Chilli update

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I still can’t show you any ripe chillis. The best I can do is this:-

It’s an “Aji Limon” fruit, so when ripe will be bright yellow, but at present it’s just showing a vestige of colour. Both of my “Aji Limon” plants are over-Wintered ones (one is in its 3rd year). They have produced a lot of fruit this time, but for some reason I don’t understand, they have lost a lot of their leaves.


Maybe this is just a compensating mechanism whereby the plant wants to put most of its energy into fruit instead of leaves?

Curiously, some of the latest-sown chillis have developed fastest. This for instance is “Cayenne Thick”, which until a few weeks ago was one of the smallest of my plants, having been sown very late. It now has some big fruits, with more forming all the time.

I have two “Ring of Fire” plants, and my intention was that this “bog standard” variety would provide the bulk of my culinary requirements for regular fairly hot red chillis. In the event, it has been incredibly slow to develop, and has only just set its first fruit.

The “Alberto’s Locoto” Rocoto chilli has started producing fruit too. Initially it was only this one – which has already grown quite big:

But more little ones are forming now.

Much as I would like to, I don’t think I’ll get any fruits from “Jay’s Peach” and “Cheiro Roxa” again this year. Both of these have been exceptionally slow growers and are still very small. At least they have flowers, which is an improvement on last year!

I think this goes to show that some varieties do need more warmth and sunlight than others – and remember, all my chillis are grown outdoors.

No problems with the experimental “Challock Chilli” plants (2 of them). They are covered in fruits now, although those are still firmly green.


As I have mentioned before, the size of a chilli plant is strongly influenced by the size of the container in which it is grown. Mine are almost all in 10-inch pots, and the plants normally grow to somewhere around two feet tall, which is very appropriate for my small garden. Both of my Challock Chillis are this height.

“Puma” is one of the varieties which I would really love to bring to maturity. The fruits that set early on have hardly grown at all and are still about the size of a raisin, though one of them is definitely changing colour.

The plant has recently produced another big flush of flowers and more tiny fruits are setting. Maybe these ones will be less reluctant to grow?

“Nosferatu” is another one that has been slow this year. My one and only plant sat sulking for ages, refusing to grow, and then suddenly changed its mind. It has belatedly put out some buds:

I think it may be too late for it to bring any fruit to maturity, so perhaps we just have to savour the beauty of its foliage!

This is a success of sorts though - one solitary tiny fruit forming on the chilli I’m calling “Cozumel” after the town in Mexico where I sourced its seed.

I enjoy the challenge of growing chillis like this – new (to me at least) and with unknown characteristics.

“Serrano” is not looking bad either, although the plant is very small by normal standards. The pods are an exceptionally dark green colour, aren’t they?

The last one I’m going to show today is not a chilli at all, but a Sweet Pepper. It’s the one I call “Turkish Bell Pepper”.

This plant (my only Sweet Pepper) has struggled this time. It has only set six fruits, and two of them were attacked by some insect or other (which bored a big circular hole into the fruit) and subsequently died. The remaining four are just beginning to show signs of ripening, but I fear that the dark patch seen on the one second from left in my photo is actually decay rather than ripening!

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