Chilli heads.

Can anyone tell me what these might be? Plants are growing strongly and I thought they were "red cherry" chillies - but they don't look like it. Tried one and there's no heat yet so might need a bit longer - perhaps they will still turn red eventually?

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Can anyone tell me what these might be?

I suspect, purely based on the fact I'm growing them (I'm no expert!) that these might be lemon drop aka Ají Limón and will start to turn yellow. Here is a shot of mine - can take a close up if needed.

Here is my crop, lemon drop, serrano and demon red. The 24 hour care means there are about 10x more chillis than I've ever managed before - maybe 300 at the moment!

^ awesome.

My polytunnel crop is doing ok although the plants are looking tired.

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Thanks, interesting, they do look sort of similar... I've tried a couple and they're pretty tasteless, so I'm hoping they'll develop into something interesting. I've got loads of them and they're pretty big already!

First plant harvested, plus I was given a couple of Pyramid which are quite hot according to the grower.

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Now sauce

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Recommend any recipes to follow for a complete novice?

https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/cayenne-pepper-sauce/ with some extra onion for this one I blended before boiling too (recipe suggests other way).

Loads of other recipes on that site too.

Second batch made. Will be drying most of rest of chilli crop this year for cooking purposes.

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Last of this years Garden crop, allotment pretty much done too. Ended up with 3 large plants cropping heavy, plus about 7 smaller ones producing a handful of fruit on each.

How'd everyone else get on?

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I only had a few little plants that had overwintered in the stairway from last year, most didn't really get going for some reason - with the exception of one Habanero plant that produced loads..

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About 1/3 of the lemon drops, have deseeded and frozen them all to make chilli jam. Have dried the seeds, may get around to sharing with anyone who wants to seed swap.

Plenty of demon red and Serrano have been turned into either oil, sauce, frozen or dried.

Thinking ahead to next year - I want to try a more exotic species. All of the interesting seeds were sold out in Jan/Feb this year, so want to order soon.

This year was lemon drop, demon red and serrano - thinking something in the 'Very hot' range and not 'extremely hot'; https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/online-shop/chilli-seeds/?features_hash=V5 e.g. a Habanero or Scotch Bonnet?

My biggest pots are 4 litre, 215mm deep/ 180mm wide, so deep-ish and narrow. I could get 1 larger pot for a specific plant - the lemon drops didn't really reach their potential height in these but did get a decent crop (for me).

You could have a look at Semillas La Palma if you're not familiar with them yet.
They have a lot of varieties, and quality of the seeds is really good.

For "very hot" but not "super hot" some Habaneros are indeed suitable, maybe try "Surinam Red" or "Habanero Peach".
I also like the "Rocoto" variants.. they have a different kind of heat / taste - those usually benefit from really big pots / being grown outside though.
Or Jalapenos?

4 Liter is not much in general; if you're planning on starting early (with artificial lighting the first few weeks) you could produce really big plants (if you wanted), given you provide them with big pots, nice soil etc.

Thanks, this is really helpful. Can add heat/light early on - will look at finding some taller pots and have a read on those varieties.

Tomato fertiliser works well for chillies. This was the last big harvest, don’t know all the varieties but they were mostly a bit underwhelming. The split yellow fellows at the bottom were excellent, I shall try to overwinter the plant (apparently prune to ~20cm of stem, then v scant watering) and save some seeds. Paper Lanterns were good also & I’ll do the same; smallish plant too which is convenient.

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Scotch bonnets are so easy to buy I would say not worth growing, so would go for a haberno variety

I also think naga/bhut's are worth growing as the flavour is so good despite the heat

Also a big fan of Aji varieties for their flavour

Tomato fertiliser works well for chillies.

Yes indeed, it does 🙂

This was the last big harvest

..looking very nice!

I shall try to overwinter the plant (apparently prune to ~20cm of stem, then v scant watering)

Yea that's a rule of thumb, yet I have had very mixed results - in my experience it depends a lot on how hardy the variety in general-, and how hardy the individual plant is.
You can put it somewhere cold-ish (above 10°C though to be safe) but bright - like directly at a window in a stairway.
I had also some success with keeping plants in a room that was a bit warmer (about 15°C) - but short periods of sun during the winter months meant they did shoot, actively searching for more light, which will leave you with a somewhat awkward looking plant, but it's more of a safe bet in regard to the plant not dying of cold or because you forget to give it a sip of water in the stairway.

Good luck!

Found this the other day.
It's pretty good!

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the best one, Its annoying that the made the hole in the top smaller though.

Ruined many sandwiches with this. Love it.

My apaches are going great guns indoors - any good chilli jam recipes?

I've not tried other recipes but this is always a hit and very simple.
https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegan/hot-pepper-jam/

I tend to half the main ingredients but double or triple the amount of chilli to make 3 small jars worth. Made a batch of lemon drop last night with..

900g chopped yellow peppers (4)
100g chopped lemon drop
350ml cider vinger
500g jam sugar

Not seen this before and looking forward to trying it -

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