Superhots

Hot and superhot varieties of chillies take a long time to mature so it's no surprise that mine have only started ripening now.  I dragged the camera out again for an update on their progress.

The yellow Scotch Bonnet has been a fantastic plant and is covered in fruit at various stages of ripeness. I grew this with seed collected from a Scotch Bonnet I bought at Sainsbury's.  Not bad value really considering I got a curry out of it as well!

My Black Naga turned out not to be black after all but more of a burgandy/brown colour.  I suspect that it's a Chocolate Bhut Jolokia. Still, the 1,000,000 Scovilles will come in handy I'm sure.

Now these shiny cherry-looking chillies are supposed to be Scotch Bonnets. Except that they're quite clearly not.  I bought these seeds online and, because the plant and leaves are the same size and nature as a Scotch Bonnet, suspect that these are a cross-breed with another variety.  I've not tasted them yet so  I'll report back with my findings.

More of the evil-looking Nagas.

The chilli cam

So I decided to dust off the macro lens and take a few more photos of the developing chillies in the garden.  As convenient as the compact or camera phone are, they cannot reproduce the fantasticly shallow depth of field (or 'bokeh' for you purists) that a macro lens and larger sensor can produce.

So, enough of the technical stuff, here's some pics.

A new chilli for me, the Twilight has just started to bear fruit.

The familiar Yellow Scotch Bonnets - still not quite ripe

The consistent Loco, still going strong 

My first Black Naga. Ok, so it's not black but this rare superhot should ripen to that colour.

The colourful ornamental Prairie Fire

Ancho Poblano, a mild, smokey Mexican chilli.

The photo edition

 For a change I thought I would ditch the compact camera and actually take some proper photos with a macro lens. So here's a few shots of some of the various chillies on the go at the moment, flowers, fruit and foliage.

Flowers on the rare superhot Black Nagas, whether the fruit is truly black remains to be seen.

Tiny fruit and flowers on the ornamental Prairie Fire.

Purple Jalapeno  

Explosive Ember

New Mex Centennial

Cayenne

Cayenne

Scotch Bonnet

Aphid Attack!

Greenfly is a constant problem, particularly for those plants grown on the windowsill.  The heat and lack of humidity are perfect conditions for these sap suckers.  Putting the plants outside will help slow the aphids but sometimes the infestation is so bad that the only resort is the dreaded pesticide.  Fortunately there are organic pesticides that will still allow you to harvest the fruit within several days of spraying.

Superchilli

Superchilli

The Superchilli is a real standout plant, producing mounds of hot red fruits.  Sadly I gave most of mine away this year but it's a plant that I'll definitely overwinter and sow more next year.

This unusual fruit is actually a Padron pepper.  Not only is it the wrong size but also the wrong shape.  I suspect that it's a cross-breed with the Chilhuacle Negro plant next to it.

Chilhuacle Negro

Hungarian Hot Wax

Black Hungarian (in the rain). 

Loco

A healthy crop of Friar's Hat chillies.  It's important to keep picking the fruit to encourage the plant to put out more flowers.

Orozco's beautiful leaves 

A two-tone leaf on the Orozco plant

Scorched!

Under the relentless heat the plants are having mixed fortunes.  Some are thriving in the heat with the forest of seedlings on the window sills are looking very lush and vigourous whilst the Habaneros and Black Nagas are putting on a growth spurt.  

Meanwhile there is plenty of flowers and fruit forming on the plants with the Superchilli bearing so much fruit that I've had to add extra sticks to support the weight of the branches.

Superchilli living up to its name

Loco

The Friar's Hat is ripening up quickly in the sunshine

Inferno

Meanwhile, some of the Padrons in the reception at work had to be moved outside as it was getting too hot for them inside.  Sadly a hot weekend in full sunshine proved too much for them and they were badly sunburnt.  Worst of all was a plant which had been blown over and proceeded to roast next to the scalding tarmac.  I've cut the plants back, removing the damaged leaves (and in the worse case, all bar 6 inches of the plant) and moved them to a more shaded location.  Hopefully they'll make a recovery, indeed a few new flowers have been spotted so all is not lost.

