Green Capital Gardening Blog: Part 3 (Chilli-tastic!)
This is your guide to all things gardening related throughout the Green Capital year. Each month our resident blogger will share tips on how to get started with food growing, and where to find projects and community gardens in your area. You'll discover that gardening isn’t just a summer time hobby but something that can be done 52 weeks of the year!
Whilst it’s still far too cold to sow anything outside, or very much even in a frost free greenhouse, there is a family of edibles that like an early start.
Chillies are great fun to grow and the earlier you start them off the bigger the plant and the better the harvest.
There are loads of companies online that sell an enormous variety of chilli seeds but the 2 best known in the South West are Simpson’s Seeds at Horningham and the South Devon Chilli Farm, both of whom sell through online shops.
If you are new to chilli growing choose a couple of varieties that you think you will use as there’s no point growing the hottest chilli in the world unless you have a use for them!!
Good ones to start with are Chilli Lemon Aji (hot with a citrus kick and a particular favourite of mine), Joe’s Long Cayenne, Numex Twilight, or Hungarian Hot Wax, all of which are perfectly useable and fairly easy as long as you follow a few simple steps.
Too hot to handle?
Did you know the best antidote to chilli heat is a dairy product such as milk or yoghurt.
Drinking beer is one of the worst things you can do, as the alcohol washes the heat further into your taste buds.
Sow on a warm, sunny windowsill and keep the compost moist. If you have access to a warm propagator this will help germination but its not vital unless you are growing loads of varieties.
Sow 5 of each variety that you have chosen unless you know you have room for more than that or you can give them away to friends or family.
Once the seedlings appear wait until they have 2 true sets of leaves and pot on into 3 inch wide pots, putting the plants into the soil right up to the first set of leaves.
This makes the plant put out new roots which, as they are on stem that was exposed will be feeding roots.
Keep your eye on the plants roots and every time they fill the pot, pot up again. This will ensure you get maximum sized plants that will fruit well.
Once the plants start to flower, add some feed such as a good tomato feed to the water twice a week and continue to do so all the way through the fruiting season.
As long as you keep the soil in the pots moist the plants will fruit away nicely and provide you with a great crop of chillies in summer and autumn.
They will need to be kept inside or in a very sheltered spot in the garden once all threat of frost is over.
In Bristol we have an organisation called the Clifton Chilli Club who began as a bunch of friends who regularly met in the pub and morphed into a chilli club that is well known far and wide.
They organise the occasional chilli based outing and meet regularly, generally still in the pub, so if you enjoy your chilli growing you might like to get involved with them, or at least go along and say hello!!
With the emphasis being on all things chilli in this blog, the recipe is for Chilli Oil, a great way to use your chillies, to add a little bite to your dishes and also s fabulous gift to give all year round!!
