My Outdoor Chilli Plant Isn’t Growing!

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About 3 weeks ago I wrote a piece on moving chilli plants outdoors. It is often difficult to judge when it is OK to do it, and it is always a compromise, it is where I live anyway.

So I thought I’d update people as to what my plants are up to. Generally, I keep all mine in the greenhouse until they grow so big I have no choice, and if any go outside I’m always picky and try to keep the best ones under glass.

This time, just as an experiment I planted one outside on our patio in a stone pot to see what happens. I did this much earlier than I would normally do, but in doing so I was mimicking the dilema which most chilli growers that don’t have a greenhouse. I also put one in a raised bed, and kept the others from the same batch inside.

And after about 3 weeks, here are some results.

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The outdoor plant has had some pretty good weather, not perfect, but OK. It has had warm days and cool nights to start with, some rain, a fair bit of wind, and not too much in the way of pest damage, just a couple of nibbled leaves as you can see. But this has still taken its toll, down to 8°c on some nights, some cool winds and a max of maybe 23°c in the day times isn’t ideal. The leaves are curled and quite tough, but mainly the plant has grown slowly, maybe 20cm high and hardly branched out with not many extra leaves, though it is starting to flower.

I stress that this plant hasn’t been neglected at all, it has beeb watered whenever it needed it, fed, staked, and moved about to shelter it from the worst of any wind.

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The one in the raised bed (above), has fared better. The leaves have toughened, but not curled much, it has more side shoots and the flowers are more developed. This is because it has been protected from the elements with green mesh around and over the bed too stop the wind and raise the temperature, the soil temperature is warmer and more stable too.

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The third one (above), has been kept in the greenhouse all the time, and has grown a lot more. It is taller and probably has twice the amount of foliage than the outdoor one, there are more side shoots, more flower buds and it is looking generally more healthy.

All these plants are the same variety, grown alongside each other until they were separated for this experiment. They are a variety called Nigel’s Outdoors, not one I have grown before, nor one I am familiar with. The seeds came to me as part of a swap I did with Alex the Air-Pot Gardener, a friendly chilli grower here in the UK. I assume it has been bred, (no doubt by someone called Nigel), to be more tolerant to the conditions of my experiment. Other varieties may not have fared even as well as this one. I suspect a similar experiment with habanero plants would have resulted in the outdoor plants not growing at all.

So what is the lesson here?

  • In temperate climates keep your chilli plants indoors for as long as you can, it will pay dividends.
  • Don’t expect too much from your chilli plant if you put it outdoors before the warm summer nights and while it is still young and tender.
  • The outdoor plant won’t grow as quickly and you won’t get as much of a crop.

Watch this space for another update in a few weeks. I suspect we might be picking fruit of the one in the greenhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

When can my chilli plants go outside?

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Let’s be honest, unless you live in a Mediterranean or tropical climate, you will, like me and millions of other chilli growers, be looking to put plants outdoors as soon as you can because your window, conservatory, polytunnel, or whatever, is never big enough to house all of your chili plants. It is never big enough because we always grow too much, it’s a bad habit.

I grow too much, I don’t need as many as I grow, I give them away, which brings me joy, but still I end up with an overflowing greenhouse and want to move them out into the elements as soon as I can.

So… When is it safe to do it and what special care should you take?

Remember, especially it the UK, it is always a compromise, they will never do as well as they would in the shelter of a greenhouse, but follow these guidelines to give your plants the best chance possible.

1/ My book has loads about temperatures, but just to summarise – If they go below about 18°c they won’t grow (some need even higher temperatures). You needn’t worry about them getting too hot. Even UK record high temperatures will make them jump for joy. Look at the forecast and judge accordingly, they can go cooler at night, but keep an eye on both daytime and night-time temperatures. For me this is, and it is the same most years, about the beginning of May through to early September.

2/ Think about bringing them indoors at night or in cold weather. They will benefit from this protection. It doesn’t matter if you put them in a dark corner, or even a garage, it is night time anyway.

3/ Try and only move established plants outside. Pot on your seedlings into their big pots but let them get established before they go outside. Tender small plants are more likely to get bashed by the wind and rain.

4/ Use big pots, these will keep moisture levels more balanced in drying winds and when the plants get bigger they won’t blow over. They also store heat during the daytime which keeps the roots warm at night.

4/ Protect them from the elements – Put them in sheltered warm spots, try and shelter them from wind as much as possible with trellis or other plants, anything to stop them being bashed.

5/ Stake the plants – Wind causes so many problems, in particular the constant swaying movement which loosens the stem at the base and tears at the roots. Also, use small sticks to support branches when the plants get bigger. Wind is your enemy.

6/ Don’t assume that rain is enough to keep them watered. I can’t emphasise this enough. Think about when you water a plant, you probably give it about 1/2 an inch at least. Very rarely do we have that amount of rain in the summer, especially on a daily basis. A light shower will get the surface wet, but it won’t reach the roots. Also, when they are kept against a wall they may be in a ‘rain shadow’; everything else nearby gets wet, but they get nothing.

7/ Too much rain can be a problem too. During we periods remove any trays from beneath pots so they aren’t sitting in water. If there is a storm forecast, then try and bring them into somewhere sheltered.

