Chilli Plant Update - 27th April 2026

All of the chilli plants were re-potted into their final pots last Tuesday and have now been moved into their permanent positions for the growing season. It was starting to get a bit cramped in the porch, as you'll see in this next photo. There were four plants that weren't quite as desperate for new shoes as the rest of the tribe and they would have been okay for a few more weeks, but to save time I re-potted them too. Let's just hope they don't trip over in their size 7s. 😂

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 17th April 2026

In the porch I have one Chocolate Habanero plant, one Caribbean Red Habanero plant, one Orange Habanero plant, one Montego Bay Habanero plant and one Malawi Bird's Eye plant, which is only there temporarily.

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 24th April 2026

In the greenhouse I have one Bahamian Goat plant, one Aji Lemon plant, one Carolina Reaper plant, one Trinidad Moruga Scorpion plant, one Trinidad Douglah plant, one Peruvian White Habanero plant, one Ring of Fire plant and one Bullet plant (C. annuum). I have a hunch that the chilli plants in this next photo all have a sweet tooth! 😁

Chilli Plants in the Greenhouse - 24th April 2026

Outside in the garden I have two Aji Largo plants and one Rocky Road plant (C. pubescens). I don't normally post photos of new chilli varieties until much later in the season when I know for sure that they're true to type, but the seeds for Rocky Road came from a very reliable source, so I've made an exception in this instance.

Rocky Road and Aji Largo - 25th April 2026

Aji Largo - 25th April 2026

Things are progressing nicely here and the weather has been good this past week. Let's just hope that it stays that way. All hail the Chilli Gods, the Holy Family of spice. 😛

Chilli Plant Update - 17th March 2026

All except three of the chilli plants were re-potted into their second pots yesterday evening. The night time temperatures are still not quite warm enough yet for the plants to remain in the porch all through the night, so I'm still moving them into the kitchen in the evenings, but they were in need of re-potting, so I went ahead and did them. I think in another week or two they'll be able to stay in the porch permanently, which will save me the job of having to move them twice daily. This next photo shows the plants prior to being re-potted and the one below it shows the root ball on my Trinidad Douglah plant.

Chilli Plants in the Kitchen - 16th March 2026

Trinidad Douglah - 16th March 2026

These next two photos were taken after the plants had been watered-in. There wasn't enough space on the draining board for a group shot so I had to photograph them in two batches.

Chilli Plants After Being Watered - 16th March 2026

Chilli Plants After Being Watered - 16th March 2026

Things are progressing nicely here and it has been a lovely day today. The sun was shining brightly and it even reached 80F in the porch, so the chilli plants have been enjoying some much needed sun. 😎

Chilli Plant Update - 10th March 2026

The chilli plants are coming along nicely. They have now been moved from under the grow lights because they are getting too big. They now spend the day in the front porch and are then moved into the kitchen overnight. The night time temperatures are still too low for them to remain in the porch permanently. However, it shouldn't be too long until that changes, and when it does most of them will be re-potted into their second pots.

Chilli Plants in the Kitchen - 10th March 2026

I hope you have a great 2026 chilli growing season. All hail the Chilli Gods! 😛

Chilli Plant Update - 2nd March 2026

The chilli plants are all coming along nicely and the germination times and rates on this year's seeds were excellent. The C. chinense varieties, my one and only C. baccatum variety (Aji Lemon) and one of two C. pubescens varieties were sown on the 17th January. Orange Habanero was the first of the C. chinense varieties to germinate and it took six days to do so, along with Aji Lemon. Caribbean Red Habanero, Peruvian White Habanero, Montego Bay Habanero, Trinidad Douglah, Carolina Reaper and Bahamian Goat took seven days to germinate. Chocolate Habanero took eight days to germinate, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion took nine days to germinate and Aji Largo took 12 days to germinate. The C. annuum varieties were sown on the 5th February and the first one to germinate was Bullet, which took seven days, followed by Malawi Bird's Eye, which took eight days and Ring of Fire, which took nine days. Another C. pubescens variety was sown on the same day as the C. annuum varieties and it took 10 days to germinate.

Here are a few photos that were taken recently. All of the plants have been raised in the kitchen under my homemade grow light.

Chilli Plants in the Porch - 1st March 2026

Chilli Plants in the Heated Propagator - 28th February 2026

Chilli Plants After Being Watered - 28th February 2026

Malawi Bird's Eye - 28th February 2026

Chocolate Habanero - 28th February 2026

Ring of Fire - 28th February 2026

Orange Habanero - 28th February 2026

Aji Largo - 28th February 2026

Aji Lemon - 28th February 2026

Have a great week. 😛

The 2026 Chilli Growing Season Has Begun

It's that time of year again! The first batch of chilli seeds hit the dirt yesterday evening and so the 2026 chilli growing season is now officially underway. The reverse osmosis unit was in need of some attention, so on the 13th January I changed the pre-filters, DI resin and RO membrane, which is a job I hate doing. It took about 40 minutes just to get all of the canisters unscrewed. Even though I only hand tighten all of the canisters, a combination of water pressure, O-ring compression and plastic-on-plastic threads slightly cold welded together over a 12 month period can make the bonds very difficult to break. Soaking the canisters in hot water for 10 minutes or so can help to loosen the bond, and when unscrewing them I use a couple of old off-cuts from a rubber pond liner. This allows for maximum grip and works very well.

Old Reverse Osmosis Filters - 13th January 2026

Reverse Osmosis Unit - 18th January 2026

On the 16th January, I mixed up a batch of seed sowing compost and sterilised it in the oven and then set up the Ark of the Covenant and the heated propagator on the kitchen table. I also put all of the plant pots and clear plastic cups into a bleach solution overnight to save time the following day. I find these jobs are worth doing ahead of time instead of rushing around like a blue-arsed fly and trying to get everything done on the same day.

Sterilised Seed Sowing Compost - 16th January 2026

Heated Propagator and Homemade Grow Light - 16th January 2026

I normally sow the seeds for all Capsicum species at the same time, but this year I'm sowing the seeds earlier than usual, so I've only sown the C. chinense, C. pubescens and C. baccatum varieties to begin with. The C. annuum varieties will be sown in a few weeks, probably around the second week in February. This year, I'm growing two new varieties and revisiting several others that I've not grown for a while, so it should be fun to see how things work out. I'll update my 2026 grow list when I publish my next post in a few weeks.

Chilli Seeds Sown - 17th January 2026

Wherever you are in the Northern Hemisphere, I wish you a successful 2026 chilli growing season and I hope all of your harvests are bountiful and extremely spicy. All hail the Chilli Gods! 😛