Last year I attempted to grow a couple of chilli plants from seed with little success. Reasons why? I started them too late and didn’t give them enough light and heat. Spring last year wasn’t particularly warm which didn’t help matters and even summer wasn’t hot for very long.
Anyway. Lessons learnt (chillies won’t develop grow well in a shed, no matter how many windows it has) this year I’m growing chillies again but I hope to get their growing conditions right. A few weeks ago I picked up a mini greenhouse from Wilkinsons on offer for £25, as a temporary measure until I get a polytunnel – I’ll save that for a later post! The greenhouse isn’t up yet so and it’s still too cold out, so I started some seeds off in a propagator at home.
As you can see from the picture above I got a little carried away when I saw all the varieties of chillies available at Premier Seeds on Ebay. So I have a lot of varieties but I do use chillies a lot in my cooking . Adding them to fajitas, chilli con carne, stir fries, soups and curries – I LOVE CHILLIES!
Here’s my list of varieties:
Pepperoni Corno Di Toro Rosso
Mini Belle Red
Sweet Banana
Fresno
Bird Eye
Tam Jalapeno
Super Chilli F1
I really hope I get a decent harvest so I can use them throughout the year fresh and dried. I would love to know your top tips for growing chillies! Let me know which varieties you’re growing 🙂
Homegrown Garden 
Now that’s a LOT of chillies. I am trying just one variety – Demon Red, we are still using last year’s crop!
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Well there’s only on way of finding out what I like right? 😜 Thats awesome, are you storing them dried?
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Yes we dried them. Kept some whole, and ground the rest. We now have what must be half a ton of top quality chilli powder. I’ll happily sell you some if you like! 😜
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Last year I did Jalapeno, the year before it was cayenne. One thing to note is that chillies freeze very well. I froze all mine and they came out of the freezer very well.
This year I am doing Peperone ciliegia piccante… Which is a mild stuffing pepper.
We are not big on burn… but love the taste so we stay with milder types. Although I did make the mistake of growing Scotch bonnet a few years ago, not knowing what they were. O.o
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Ahh that’s good to know about freezing them. 👍🏻 I like chillies but I doubt I could handle a scotch bonnet 😰🌶
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Neither could I. But I didn’t think they would be that bad.
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Live growing chillies, but find volunteers to try them rather less willing! Look forward to seeing progress. Make sure to secure it down against the cheeky wind!
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One of my favourites are Lemon Chillies – I was sceptical re. how ‘lemony’ they would really be when I grew them last year, but they definitely have a citrus kick – and are nicely spicy and hot without the power of a Scotch Bonnet. Pretty, too!
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