Growing Chillies....advice needed

[Tanis8472]

You buggers, I'm so jealous.
I've tried many times to grow and always fail. Seeds, plants and gifts.

Top tip. Always wash your hands before going to the loo

On the other hand, I grow gorgeous orchids without issues lol.

 

[Jody]

[QUOTE 4869233, member: 45"]The pain is that they're just starting to ripen at holiday time so in the past I've had to get a chilli sitter to come and water them every day.[/QUOTE]

See my pics. Home made self watering pots made out of Morrisons flower buckets will give you enough leeway for 3-5 days unless its really hot. Really cheap to put together or if you can afford it have a look at Chilli grows. Same principal but with a bigger reservoir.

http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/chilligrow.html

 

[Tanis8472]

[QUOTE 4869233, member: 45"]Heat and light. And lots of watering. That's what I've found. The pain is that they're just starting to ripen at holiday time so in the past I've had to get a chilli sitter to come and water them every day.[/QUOTE]

I guess wait for next year now?
I have heat problems. Old 19th century house that never really gets warm. Maybe that's why

 

[Jody]

[QUOTE 4869296, member: 45"]I've got some of the Lidl self-watering pots. But you can't get more than a few days out of them.[/QUOTE]

The Greenhouse sensations have a large reservoir so will do a week between top ups

 

[nickyboy]

A quick update....the plants were growing fine but we went on holiday for two weeks. When we got back the plants were looking very sad indeed. However, a decent watering and they're back on their feet again. This has meant that there are a few large, green chillies on the plants and they seem to be producing a load of new flowers too

So a couple of questions:

The large green chillies...do they get left on the plant to ripen or do we pick them and then ripen on a sunny windowsill?

Do chilli plants keep producing flowers (and thus chillies) all year round? I was surprised to see a lot of new flowers in September

 

[MossCommuter]

They're perennials but not really worth the bother of trying to keep through winter.

They do go dormant in winter but if you get a crop off these flowers then cool but I wouldn't expect any more. Keep pollinating.

They'll ripen on the plant. If you pick them they'll stay green.

 

[lazyfatgit]

Lucky in that ours just grow in the garden. They die off a bit then seem to come back. I'd hesitate at calling the cooler season "winter"

 

[raleighnut]

I prefer to pick and eat green chillies, you can let them ripen but the more you pick the more you'll get.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

Oh no, the chilli plant has gone bad