Hoping for an Indian Summer

There's plenty of fruit beginning to set on the chillies but we still need sun to get it ripen. So, a little more sunshine would be greatly appreciated.

Loco

Padron

I manged to blow my head off with a plateful of Padrons the other day.  I endured a searing heat that had my eyes watering, nose running and about 20 minutes of stomach cramps.

Damn tasty though!

What is supposed to be a mild, sweet chilli with a 10% chance of being hot seems to consistently produce scorchingly hot fruit.  It's not just my plants either - the Padron plants that I gave to Claudio produce similarly hot fruit (although his chillies are significantly larger than mine).

Twilight

Hungarian Hot Wax

Yellow Scotch Bonnet

The Red Scotch Bonnet plant is beginning to set fruit as well although it's about a month behind its yellow cousin. Moving the plants outside has certainly slowed them down but with the windowsills overloaded and the constant aphid attacks, it was the best solution.

Explosive Ember

Explosive ember is a very pretty ornamental chilli with deep purple leaves and fruit.  It's a much more compact bush than the similarly coloured Orozco and I suspect would be better suited to a windowsill rather than Orozco's spreading habit.

Balloon

I'm gearing up to a chilli jam making session this weekend so I'm hoping for a few more fruit to ripen to add to the stockpile in the freezer. Hopefully I'll have enough to make a couple of batches of jam at different heats depending on people's bravery and spice tolerance.

Slow progress...

...it really is! Slowly the chillies are growing, slowly they're ripening but it takes the patience of a saint waiting for a decent crop.

For the forthcoming nuptials (yes, I'm getting hitched in a scarily-close five-weeks time) I've purchased a box full of miniature jam-jars and bottles to fill with chilli-related goodness. However, with the rate at which chillies are ripening in the inconsistent sunshine, I may be struggling to fill them all.

Thankfully, Claudio (the father-in-law to-be) has a regular production line of scorchingly hot Padron chillies on the go so I may have to make a special Galiciaian ex-pat sauce in his honour.

Padrons are supposed to be small, green and mild.  Not the way Claudio grows them!

However, all is not lost yet. The yellow scotch bonnet plant is doing well with half a dozen large fruit beginning to ripen. I'm particularly proud of this one as I grew it from seed rescued from a chilli bought at Sainsbury's. How's that for value for money, I got a tasty Carribean meal and a chilli plant for less than the cost of a packet of seeds!

The distinctive ribbed shape of the  Scotch Bonnet

I've had some success with my own Padrons with a steady supply of fruit. However, the superhots are still to make much of a showing with only flowers on the Black Nagas and not even any open flowers on the Chocolate Habaneros.

A reasonable crop of (slightly smaller) Padrons

It would appear that the mystery chilli seeds given to me by a colleague (previously referred to as 'Gino Chillies') are in all likelihood either Ballon or Friar's Hat. Now the plant has fruited it displays a healthy crop of the distinctive tricorn fruits.

Gino's chillies

Friar's Hat

Many of the other plants, particularly the Hungarian Hot Wax and the Cayennes have a good stock of green fruit, we're just waiting for the sun to give them a but of a boost and ripen them up in time for some wedding-themed hot sauces and jams.

Hungarian Hot Wax

Hungarian Hot Wax

The Loco plants are still producing a steady crop of small fruit

Cayenne

The late TrinidadScorpion, De Arbol and Cappa Conic seedings are thriving on the windowsill.

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...