Please help with my thai/birds eye chili plant!

[Doc_D]

Hi everyone first post (aside from my intro). I have a question about my thai/birds eye chili I am growing. I live in a Caribbean country so it is warm all year round. It also rains 3-4x a day, so the plant gets enough water without my intervention. (I used to water it, but it turned out I was drowning the plant with over watering).

So when I went home (Maryland) for Christmas, I emptied out some seeds from a couple pepper pods at the grocery store. Mid-January I returned to the Caribbean. I also germinated and planted them mid January. The plant gets taller and taller.... and it has these stalks growing off the side I assume are the peppers.... and more of them keep showing up, but they never get thicker or grow themselves. The plant just keeps getting taller. Is this normal? Any advice? When should I be able to pick and eat the peppers?

 
Thanks for the help!

 

 

[Masher]

Yes those thin green sideways things are your peppers.

If I am seeing correctly, to many plants in the pot so each plant is trying to outgrow each other and forcing them to grow verticle.

Possibly unstable seed stock so your grocery pod seeds are some kind of hybrid or open pollinated and not a true thai birds eye chili causing uncharacteristic growth patterns.


Dig up plants and put one per container, cut of tops to force branching of main stalk to stop the verticle grow. Doing so might not allow for more pods or ripening with your growing climate and time left this season.


Or....just let them be, harvest what you can and better prepare for next years growing season.


Good luck and happy growing.

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

Yes those thin green sideways things are your peppers.

 
While Masher & I are usually on the same page this time we're not even reading the same book....  ..
 

I emptied out some seeds from a couple pepper pods at the grocery store.
 
I also germinated and planted them mid January. The plant gets taller and taller.... and it has these stalks growing off the side I assume are the peppers.... and more of them keep showing up, but they never get thicker or grow themselves.

 
I copied the OP's pic & blew it up a bit, see below. I've never seen a pepper stalk with leaf pattern like that or leafs that look like that. And the OP's description of, stalks - not pods, makes me question if this is even a pepper plant?
 
As always, YMMV.....
 

 

[CraftyFox]

 
While Masher & I are usually on the same page this time we're not even reading the same book....  ..
 
 
I copied the OP's pic & blew it up a bit, see below. I've never seen a pepper stalk with leaf pattern like that or leafs that look like that. And the OP's description of, stalks - not pods, makes me question if this is even a pepper plant?
 
As always, YMMV.....
 

Looks more like something out of Brassica or even possibly a Legume? I'd be curious about where the soil came from. 

 

[Masher]

Looks more like something out of Brassica or even possibly a Legume? I'd be curious about where the soil came from. 

I was wondering as well. Pic didnt enlarge very well so pepper I.D. was vague at best.

I will be following this one as I'm very curious what exactly is growing here.

 

[Doc_D]

@Masher and @Crafty fox, additional pictures. Sorry these were taken at night, but closer up. An animal bit off a part of one of the "peppers" and exposed the seeds, proving its a pepper and not a legume. I scraped the seeds myself from birdeye chilis I got from an Asian market.
 

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

An animal bit off a part of one of the "peppers" and exposed the seeds, proving its a pepper and not a legume. I scraped the seeds myself from birdeye chilis I got from an Asian market.

 
 

 
 
 
Yup, you're absolutely right, those are Thai Bird Chiles
 
Stop back after they turn red and give us a report on the heat level.....
 
 

 

[Masher]

Nice...congrats.

Happy growing