The chilli growing season is now slowly coming to a close, but there's still a few weeks remaining before it officially does so. Preparations will soon begin for next year's growing season, and I've already received seeds for some new and interesting varieties, and more are en-route and should hopefully arrive one day next week. Thanks to some very good seed sellers we are not able to get hold of many interesting varieties that were previously unheard of. A list of highly recommended seed sellers can be found on the
links page, if you're interested.
The night time temperatures have dropped quite significantly around these rare and dismal parts, and for three nights last week the porch plants had to endure lows of 54F. I will heat the front porch if it's necessary, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. After all, there's no point in making chilli growing any more expensive than it needs to be.
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| Chilli Harvest - 21st September 2019 |
Some of the chilli plants have already been taken down.
Ring of Fire was taken down two weeks ago, and yesterday afternoon I also took down
Mako Akokosrade,
Aji Mochero,
Habanero Numero Diez,
Aji Guaguao and one of the
Chocolate Habanero plants (the bedroom plant). The next ones to go will be the
Jalapeño M plants, just as soon as the remaining chillies have ripened up.
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Chilli Plants to Be Taken Down - 5th October 2019
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Chilli Plants in the Garden Rubbish - 5th October 2019
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Plant Pots to Be Emptied - 5th October 2019
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Washed Plant Pots - 5th October 2019
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There are plenty of chillies ripening up on the
Red Mayan Habanero plants, and there are many more that have still yet to do so. The first ones will be ready for harvesting in about three day's time. I'll make a couple of batches of hot sauce with some of these and then the rest will be kept for cooking.
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
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| Red Mayan Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
This year's
Chocolate Habanero plants have been very productive. I made a batch of hot sauce two weeks ago and used approximately 300g of these chillies. The bedroom plant has now gone but there are still lots of chillies yet to ripen up on the porch plant. Check out the monster pod in this next photo!
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| Chocolate Habanero - 5th October 2019 |
The
Yellow Jelly Bean Habanero plant will be staying for a while longer yet because there are about 50 chillies still to ripen. The remainder of last year's pods were used up recently in a hot sauce, along with some
Aji Charapita and
Dorset Naga chillies for good measure.
Since the last update both
Malawi Bird's Eye plants have put out lots more flowers and set more fruit, so they too will be staying on for a while longer at the chilli plant luxury hotel and spa. Even if the chillies don't have chance to ripen, a late harvest of green ones is still a bonus.
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| Chilli Harvest - 2nd October 2019 |
Most of the tomato plants have been taken down now, so
Cap 1445 was moved into the glass house last Wednesday. It happened at just the right time too because the compost was soaking wet from all the rain we've had recently. Since posting the last update I've picked quite a lot of ripe chillies from this plant.
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| Cap 1445 - 5th October 2019 |
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| Cap 1445 - 21st September 2019 |
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| Cap 1445 - 25th September 2019 |
The
Mini Rocoto Brown plant was also moved into the glass house last Wednesday, although I don't know why I bothered to be honest because it hasn't set a single fruit all season, and chances are that it's not likely to now either. Things were looking promising when I posted the last update, but obviously it wasn't meant to be. Perhaps nature is mocking me! I had to soak the compost on several occasion to prevent the plant from being blown over during strong winds, and I don't think it helped matters much.
It is putting out lots of flowers but they're not producing any pollen. Some
Capsicum pubescens varieties have done very well for me when grown outside in the garden, and others not so much. If the plant hasn't set any fruit by the end of the month then it will be taken down and new ones will be started next year. At least now I know what I'm working with.
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| Mini Rocoto Brown - 5th October 2019 |
There's a fair amount of chillies on the
Aji Rainforest plant that have still yet to ripen, and unfortunately they take an entire age to do so too. These will eventually be going into my next batch of curried apple and chilli chutney, the recipe for which is currently a work in progress.
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| Aji Rainforest - 5th October 2019 |
Aji Lemon is always a prolific variety and this year's plant has been no exception. Plenty of these chillies have made their way onto cheese and onion sandwiches this year. I'm just waiting for the remaining pods to ripen before I take down the plant.
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| Aji Lemon - 5th October 2019 |
Here's a photo showing my latest batch of Habanero hot sauce. The only thing that varieties in this recipe is the type of
Capsicum chinense chillies that are used, which in turn alters the colour, heat and flavour slightly of each batch. As you can no doubt see, the Chocolate Habanero chillies that were used in this batch give the sauce a deep orange colour.
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Spicemad's Habanero Hot Sauce - 5th October 2019
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I'm currently in the process of making my way through the remainder of last year's chillies, a fair amount of which were
frozen at the green stage. I've almost finished off the
Capsicum baccatum varieties now, and then next on the menu — the Dorset Nagas!
