harvests of chillies professionally with electric pump powered watering. This hard-working growing kit constantly pumps water and nutrients directly to the plant roots, so you can produce 3 to 4x more yield than in standard pots.

“The results we've had with these kits are truly brilliant” Robert Ballantyne, Commercial Grower February 2010

Keep the professional results even when on holiday - thanks to our holiday watering Kit which will keep even the thirstiest of chillies watered and fed for up to 2 weeks.

We harvested 245 Nepali Orange chillies from our Hydrogrow NFT in 2009.

Windowgrow - Bumper harvests on your Window ledge

Ideal for dwarf chillies

Grow your own chillies on your windowsills in our Windowgrow which keeps chillies fed and watered thanks to the SmartMat powered watering.

“I love the Windowgrow. I can finally grow my own despite having no outdoor space – and it takes care of holidays.” Emma, our very own foodie apartment-dweller.

Our Windowgrow is a hit with all of who see it. It can be used indoors without leaking water onto your windowsill, keeps plants watered whilst you go on holiday and gives you greener fingers.

The Windowgrow even includes plant food and a clear lid which keeps soil warm to speed up seed germination.

Chillies in our Greenhouse

Our greenhouse and polytunnel have been home to many varieties of chilles over the years, and this year is no exception. We try to plant all our systems with chilli plants that will grow at a similar rate to give each plant the same amount of light. You can visit our greenhouse to see all our chilli varieties along with many other plants. Please click here for details.

In the greenhouse we have 3 systems dedicated to chillies:

Chilligrow

The Chilligrow is planted with Caldero, Poinsettia & Brazillian Sweet Lady Finger

Caldero is a compact Chilli plant that grows to 45cm high. It has conical shaped fruits that mature from a creamy yellow to orange to red. The thick-fleshed pods measure 2.5cm wide by 8cm long and are sweet with a medium heat.

Poinsettia produces very hot clusters of upright fruit, 5-6cm long by 1cm wide. The fruits matures from light green to bright red. The plant will grow to a height of 45cm.

Brazilian Sweet Lady Finger chillies have no heat! It offers a sweet smokey flavour that is often lost in the heat of other varieties.

Quadgrow Square

The Quadgrow Square is planted with Portugal, Hungarian Black, Padron & Ring of Fire

Portugal are sturdy upright plants and can produce high yields. They have large smooth, glossy, bright-scarlet, fiery hot fruits that taper to pointed tips. The plants will grow to 180cm.

Hungarian Black are highly ornamental and useful in the kitchen. Their green foliage is highlighted by purple veins and beautiful purple flowers. These are sturdy plants which will grow to 100cms. It produces abundant yields of 6-8cms fruits similar in shape to jalapenos, but shiny black ripening to red.

Padron chillies are also known as the Spanish Tapas pepper. The plants can grow to 2m high and produce a continuous crop throughout the summer provided you keep picking them. If left to mature, the fruits turn a light red and grow to about 10cm long and 4cm wide at the shoulder.

Ring of Fire is a hot cayenne type which is very quick to mature. One of the first hot chillies to ripen, it grows on an upright bush and can be picked green or red. This is a very productive chilli and should grow to over 100cms.

Windowgrow

We have also planted a Windowgrow with dwarf varieties. These include: 2 x Prarie Fire, 2 x Demon Red and 1 x Little Elf

Prarie Fire is a small bushy plant which is fantastic as a pot plant for the house or patio. The chillies mature through yellow and orange to red and the plant grows to 20cms tall. Prarie fire can produce up to 100 chillies per plant.

Demon Red has been bred especially for the windowsill and pots. Demon Red is great for cooking and used fresh. Fruits are elongated, with a slightly rounded end and are 5 to 6 cm long. Fruit colour is bright green to vivid red at maturity.

Little Elf is a small Hungarian chilli plant that will make itself at home on your windowsill or even at the front of a border. It produces masses of colourful chillies in colours from cream, to yellow, orange and red. The little chillies are quite hot and the plant will grow to around 30cm.

Useful Links

The Upton Cheyney Chilli Company is in its third year of chilli growing, specialising in commercial growing for the onward manufacture of their own range of sauces, jams, chutneys, and salsa’s. Growing within 4 poly tunnels are a variety of Chillies including various Habanero’s, Jalapeno’s, Serrano and Dorset Naga.

Based in Bristol/Bath, we supply a number of Farmers Markets and food fayres as well as hosting our own Chilli Festival in September and a ‘new season chilli growers open day’ in January

The chilli farm is open to visit throughout the growing season - find out more at www.uptonchilli.co.uk

The Chile Man introduces a sense of order to the chaotic world of classifying the many varieties, allowing users to search our database by chile name, heat level, species and even country of origin (Country of association). 'Hot searches' are also supplied to help you match the best varieties to your growing requirements. He also directs you to the top Chile forums on the internet and provide links where possible to reputable seed suppliers.

If that's not enough, the chileman provides you with a wide selection of detailed guides on everything you need to know on Chile peppers; from transplanting seeds, through to nurturing these fantastic plants and preparing mouth watering recipes. www.thechileman.org

Chillis Galore are Richard (nickname Wilf) & Kathy, who started growing chillis 20 years ago in Norwich, UK, really just to obtain some different varieties to use in cooking. After a few years of successfully growing and harvesting chillis this website was started to share some knowledge.

Over the years it has grown in popularity which a huge following worldwide, and led us to developing our own homemade chilli jellies, relishes and sauces from our own kitchen. Even now all our plants are still grown in greenhouses in the back garden where we grow different varieties each year to show and sell , and also use in our own products.

The progress of each years growing can be seen in the diary pages, for even more information you can freely register on our forum boards to participate in discussions of all topics chilli, lots of information, chat and tips for the novice starter to growers with years of experience. www.chillisgalore.co.uk

The Chile Foundry have now converted this former shop site into a blog with the aim of highlighting all the excellent manufacturers, retailers and events that can be found in the UK. www.chilefoundry.co.uk

Need more help? Ask our Gardening Angels

If you would like more information on growing chillies or simply have a question you would love answering, our Gardening Angels can help.

Give us a call on 0845 602 3774 or drop us an email at info@greenhousesensation.co.uk.