Author: CGS

Chilli seed starting. Using a fridge?

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To freeze or to chill?

My last post was about starting Chilli seeds. In it, I mentioned that before starting seeds, you should use a fridge to refrigerate them, for three days.  This is something I recently started doing. It is something recommended by no less than the creator of the Carolina reaper in his seed starting guide. The idea behind placing the seeds in the fridge is to trick them into thinking it’s winter. Some schools of thought even recommend placing the seeds in the deep freeze to achieve this reaction.  I thought I would do some research on the subject. What is best; to cool or to freeze?

While it is likely that some seeds will germinate faster if placed in the deep freeze, particularly plants that grow naturally in cold weather climates.  But does this apply to Chillies?  They originated in the Amazon basin (in Peru and Bolivia), after all, and certainly don’t like the cold!

My understanding is that the Amazon basin is a part of the world that doesn’t get very cold. If that’s the case, why should I need to put my seeds in a deep freeze? I am sure the Amazon basin never gets to – 20 degrees Celsius as our deep freeze does?

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Growing Chillies for beginners

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Completely new to growing Chillies?

Okay, so you’ve never planted anything in my life. You received a packet of Chilli seeds from a friend, and you want to sow the seeds without doing a lot of research. You also don’t want to go to too much expense. All you need is a little solid advice on how to grow your Chilli seeds. Sound familiar? Relax, we have you covered. Follow this no frills guide to starting Chilli seeds, and you will be on your way in no time at all.

So what do you need? Some stuff is definitely required, but there is no need to spend a lot at your garden centre or online. Stick to the basics, at first. In time, you can get fancier if you like

At the very least, I would recommend a closed dome propagator, some eggs, a cardboard egg tray or two, a small bag of general-purpose seed starting compost, a plastic spray bottle, some wooden ice-cream sticks or similar, a marker pen, a teabag (camomile if possible, but normal will do), a spoon and separate seed tray). A heat mat, small bag of vermiculite, and some capillary matting are optional. You also need the seeds, of course. If you have all these things together, you will be on the path to success.

So what will all this cost? A quick search online revealed it would cost about £7.00 for a propagator, £15 for a heat mat (optional), 50p for a spray bottle, £ 6 for a bag of vermiculite (optional), a 10-litre bag of seed starting mix £5.50, £2 for capillary matting (see below) and a gravel tray £2.30. I would assume you already have a spoon, ice cream sticks, a marker pen, eggs and egg trays at home. So the total setup cost for the bells and whistles version is about £40.  Without the heat mat and vermiculite, it will cost about £18.00 (£16 without the capillary matting)

This may seem a lot to plant, just a few seeds, but the assumption here is that this will not just be a once off. The equipment and materials can be used to start many batches of seeds. Call it an investment in infrastructure.

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Goan food

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Some background

In 1510, the Portuguese conquered Goa. The Portuguese general responsible for the conquest, Alfonso d’ Albuquerque, had been tasked with creating a permanent settlement in Gao. This was seen as necessary in Portugal, as the Portuguese wanted to protect their control of their  lucrative spice trade. Before this, the Portuguese had been under attack by various coalition groups. The groups, including the Arabs, Venetians, Egyptians and the Ottomans, wanted to wrestle control of the European spice trade from Portugal. The Portuguese resisted and sent different armadas to the region. Finally, after a series of battles, the Portuguese gained the upper hand in the region.

The time had come to create a permanent settlement in the area to protect their interests. Realising the Portuguese needed a port city as a capital, General d’ Albuquerque captured Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur.

With the capital in place, Albuquerque started creating infrastructure. He created infrastructure, including setting up the first mint in Goa, and a school for settlers. To gain favour with the local population, he lowered taxes. The scene was set for the Portuguese colonisation of Goa, which was to last for over four hundred and fifty years

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The Chillies I am growing in 2022

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The Chilli types I am growing

Types of Chillies

I am going to town this year. I am growing over thirty-five types of Chillies. Some are overwintered plants, but I have also started thirty new varieties I have never grown before. These  range from the mild Bellaforma (700 SHU) to the superhot Carolina reaper (which has an average Scoville heat rating of 1.64 million SHU).

There are many other Scoville ratings for the other Chilli varieties  I am trying put between these two extremes.  These range from medium to very hot.   They cover most domesticated Chilli species, including C annuum, C pubescens, C baccatum, C chinense and C frutescens.

