Endless summer

Whilst there's plenty more work to be done in the garden the greenhouse is settling in nicely

There's plenty foliage inside. The drip feeders for the Root Pouches can seen on top of the pots.

The habaneros to the right are producing good sturdy stems.

Sweet Banana

Some of these were the seedlings I damaged with the soap, it's good to see they've recovered.

Padrons collected from Galicia.

Black Pearl

The beautiful variegated leaves of Orozco

Superchilli

Lots of fruit on the Cheyenne plant.

Black Tongued Scorpion

Nepalese Snakebite

Spring has sprung (sort of)

Things have been somewhat quiet on the growing front recently.  The chilli house is performing as expected, keeping most of the plants alive.  I've lost a couple due to die-back (expected) and a few have been ravaged by aphids (not expected).

To counter the green, munching pests I've lowered the temperature in the room slightly and given the affected plants a hosing-down to remove the tenacious critters.  A couple of yellow, sticky fly traps have helped remove their flying cousins as well.

Soon I'll up the temperature and light in the room and kickstart the plants back into life - doubtless the aphids will return then so I'll need to find a suitable solution to them, perhaps this is the year to invest in some Ladybirds.

The seeds that I planted recently have been doing well. The germination rate has been superb for the seeds purchased from Simpson Seeds with a hit-rate over 90%, however the Padron seeds I collected from the family's plants in Spain have so far failed to produce a single seedling. This is a little disappointing but I had to collect the seeds from unripe fruit (Padrons are picked and eaten green), we'll just have to have another holiday in Galicia soon to collect some more...

Seedlings coming up - clockwise from bottom left: Chocolate Hab, 7 Pot Hab, Black Tongued Scorpion, Joe's Long, Ancho 

Chocolate Habanero

Due to a lack of space under the growlights I thought I'd risk the south-facing bedroom window. The weather's been a bit erratic and consequently some of the seedlings have grown a bit leggy.  When I transplant them I'll make sure the stems are buried nice and deep so they shouldn't keel over too easily and they should be ok.

The larger varieties, such as Ancho and Joe's Long, are looking quite leggy, compared to the slower growing habaneros in the background

In the meantime I've kept myself amused with some photography.  I've been drying out last year's crop of chillies in the oven and was taken with their translucent quality. A lightbox and macro lens later and I had some chilli portraits to show for my efforts.

Exodus

Due to work commencing on the garden it was decided to move the chilli collection en-mass to a new location (namely my long-suffering parents' garden).

I've been frantically giving away as many plants as I could to reduce the number to relocate so by the time the exodus was upon us I was down to a mere(!) 50 or so plants.

They were duly crated up and loaded into the car for the short hop to pastures new.  Likewise, the various chilli houses were disassembled and, with the aid of a trailer, reunited with the plants.

One of the two Chilligrows L-R; Friar's Hat, Lemon Drop, Superchilli

The plants in the Chilligrows were the hardest to transport, the plants having grown massively (despite frequent and ruthless pruning) and were laden with fruit and flowers that I was keen to avoid damaging.

The roots of this Lemon Drop have escaped into the reservoir below

In the departure lounge - the first batch ready to be moved.

A Trinidad Scorpion with a perfectly formed 'stinger'

The mighty Scotch Bonnet plant is doing exceptionally well in the Root-Pouch.

Plenty of Habaneros in their temporary greenhouse home

These were supposed to be De Arbol seeds but I'm beginning to have my doubts.

The pretty (and bountiful) Black Pearl

Etna is laden with small glossy pods waiting to ripen

Capa Conic

The Chilligrows in their new home L to R: Paper Lantern, 2 x Scorpion, Lemon Drop, Superchilli & Friar's Hat

Plenty of hot fruit forming on the Paper Lantern Habanero

Joe's Long Chilli

As for the hydroponic experiment, well it got off to a slow start when I realised that I'd only mixed the nutrients to a third of the desired strength.  However, the plants have been busy catching up with their soil-based companions and have finally overtaken them.

Both plants now have plenty of flowers and the Orange Hab also has fruit forming.  The plants seem very healthy with plenty of foliage.  I'll probably have to provide them with some support before too long as the clay pellets don't support the stems and roots as well as the much denser soil does.

L to R: Peach Habanero, Orange Magnum Habanero

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain

So after the sun comes the rain.  Thankfully the chillies have been sheltered from the worst of it by the shanty-town of coldframes that now comprise the garden.  I had to build yet another one recently to cope with the rapidly growing plants.

The new chilli house is on the left with the two older ones in the background.

This one is an open-fronted house which keeps the worst of the rain off whilst still allowing the vital insects to get in and pollinate the plants. Speaking of insects, the garden has been buzzing with wasps, bees, butterflies and even our resident dragonfly.  It's reassuring that we've created a habitat that is so welcoming to insects, birds and frogs.  Now if we can just stop the neighbour's cats from killing any more of the aforementioned wildlife then we'll be on to a winner...

So the bees have been busy in the garden, pollinating lost of chilli flowers...

...and making the most of the luxury accommodation.

There are plenty of pods on the chillies now, a little more sunshine to enable them to ripen and we'll have plenty of fruit for making sauces and chutneys.

