I posted in one of the Good Morning threads about my chilli plant and its crop. It was planted too late in the season really but it is still producing chillies. These were my first crop:
I dried them after removing the seeds and produced a small amount of very hot chilli powder.
As well as a good number of seeds for next spring
Today I picked a few more but I would be surprised if any more ripen.
After drying these will be ground up too.
Delicious!
They don’t have to ripen, used green their just not as fiery, sometimes that can be useful.
Another trick, to get them even hotter, is to hold back on watering the chili plants for a few days before harvesting. It concentrates the chili-ness in the fruits.
The ones I buy are Thai and particularly fiery, that’s how I like them.
wow these are fantastic!!! I tried growin some last year but they did not look like this
I shall be a happy bunny if these plants survive the winter, that will give them a head start next spring.
Do you cut them back Bruce?
Some people swear by it, promotes stronger, bushier growth the following year.
I haven’t in the past but I am not sure where the fruit grows whether it is on last years growth or old growth as well. I could and should look it up, most plants grow bushier from pruning but with some that limits the next year crop of flowers, as I say with chillis I don’t know because I have never bothered.
My last lot of chilli plants lasted for years, they definitely don’t like the cold but every year they would produce a massive crop, in fact I am still using the dried powder from the last crop but it is getting a bit old now, next spring I am going to plant heaps and see if I can keep a good crop going every year.
I am going to make more effort to save seeds each year too. I never thought about it until I couldn’t get the seeds as shown above. I like them fiery hot, most varieties here are not, medium at best.
Yes, we’d struggle leaving them in a garden border with our climate. I suppose by way of an experiment you could cut one back and see how it compares if you had the inclination.
