Chilli heads.

Game changer

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/just-how-hot-is-that-pepper-new-chili-shaped-portable-device-could-tell-you/

For your chilli listening...
if anyone has an audible account, just started listening to 'It Burns' with Marc Fennel.
Only one episode in (out of 5) and really enjoyed it.
Best thing is that it's free right now :)

For those wondering about chilis ripening after harvesting here's the little Habaneros again - one week ago and yesterday (I just kept them lying around on my desk) -
so they became pretty much red in that time and I actually need to eat them all soon before they get over-ripe / mushy

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Seeds are sprouting nicely, actually about half of them already are in 9x9 pots as of yesterday -

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Anybody want to resurrect the seed swapping circle? I can’t guarantee any of mine haven’t crossed this year so will start with some fresh bought seed, happy to share!

1. Olly ... hopefully will have jalapeños, scotch bonnet, bird eye, Kashmiri
   

If I've still got fruit on the plant, what's the best approach for drying them out for next year?

Drying out the fruit for cooking with next year, or drying the seeds for planting next year?

I never dried fruit but guess I would just chuck them in the oven on low heat for a long time.

Seeds don't really need drying out; I just take care they're clean, put them in little paper bags in a drawer..

Sorry yeah, meant for planting

Ah ok; just take care that there's no pulp sticking to the seeds anymore (this would rot).

Someone I know is getting half a kilo of Chocolate Moruga & has offered some my way. Reading about them I reckon just one might be too many!

..or to put it another way: when you keep them in a warm room you should also be giving them lots of light (like, artificial light on top of the bit of sun they get).

1 month later. I've added an ikea plant bulb hooked up to a timer for a daily dose of sun.

They are going rather well - infact 1 is trying to grow flowers - how would people deal with this? Simply cut back new branches until spring?

..ha, nice - they look happy for under-desk plants : ]

The thing with flowers, as far as my understanding goes, is just that the plant will put like 90% of energy into creating those (instead of building more branches, roots, etc.) - which actually may be just fine given your circumstances (it sounded like your idea is just to tide them over the winter until next spring / summer, not to grow huge plants under your desk).
On the other hand plants will drop the flowers when they realize they don't get enough energy (from sun / from soil) to then grow the actual berries - so it might result in a wasted effort - but long story short I would just leave one or two flowers and cut off the rest if there's more..

These arrived tonight. The Chocolate Moruga are carrying some heat.

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The last chilli of the year, a paper lantern. First time I’ve grown them—I was given a plant by a friend. Not a million miles away from scotch bonnets; smaller, pointier, slightly less aggressively hot but with a fruitier taste, thinner and less squishy flesh (but that might be the corner shop freshness factor). Excellent in a cheese sandwich with some mayonnaise to stop it falling out. The plant was manageably small, kind of gangly, and cropped pretty well—the leaves looked a bit yellow-ish, so maybe I under-fertilised? I’m going to prune it hard and see if I can get it to over-winter.

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nice

So I did terribly on chillis this year and thinking about next year now.
I have a poly tunnel for my allotment now which is awesome but obvs they won’t be going in there any time soon.

Is now a good time to be starting them off on the windowsill/propagator?
Got no seeds apart from a couple of generic cherry bomb ones left.

Few tips to set me off right this year?

Christmas break is a good time for starting them early but that's if you can provide extra heat/light to get them too spring

Is now a good time to be starting them off on the windowsill/propagator?

Check out the posts a page back or so, like https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15587044/ and the following.

So yea, propagator works well now as it would in a month or two; the thing is just you need to give the plants reasonable amounts of (artificial) light until next spring when the days get long again as greentricky said, plus you need to figure out how much space you have for indoor plants.

In general it's a good idea to start early, but you want them to grow nice and compact (and this requires a lot of light close to the plants).

Just watched a programme on Netflix about the world chilli eating champs. The chillies were all cross pollinated with carolina reapers and the actual reaper was only the halfway round. Brutal.

Watched that yesterday, would also recommend. We are the champions it’s called. Cheese rolling one is fun too.

Made some chilli crisp last night. Extremely pleased with the results. Adapted this recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2018/04/homemade-spicy-chili-crisp.html.
I used 20g kashmiri chillis and then the rest just normal chilli flakes. I didn't have mushroom powder or msg but it still came out v well. Next time I will use slightly more oil, and I will toast some of the spices in the oil before pouring over the chilli.

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Ruined many sandwiches with this. Love it.

Haha, I did think of this whenever I put this on sandwiches in the past weeks!
😅

Just bought some more though, plus Chipotle ones, which I really like.

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First flower 2021 🌟

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Hey @spinnnout how are your under-the-desk-plants doing?

It didn't frost here till December, some of them have been inside longer than others and have bushed out nicely. A couple are touch and go.

Need to think about germinating soon!