I am growing more superhots this season than I usually do. It’s not that I am a fan of the superhots heat levels; it’s more because these Chillies are so interesting. They certainly seem more challenging to grow than the milder types of Chilllies, but that just adds to the fun. I also want to experiment more with using superhots in cooking. Growing these extra superhot varieties will make this possible

The Rocotos that I am growing deserve a special mention. It is the first time I have grown C pubescens, and I must say I am impressed. In the short time these Chillies have been growing, they have done exceptionally well. They have done far better than any of the other Chillies. I can only put this down to the cold weather resistance of C pubescens. My other Chillies are now between one and two inches tall after four months of growing. The Rocotos are that height (and even taller at about 3 to 4 inches, after only ten weeks). No wonder Rocotos are so popular among British Chilli growers. They are certainly a robust species.

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Preparation for growing Chillies

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Preparing for 2022

In a previous post, I mentioned that I would separate the healthy from the unhealthy in the seedlings I started last year. What I forgot to mention is that I also overwintered some plants. Some of these plants have done worse  than the others. I have had a couple die on me. This is something that always happens with overwintering. It’s a delicate balance. Some plants make it through the winter, and others seem to start withering  . Before you know it, they are suddenly gone. It’s just the way it is

It is always best to look at the bright side, though. I will still have some overwintered plants that will make it through, and in the main, my seedlings that I started last year are doing well. So the season is off to a good start. All I now need to do is prepare for the seed starting. I begin in a week. Chilli season for the Chilli Workshop starts on the fifteenth of January this year.

To grow Chillies successfully requires a strategy.  This strategy should be in place not only at the beginning of the season, but even before.  Which  varieties  to plant needs to be considered, when to plant them, and many other things thought through before a hand is even laid on the seeds.  Preparation for growing Chillies is essential.

Last year, I spent a lot of time developing my knowledge of growing Chillies by doing research and trialling new ways of doing things. This year, I want to use all my newly acquired knowledge to get excellent results. Part of this will be trying things I have never done before, and other elements I have tried and already had success with.  Some of this will already be put to work in my preparation for the 2022 growing season.

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The latest on the Rocotos

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An update on the Rocotos

It has now been about seven weeks since my Rocoto seedlings  were planted. The tallest, named “Rocky” and “Rocco”, are about two to three inches tall.  They both have been potted on into 3-inch fibre pots. The rest (still to be named ?) are only about one inch tall. They are still in the eggshells they were started in.  The smaller seedlings still only have cotyledons. Once they develop their first set of true leaves, they too be potted on.

I have been pleased with these Chillies progress. Rocky and Rocco obviously like the new potting on mixture I developed last year. They are looking very healthy indeed. They are also definitely responding well to the current fertilization. I feed them with half strength Chilli Focus.  I am making sure they get the right amount of moisture with my newly acquired aquameters. These are little devices that allow you to gauge how wet potting soil is. Rocoto seedlingsEach of my larger Roccoto plants has one. When the indictor starts changing from blue to white, I know the time has come to give them water.

Since December, I am now only giving my seedlings rainwater. My wife bought me a rainwater barrel, and what a gift it was. I no longer have to use tap water. Watering Chillies with tap water can lead to nutrient lock out. I certainly don’t want that to happen with my Rocotos. They are, after all, my special plants

The general maintenance of these seedlings has been so far, so good. I am however still having to watch the aphids. As always, they always find a way of reappearing. This morning, I aim to wash the seedlings in a soap water solution that I make up. I use one tablespoon of a mild liquid soap like Castille, and add that to a quart of room temperature water. I then mix everything well. Once mixed, I turn the seedlings upside down (still in their pots) and submerge them in the solution. Normally this is enough to kill off any aphids, but to make sure I take it a step further. I allow the seedlings to dry, and then use my fingers to rub their leaves and stems. This wipes off any remaining aphids, whether dead or alive

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Dealing with ailing seedlings

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Some background

The 2022 Chilli season for me officially begins in about ten days. This is when I will start seeds for the last remaining varieties I will grow this season. Once again, I probably have gone over the top. I always do. In total, I will be growing about twenty-five varieties. In addition to the seeds I will be starting, I already have seedlings for some superhots and few other types.   I started these last year. These seedlings are in various stages of development. They are currently in a controlled, heated environment under grow lights indoors

All in all, most of my seedlings are doing well. There are, however, exceptions. For example, my Carolina Reapers, Moruga Scorpions and Nagas seem to be struggling. Even though they were planted three months ago, they are only about an inch tall. I have always been aware that some superhots have long seed to maturation growth periods. That is why I started these varieties far sooner than I might ordinarily have, but their growth still appears relatively pedestrian.