Chili de Arbol - Mexican Tree Chilli.

This Scotch Bonnet is laden with flowers, and plenty of fruit on the way.

Black Pearl, small ornamental plant with beautiful dark leaves.

Bit of an odd one here - Capa Conic chilli.  I can't find much information about this one.  This plant is one of a couple that's a couple of years old and has plenty of pale yellow pods.  Not sure on the heat as I've yet to test them.

The Golden Cayenne is throwing out plenty of large pods and is rapidly outgrowing the chilli-house.

It's getting very crowded in the big chilli-house. Trinidad Scorpions, Paper Lantern Hab, Lemon Drop, Friar's Hat and a small Super Chilli all competing for space. Not helped by the Arisaema (Cobra Lily) sneaking in at the front.

The Chilligrow planters are working superbly with all of the plants growing at a frightening rate.  Even with the large reservoir of water beneath them, I'm still having to top it up every fourth day.

The plants in the soft Root-Pouches are also growing very well with plenty of strong branches and flowers forming.

This year I haven't put support stakes or sticks in any of the pots, even for the tall varieties like Joe's Long and Friar's Hat.  The plants in the grow houses are so cramped now that they barely have room to move but even the ones with a bit more legroom are still very sturdy.  I suspect that a combination of giving them more moving fresh air, no support sticks and pinching out the tops has encouraged stronger stems and sturdier branches.

The Etna plant from last year is smothered in pods.

The small chilli-house holds many of last year's plants.

A wealth of flowers on the Paper Lantern Hab with a few small pops forming.

The Super Chilli has finally sprung to life and is throwing out flowers and pods.

Some of the Scotch Bonnets and Habs in their overnight shelter.

End of year report.

The completed collection of chilli products for the wedding.  Needless to say they were a great hit and disappeared almost instantly.

Well the summer has been and gone (yes, that was it, blink and you missed it) and now I'm preparing the lucky chosen chillies for overwintering in the warm and consigning the less fortunate ones to the compost heap for recycling.

This last year was very much about experimenting with new varieties and learning as much as I could about chilli horticulture. And despite the disappointing summer, I've still learned a great deal and have much more of an idea what I want to grow next year.

So, what pearls of wisdom can I share? Well I don't claim to be an expert but there are some tips I can pass on...

Grow under glass. Chillies love the heat and the sun. Although some plants did cope outdoors, they struggled compared to their compatriots who were in the tunnel or the greenhouse. If you've only got windowsills to offer then go for one or two hot varieties to provide all your chilli needs, rather than trying to grow dozens of varieties in the unpredictable British outdoors.

Even under glass, slugs are a perpetual problem.  Don't think that the heat of chillies will deter them from snacking on your prize plants.

Pollinate by hand when you can. Particularly if you grow indoors, you can't rely on the insects to give you a bumper crop.

Don't overwater. Whilst chillies can cope with drying out, being swamped will stunt their development.

Grow varieties you'll use. Sounds obvious really but if you like Caribbean cooking then grow Scotch Bonnets, if you like Thai then grow Birds Eye Chillies. No point going to all that effort and then not using the fruit of your labour.

These cayenne chillies dry very well due to their thin skin.  They can then be easily ground for flakes.

Write the name of the plant on both sides of the label. So much easier to identify plants on the windowsill if you're not having to remove the label to read it.

Overwinter the strong plants. Those chillies that I've had for a few years now are producing bumper crops on sturdy branches. So save the best fruiting plants and get an early start on next year's crop.  Cut the plants back to 6" or so of good strong stem with plenty of side shoots.  Keep them relatively dry and cool but don't let the temperature dip below about 10 Celsius. They'll stay dorment whilst there is less light around and then in spring, start feeding and watering them and they'll start throwing out shoots.

Deforestation! Some of the chilli collection, chopped back for winter.

Cayenne Chilli that's now 3 years old

So who were the star performers of 2012 and who will be taking home a less than satisfactory report?

Top of the class goes to the Superchilli and the Scotch Bonnet. Easy to grow, sturdy plants producing a mass of fruit. Definitely ones to overwinter. The Scotch Bonnet also produced an amazingly fruit sauce, dubbed Sunburn.

Late starters are my novelty chillies, the Peter Pepper and the Monkey Face. Both failed to make much of a showing until the season was nearly over. They're now on the windowsill, hopefully ripening the remaining fruit before I cut them back for the winter.

Could try harder goes to the Jalapeño and the Tabasco plants. Despite producing sturdy plants they failed to set much fruit and were an overall disappointment for such famous chillies.

Detention for the Chocolate Habanero for failing to produce a single fruit. Despite having four flourishing plants, smothered in flowers, not a single chilli has been forthcoming. I'll overwinter one or two just to see if they can redeem themselves next year but I won't hold my breath.

The ornamental varieties performed well, Orozco, Loco, Black Pearl and Twilight all drawing admiring glances. The fruit has been useful as well, despite the relatively small size. I'll keep them going overwinter, if for no other reason than to brighten the place up.

Orozco

I was messing around with the camera the other day and decided to photograph some of the chillies that I'd dried earlier in the year. Interesting what's revealed under a macro lens.

Padron

Big Jim

Friar's Hat

Chilhuacle Negro