Chillies 2024

Hanglow,

Thanks for your kind comments.

When using hydroponics to grow chillies, the amount of food in the water determines the probability of aphids infestation. It seems to be a compromise between :-

1. Too much food = aphid infestation
2. Too little food = poor growth but no aphids

Somewhere in the middle appears to be ideal. This theory is backed up by many articles I've read and many YouTube videos I've watched.

I suspect that the same theory can be applied to growing in compost.

Using either growing technique for chillies, the pH should be between 5.5 and 6.5, ideally 6.0 though it's harder to measure this when using soil.

I hope this information helps anyone with aphid problems.

For information on pot size, and bearing in mind my media is clay beads, I use both 11litre and 18litre pots.

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I put plastic domes on my pots when chilli plants go indoors at night and taken off when put out in the sun during the day. No problem with little beasties.

 

My single chilli plant, which I thought was one of the Basket of Fire (BoF) is looking more like the Poinsettia I had. It has 30-40 reasonable size chilli's on it, but I'd have preferred it was the BoF as they look nicer, better size and were hotter at the different stages. It's back in the house at the moment as it did not seem happy when it went out. Looking at the long range forecast it might get out in July!

 

I had a spare 30l pot in the converted shed so bought a couple of plants from b&q. I had tried at three different garden centres but there was nothing I wanted from them, rather disappointing.

So I bought "chocolate" which I assume is a habanero and Zimbabwe black, which looks rather fetching for a chilli pepper.

 

Hello all,

Just a few notes from the chilli greenhouse: -

1. I performed a full water change with new nutrient on all 3 water tanks. Reset the pH to 6.0.
2. Addressed a small whitefly outbreak with Neem Oil. Worst affected were the Sweet Peppers.
3. Put canes and interlinks into Jalapeno and Lemon Drop plants as they were spreading into the access isles between the tanks. Tied the wayward branches to the canes.

Photos with wine bottle for scaling......

Jalapenos.



Lots of fruit now starting to grow but not big enough yet for any harvesting.

Lemon Drop

Lemon Drops growing well but no fruit yet. These plants started slowly but have grown rapidly as the weather has warmed up.

Sweet Peppers
Romano, California Wonder, King Of The North and Corno De Torro (2 of each).

Less growth on these but already showing decent size fruit. Star of the show is the California Wonder so far.



Regards

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