In addition, I also have a few plants that don’t seem as healthy as they should. Some have yellowing leaves, and others just don’t seem vigorous. You can tell if a seedling is doing well. These seedlings (six in total)  don’t appear to be making the grade. I really don’t know why. It’s not like they haven’t received the same care and attention as my  other seedlings, which are thriving

With this in mind, the time has come for me  to go back to conventional wisdom. As part of my detailed look into growing Chillies, I decided to dig deeper into this side of growing Chillies.  Some of the following is what I found while doing research and the rest is based on my own experience.

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How Chillies arrived in India

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How long have Chillies been in India?

Not many people know that Chillies, which are virtually indispensable in Indian cuisine, have only been used in Indian cooking for just over five hundred years. Before Chillies were introduced to India by the Portuguese, Indian cooks used mainly Pippali (aka also known as Indian long pepper) to provide pungency to curries. To a lesser extent, they also used black pepper). Before then, Chillies were not known in India.

However, it didn’t take long before Chillies surpassed Long Pepper to become the country’s favourite spice. Today, no Indian cook would even think of trying to make spicy dishes without them.

But this didn’t just happen. There is a lot more to the story. For the Portuguese to introduce Chillies to India took some doing. It required the support of monarchs, a lot of fighting with foes, a great deal of money and enormous determination. It wasn’t that getting the Indians to enjoy Chillies was difficult – it was almost written in stone, they would. The tricky part was for Portugal to find India in the first place. The route to India was a well-kept secret that the Arabs and Venetians weren’t quickly going to divulge. India was where they got many of their spices, and they had a monopoly on the spice trade into Europe. Why would they want to make it easy to get to the source of what made them an awful lot of money?

But the Portuguese were determined to find a route to the spices. At the time, they were one of the smallest, yet greatest seafaring  nations in Europe. They remained steadfast in their resolve to find a way. And find it, they did.    How the Portuguese found India is a story of intrigue that requires delving into the history of spice as a whole. It goes straight back to the beginning of colonialism.

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Chillies & the Canary Islands

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I recently came across some hot sauces that piqued my interest. The sauces are exceptionally tasty, but what really got my interest levels up was they were created using influences from the Canary Islands and Andalusia in Spain. “What?” I asked myself, “I thought the Spanish don’t particularly like spicy food?”. So, how is it that these great tasting sauces were created using these influences?” It just didn’t seem to add up. So, to solve this mystery, I put on my detective’s hat. Chief Inspector Morich was on the case.

I decided the first step was to work out how Chillies had become part of Canarian cuisine.  It was intriguing that this group of islands, so far removed from where spicy food is usually eaten, had developed a taste for Chillies

At first, there was not much to go on, until I found a link between the Canary Islands and Christopher Columbus. This was important, because Christopher Columbus was responsible for introducing Chillies to the Old World. Before he brought Chillies back to Europe (from the West Indies), they were not known there at all.

The link was that Christopher Columbus used to replenish his fleets in the Canary Islands when he went on his discovery voyages. Bearing in mind that the Canary Islands had been a colony of Spain, I was convinced this bit of information could help me solve the puzzle.

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Seed starting mix for Chillies

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Getting ready for next year

A new round of seed starting will start at the beginning of next year. I aim to start these seeds in the middle of January. I have already started some superhots for next year’s season, and they are doing well. Some are already two to three inches tall and have been potted on for the first time. I expect to repot them into bigger pots at the end of January.

The seeds I will start in January have a shorter seed to maturity period than the superhots. They include Tangerine dreams, Malawian birds-eyes, Zimbabwe blacks and Trinidad perfumes. I expect them to germinate a week to ten days after they have been sown. They will probably be potted on for the first time in the middle of February.

With all this new seed started going to happen. I have decided to do some work on my seed starting mix. I have recently made some new discoveries that I want to try out.  So why not start now? It will give me more than enough time to trial the new mix until it comes to the serious business of the final round of seed starting for the new season.

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