Chilli update

This year, as usual, I have several different types of chilli on the go. I grow them not so much for their culinary potential (we eat a modest amount of chillis), but simply for the joy of growing them – and photographing them!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend just past, I had the chilli plants out in the fresh air and sunshine for several hours each day, acclimatising them to living outdoors. Up to this point I had been keeping them in the plastic mini-greenhouses during the day and bringing them indoors or into the garage at night. Early May has brought some very cold nights, and chillis don’t like such things!

As you can see, the chilli plants are all different in terms of size. Part of the appeal of growing chillis is that there are so many types available, some growing very big and some remaining tiny. I normally prefer plants that are not going to be huge – especially not tall because I find those to be very vulnerable to wind damage. An ideal chilli is this “Red Jalapeno” grown from seed sent to me by a friend in the USA.

This type of chilli plant will naturally fork into separate branches when it reaches about 18″ tall. If you want it to be even more compact, you can pinch-out the growing tip at an earlier stage.

It’s a tiny plant, but it already has loads of flower buds. I don’t know the official name for this one, so I have nicknamed it after the Garden Centre where I got it and the type of fruit - “Redfields Small Red”.

It looks as it will have plenty of fruit, and they won’t be too long in coming either.

This one is so tiny still that it may not mature in time to produce fruit this year – but it will be interesting to see if I can help it along.