Growing chillies

Benefits of topping

Towards the end of  May in the UK your Chilli plants should be between 8 and ten inches tall. If you want them to grow big and produce lots of Chillies, there’s a helpful technique called “topping.” It involves cutting off the main growing tip of the plant to encourage more side branches and more Chillies.

Topping means cutting off the very top of your Chilli plant. By doing this, you’re telling the plant to focus its energy on growing more branches and producing more Chillies. It helps make the plant bushier and more productive as upward growth is curtailed in favour of growth outwards.

In addition to the above, you may want to trim away some of the bigger leaves that prevent sunlight from reaching the inner leaves of your Chilli plant. This will stimulate growth and make the plant even more bushy.  It is also advisable when doing this to cut away any unhealthy-looking leaves and thus place your plant in a position for steady and healthy growth.

Having performed topping all you need to do  is continue with routine care, including proper watering, fertilization, and pest management and you are virtually guaranteed of a bumper crop

In this blog post, we’ll explain why topping is beneficial when to do it, and give you a step-by-step guide to try it yourself. It is essential that if you are going to perform topping off that you don’t leave it too late.  That may even reduce your harvest!   So let’s roll up our sleeves, get out the secateurs,  put on our gardening gloves and let’s start topping Chillies.

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A well rounded program

When growing Chillies from seed to fruit in one season, it’s important to establish a well-rounded fertilisation program to provide the necessary nutrients for healthy plant growth and fruit production.

In the initial stage, when planting chilli seeds, no additional fertilization is required. The seeds contain sufficient nutrients for successful germination. Plant them in seed starting pellets, such as coco coir or a fertilizer-free seed starting potting mix.

Sow your Chilli  the seeds into your seed starting medium and add water. that is all that is required.Once the seedlings have germinated and developed their first true leaves (dicotyledons), they may require additional nutrients (albeit at very low levels). However, it is important to note that the seedlings can still sustain themselves from the stored nutrition in the seed endosperm. Fertilisation during this stage is not necessary, but if desired, use a diluted fertilizer solution at reduced concentrations to provide a gentle nutrient boost.

If you decide to go this route use a liquid fertiliser with an extremely low NPK.  It should be in the region of 1-1-2.  Fertilisers like this can be bought ready mixed or made by diluting products like Chilli Focus .   Another alternative is to dilute liquid tomato feed.

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The latest date to sow Chillies

It is not too late to sow Chilli seeds in April and May if you choose the right variety to grow. While the best time to plant chilli seeds in the UK is usually in late winter or early spring, around January to April, depending on your location and weather conditions. This will give the chilli plants plenty of time to grow and mature before the end of the growing season, which is usually around late September to early October.

However, if you missed this window, you could still plant chilli seeds in the UK as late as May or early June, as long as you provide them with optimal growing conditions such as a warm and sheltered location, good quality soil, and plenty of sunlight. You can also consider using a greenhouse or a polytunnel to extend the growing season and protect your plants from cooler temperatures and harsh weather conditions.

It’s important to choose Chilli varieties that have a shorter maturity period, usually between 60 to 90 days, to ensure that they have enough time to produce fruit before the end of the season. Some recommended varieties for late planting in the UK include ‘Apache’, ‘Thai Dragon’, ‘Hungarian Hot Wax’, and ‘Jalapeno’.

These Chillies all fall under the Capscium Annuum species, These are the most commonly cultivated Chill because of  their  relatively short seed to maturity growing period. Other species such as  Capsicum Chinense can take as long as one hundred and eighty days before they reach maturity.  Varieties that fall under the C Chinense species include Scotch Bonnets, Habaneros and the officially the worlds hottest Chilli the Carolina Reaper. Read more

The size of Chilli plants

A question you might be asking yourself after faithfully tending your seedlings since you planted them in January is what size they should be at this time of the year

The height of chili plants can vary depending on several factors, including the variety of Chili, the growing conditions, and the age of the plant. However, in the UK, at this time of the year (April), Chilli plants are typically around 10-30 centimetres (4-12 inches) tall if they were started from seed in January or February

Varieties that grow very large include Rocotos and Dorset Nagas. In the case of Rocotos , they are know n to grow up to thirteen feet in height, similarly a Dorset Naga ( Nigel )  grown by Joy and Michael Michaud at their nursery in Dorset in the UK  grew to the same height. Some Rocotos varieties grow even taller in the wild.

As a general ruler most taller Chillies grow to about 1.3 metres tall (just over four foot) . Chillies that fall into this category in include Aji Amarillos, Aji Limons and Serranos.  Medium size Chillies like Jalapenos and Cayenne and Scotch bonnets grow to about 90 centimetres (about three feet) . Smaller home-grown Chillies usually fall within the 30-to-sixty-centimetre range (one to two feet) Read more

Starting now

On Saturday I started some Chilli seeds.  They are currently in heated propagators in a grow tent where the temperature is controlled to be between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius. I expect the seeds to germinate in the next week or so

These seed have been started at least a month before I would normally start my season. This is something I have tried previously, but  have never been able to achieve the results I wanted. My seedlings germinated easily enough, but after that they didn’t grow well at all.

This year I have decided that I will harness every bit of knowledge I have about growing Chillies  to find a better way of doing things. I want  to control every part of the propagation and growing stages to the Nth degree and find out whether this has the desired effect.

When it comes to plant growth there are two things above the ground that need to be considered. The first is the temperature and secondly is the amount of light. Light is the energy that powers a plants growth through photosynthesis. Without it, plants would be able to grow

Now, my theory is that seeds don’t know what season it is when they germinate. If the conditions are right (i.e. moisture, heat etc) a seed will germinate. From there, the amount of light a plant receives will determine how well it will grow. Temperatures also need to be conducive to growth

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