8/ Keep feeding them! Outside plants need all the help they can get, and regular feeding will keep the roots healthy and help them withstand the drying effects of wind. Use chilli plant feed or standard tomato feed.

A Miserable Chilli Plant

A fairly miserable, poorly fed and bashed chilli plant. (A deliberate experiment!)

8/ Move pots around regularly to search for slugs and snails hidden beneath. Look in the holes in the bottom of pots too. For small plants particularly this will be the biggest and most immediate threat the their existence.

9/ Holidays – If you entrust their care to a neighbour and you only have a few plants, they might get better care if you carry them round to their garden rather than making the neighbour come to you. Reward your neighbour with plenty of chillies, they might get hooked too. Alternatively consider planting them in a self watering system, more expensive, but at least it guarantees they are watered and fed for up to 2 weeks while you are away.

10/ Choose the right varieties – Be realistic, habaneros, scotch bonnets, and most of the super hot chillies need higher temperatures than our climate will give, and a longer growing season too, they really won’t do well outside unless you wait till they are fully grown, and you might not have the space for that. Stick to varieties that grow quickly or withstand harsher weather, Hungarian Wax are picked early, Bulgarian Carrot are very tough, and reasonably hot, Aji (Capsicum baccatum) varieties are also very resilient, with woody stems and small leaves. Apache F1 is nearly always foolproof as it is so quick and also compact, or for something hot and brightly coloured try Twilight.

Carolina Reaper – Growing the Hottest Chilli in the World

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I grew the Carolina Reaper for the first time last year, so I thought I’d relate my experiences and give a bit of info on what to expect.

This is the current record holder for the hottest chilli in the world, over 1.5m SHU.

I have probably grown most of the very hot ones over the years, but I don’t grow an awful lot of them as I’m not mad keen on super hot sauces and I find them quite difficult to offload onto other people, either as seedlings, mature plants or fruit. I obviously move in the wrong circles, most of my friends are happy to take anything I give them, but whether it is plants or fruit, they tend to prefer milder stuff.

Carolina Reaper

Carolina Reaper

The seeds, which came from Nicky’s Nursery and germinated well. I got 7 out of 10, which is pretty good going. On milder chillies I would expect 9 or 10 out of 10, but I am happy with 7 in this case. I always bang on about how difficult some of the very hot chillies can be, and how you have to get conditions absolutely right to get good germination but I’d say these performed well, proving that the seed stock was of good quality. I germinated them next to some Bhut Jolokia which did almost as well, so I must have got conditions right as Bhuts are very temperamental, susceptible to drying out or temperature fluctuations at critical times, and often take a long time.

These were all germinated in a heated propagator, in the region of 28-32°C and with constant humidity, and most were up within 12 days. More on germination times here. I used to use capillary matting in the bottom of propagators but these days I use about a cm of slightly moist sand to maintain a more steady level of warmth and humidity. This takes away the need to water the seed pots much at all, and the sand dissipates the heat coming from below so the pots don’t dry out from the bottom up. Once seeds have been planted in moist soil & vermiculite there probably won’t be much evaporation as the propagator lid is closed, so they won’t need to be drenched every day. As soon as seedlings start to emerge in a pot I move it to another propagator with a more open lid (or none at all)  to give them more air flow.

I started the seeds along with most of my others, during the first week in March. I know these have a long growing season, and need the best start as possible, but I am an advocate of not planting seeds too soon. Experts in growing super-hots might start them earlier than this, but only do so if you have the conditions to keep them healthy when the nights are still cold, even indoors. You may need artificial lighting too, don’t put yourself in a situation where they grow tall and straggly. You are better off planting a bit later and growing healthy plants. more on light here.

Generally the plants grew well, out of 7 plants there were a couple that didn’t seem to take and were slightly stunted, so these were relegated to the compost heap. The Carolina Reaper fruited a bit earlier than the Bhut Jolokias nearby, which is great, and generally had more fruit on them too. Like all of the super-hots these definitely respond to being given big pots and more room for root growth, you can get a pretty big plant if you give them a good chance in life. By big plant I mean up to 1.5m high, and 1m wide. I put one in a bucket sized pot, and got it to 1m. Put it in a barrel for something bigger, but don’t expect it to fruit quite as early, and consider where you might put it if you want to keep it over winter. Often it is best to keep things like this in a more manageable pot.

Gojenje Cilijev - Slovenian Translation

Gojenje Cilijev – Growing Chillies in Slovenia

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Dobrodošli!

I know that since the Slovenian translation of Growing Chillies – Gojenje Cilijev came out in April I have an increasing number of blog readers from Slovena. Although you have a translation of my book I am afraid that wasn’t down to me, the kind people at Ebesede did this, so I can’t help by translating all the content here into Slovenian, but I hope you can understand most of it if you need to!

I will be visiting Ljublijana from 18-21st September 2015 to coincide with the release of Kuhajmo S Cilijem – Which will be released around this time.

 

You can come along and get signed books at the Cili Festival, https://www.facebook.com/CiliFestival this will be held at Lepi Žogi, Ljublijana on Saturday 19th September 2015. There is going to be a chilli cooking competition and a hot sauce competition too.