The scalded Padrons

Speaking of scalding Padrons, we harvested Claudio's peppers the other day and cooked them.  Firstly I've never seen such large Padrons before - for a chilli that's supposed to get up to thumb-sized at maximum, these were nearly twice the normal size.  The plants have been kept in a very hot conservatory and apparently need watering every morning.  I'm not sure if this is the reason for their growth spurt although Claudio suggested that it's because he talks to them in their native Spanish each day.

Upon tasting, these chillies were scarily hot, having a really good burn that lasted for some ten minutes afterwards.  According to all the literature, this particular chilli should only produce one hot one in ten but ours are consistently hot enough to have people reaching for the milk! I look forward to the next batch...

Potting on

Well, so far things ate trundling on quite well. I spent the weekend potting on chillies and now most if them have progressed into 1 litre pots or larger. I've been careful not to over-pot plants as having their roots restricted helps to encourage flowering and fruiting. However, some of the plants had started to get pot-bound and an addition of fresh compost has helped to perk ups few of the more tired-looking specimens.

The Padron Peppers get a severe haircut!

The new growhouse is performing well, keeping the plants free of the worst excesses of the April showers and with the somewhat sporadic sunshine some of those plants are starting to produce flowers and fruit.

The growhouse is rapidly filling up

Black Hungarian

Cayenne

Inferno

Hungarian Hot Wax

Friar's Hat

Not all of the plants have been so successful. A few of them have dropped most of their leaves and are looking somewhat sickly. I suspect this is due to over-watering so I need to keep a careful eye on then in the future.

A rather sad-looking Monkey Face seedling that didn't make the grade

The seeds from the Moroccan chillies have sprouted with a reasonably high success rate. These have been grown alongside some Pasila Bajio seeds,a mild and smokey chilli used in Mole sauces. The initial batch yielded only a couple of plants so I planted some extras, expecting only a few to sprout.  True to form, nearly all have germinated so, once again, the windowsills will be overflowing.

Pasilla Bajio and Mystery Moroccan seedlings on the windowsill

One of the prettiest chillies that I grew last year was the Orozco.  This highly ornamental plant produces small hot black fruit that ripen to red.  The variegated leaves start off dark and then lighten with mottled patches of white.  I've got a large Orozco that I overwintered from last year but I thought it would be worth growing on some new seedlings as it's a popular plant that attracts a lot of attention.

Orozco Seedlings

Orozco flowers and leaves

Summer already?

Hungarian Hot Wax on the office windowsill

Well, not really but it certainly felt like it earlier with the sun streaming through the windows at work.  The reception area (a.k.a. the Greenhouse) was sweltering and the poor chilli plants certainly felt it. Interestingly enough, with the Padron and Orozco wilting under the relentless heat, the Friar's Hat seemed more than happy.  Well they better get used to the heat, after all, it's only February and come the summer we'll be growing some of the most stressed (and subsequently hottest) chillies in the neighbourhood.

Orozco feeling the effects of the heat.

A somewhat wilted Pimientos de Padron.

Meanwhile, back at home the chillies are progressing nicely.  The larger of the plants sown in December are now large enough to need support (wooden kebab skewers do the job perfectly) and even the slower-growing hot varieties are doing well.

Black Naga seedlings

Gino chillies

The mysterious seeds given to me at work (dubbed Gino Chilli) are also growing well.  Can't wait until they fruit so I can have a stab at identifying the variety.  Sadly the second batch of Cherry Chillies haven't sprouted yet either, which is a shame as I had some stuffed with goat's cheese on the weekend and they were delicious.  Also a bit slow on the uptake is the Pasillia Bajio chillies, a variety used in Mexican mole sauces, which I'm also very keen to grow.  I have faith that they will come eventually, I'm just not very good at being patient.

The younger seedlings thrive under the grow light. Once they get older they're moved to a windowsill.