How to grow chili peppers the basics !
Are you growing chillies or chilis? Nevermind the different spellings, there are even more shapes, sizes and colours!
IMO
Everybody needs to grow chillis for cooking. Even if you don't like hot food, just a little hint of chilli to warm it up stimulates the taste buds and everything else tastes just so much better. True.
Chilli plants grow into small to medium sized bushes from half a metre to two metres tall. How big they get depends on the species and variety.
There are different species of chillies. Most chillies are grown as annuals even though they can live for a few years in warm climates.
Some chilli varieties are true perennials. Most of the common varieties belong to the species
capsicum annuum, the "annual" species.
(Bell peppers, called capsicums in Australia, also belong to the species
capsicum annuum.)
Chillis have small to medium sized, shiny, dark green leaves. The fruit, the chilli peppers, vary wildly in size and shape.
Chilli peppers are green to start with. Most of them ripen to a rich red, but they can also be orange, yellow, purple or brown.
They may hang down or stand up like little colourful candles. There are even ornamental varieties that are mottled and freckled.
The different chilli types not only vary in size and colour, they also vary in how hot they are! If you grow chillies for the kitchen, choose your variety with care...
Where can you grow chillis?
Chilli plants love heat. They are closely related to capsicums/bell peppers and also related to tomatoes (they are in the same family, the
solanaceae), but chillies prefer their growing conditions a lot hotter.
Chilli seeds need 20°C to germinate, and it should be 30°C or more for the fruit to ripen. Night temperatures should not drop below 15°C. (At least not on a regular basis. The odd cool spell is ok.)
Chillies also don't mind humidity as much as sweet peppers or tomatoes do.
Most people will need to
grow chillis in full sun. In the hottest, sunniest regions chillies still grow well with a bit of shade. Especially afternoon shade can even be beneficial. (The fruit can get sunburned.)
If you live in the tropics or subtropics, great. Your chillies should thrive. Even the "annual" varieties should live for two to three years and they produce fruit all year round.
If your climate is not tropical, don't despair. You can still grow chillies if you get decent summers. And you can
extend the growing season by growing chilis indoors, just like you do with tomatoes.
In fact, chillis are also related to tomatoes, so the growing methods and requirements are similar. Except that chillies need more heat.
People with small gardens or balconies will be pleased to hear that
you can grow chillis in pots.
How to grow chillies from seed
You can buy chilli plants in a nursery or you can grow chillis from seed. The seed needs at least 20°C to germinate.
Start them in early spring in cooler climates or any time during the dry season. (You could start them all year round in the tropics, but it's a good idea to let the plants grow strong before the wet season hits them.)
Chilli plants are usually started in seedling trays or small pots. They are very vulnerable when small and they don't grow all that fast.
Still, I prefer to start mine directly in the ground, because like capsicums chillis don't like being transplanted.
Actually, I only start them in the ground when I have enough seed to allow for a high percentage of fatalities. (I am the laziest gardener I know, so I don't look after my seedlings much.) I usually have enough because I save my own seed.
If I buy seed of a new chilli variety and I get one of those tiny packets with barely a dozen seeds in them, then I start them in pots.
You can plant several chilli seeds per pot. Once your seedlings have a few leaves, snip off the weaker ones and only keep the strongest.
You only want one chilli plant per pot when you plant them out.
Otherwise you will disturb their roots too much and they HATE having their roots disturbed.
If you grow chillies in seedling trays or little punnets, plant them out once they have four to six true leaves (about 5 cm tall). If you don't, their roots will start feeling restricted and it will set them back.
Chillies don't mind growing in bigger pots, so the timing for planting them out is not critical if you use pots. If you live in a cooler climate, use pots. Let them to grow to 10 to 15 cm. Make sure it's warm enough before you put them outside!
Water the chillies before transplanting, so the soil doesn't fall apart when they're removed from the pot. Be VERY careful when removing the seedlings from their pots.
Drop them in a hole in the garden, fill it back in, firm down the soil, water, done.
Inspecting and Testing Seed
OK, you’ve got your seeds home and you’re eager to plant them out. Just step back for a few moments and listen as there is a test that can significantly improve your results at this stage. Get a bowl of water and pour all the seeds you’re intending to plant, into the water. Give it a good swirl with your finger to break the surface tension of the water and ensure that it is not preventing any of the seeds sinking.
Now, any seeds that are still floating are highly unlikely to germinate, due to a variety of factors including malformation and a lack of embryo or kernel. Discard the floaters and then pour the remainders into a sieve to get rid of the water. Now inspect the seeds, with a magnifying glass if you’re really keen, and discard any that look undersized, deformed or damaged.
Getting Your Seeds to Germinate
Even with ideal conditions, getting chilli seeds to germinate can be a slow, irregular business. Talking to both small and large growers in Western Australia you can expect germination to take from one to six weeks, even in the tropical areas. The warning here is; don’t give up too early on your seeds. Just the same as the majority of other plants, chilli seeds need warmth, oxygen, and moisture before germination will occur. Below, I discuss some other factors that may help you increase your success rate planting from seeds. Temperature The ideal temperature for germinating chilli seeds is 22oC to 32oC .
Saving Seeds:
Keep a couple of ripe chillis for next years crop. Hang the chillis in a dry atmosphere and then when dried out, collect all the seeds and seal in an envelope, label up and keep in a dry cool dark place for following year. Unless you have only grown one type of chilli in your greenhouse, or isolated a species, it is likely that most of your plants will have cross pollinated especially the annums, therefore the following year will not give a true variety. Germination may not be as high as bought treated seeds but enough seeds from a couple of plants should yield a satisfactory number of plants for the next season, if you're only growing for enjoyment and culinary uses, does it really matter if you get a slightly different cross pollinated strain. The degree of cross pollination, will be influenced by a number of factors, closeness of plants, amount of insects and if growing outside wind conditions, to ensure no cross pollination occurs plants must be completely isolated or grown winsome kind of mesh canopy.
A word of warning
You don't need to eat chillies for them to burn you!
Just wait till you get Habanero chilli juice under your fingernails for the first time...
When cutting fresh chillies, make sure to scrub your hands well after. Don't touch your skin and especially don't touch your eyes! The hottest chillies can make you go blind. I am not kidding.
When working with dry chilli be VERY careful not to breathe in any powder. Also don't get it in your eyes.
