Chillies

Hi DaveG, I'd wait a bit to see where you start getting the new growth sprouting from before pruning. Get the plants into a warm room with plenty of light and they should sprout pretty quickly. If you get lots of side sprouts then you will know how much you can afford to prune the plants. They look a little bit leggy at the moment and the one on the right looks as though it might get a bit crowded near the top.

As with a lot of plants, you don't want the the inner parts to get too thick and bushy but your plants look as though they had the small variety of chillies on them so they can be allowed to be fairly bushy.

These plants below are in our lounge, which is the warmest room in the house and are right by the floor to ceiling windows and french doors. They had lots of new growth all through the winter because they were warm and in the light. The new shoots grew about 3" in Dec and have grown 6" this month. I have been shortening the new growth by a third to two thirds and cutting out some of the old growth that doesn't seem to be doing too well. some flowers have already started to form as the daylight hours are getting longer.

Good luck :D

 

John, how big a pot will be needed to repot Dave? :D

 

Maybe it needs repotting!

 

:D :D :D

 

Hi Dave

I have tried to put links on here to two other threads that we have had about chillies but am not sure how to do it. I hope this works.

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000621;p=1#000000

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=001004;p=1#000000

 

Just noticed the first chilli of the season :D

 

Hi high kype, there are a couple of links above to other chilli threads on here. Maybe they might be of use.

I, originally, just planted mine and kept them in the greenhouse. I watered them when I remembered to and fed them occasionally, and they did OK. At the end of the season I brought three of them from the greenhouse and into the utility room.

As they seemed to survive the winter in there I then pruned them a bit and potted them into slightly larger pots. The end result being that they got going quicker and gave a good crop.

I was more careful with them this year and brought them into the lounge as mentioned above. I have repotted them into large pots this time and they seem very happy. So this is the third year with the same plants and we shall see how they go. I get the impression that they are as tough as old boots and just need a little TLC.

Watch this space :D