In the final part of this series, we’ll be looking at the flowers and fruit that will have appeared on your Chilli plant by now. A final big thank you to the team at The Chilli King who have offered their expertise on how to grow chilli plants.

As your pepper plants begin to mature you will start to notice flowers appearing on your plants. This is the sign you have been waiting for as it means that your first chillies are not that far off. All that stands between you and fresh chilli pods is pollination.

Pollination will be taken care of naturally by bees and other insects if your plants are kept outside. If grown inside your plants may suffer from flower drop, in which case you may want to consider hand pollination. Don’t worry, this is not as sordid as it may sound. All you need to do is wait until you have a few flowers on your plants then lightly rub your little finger inside the flower heads on your plants. Alternatively use a small artists paint brush or a cotton bud. This will do the bees job of moving pollen around from flower to flower.

Eventually you will see that some of the flowers will go brown and drop off. This is usually no need for alarm as the cause will be a chilli pushing its way through the flower. All you need to do now is to keep up the water/food and wait for your chillies to ripen.

Bookmark this article >>

Hide Sites

The team at The Chilli King are giving us lots of tips on the best way to go about growing Chillies that we include in our fiery but delicious Chilli Hamper.

Once the seedlings have developed their second set of leaves it is time to re-pot them. The Chilli King recommends pots about 10cm in diameter. Be careful not to damage the seedlings during this process. One good tip is to avoid touching them altogether by re-potting the area of compost around the seedlings roots. By doing this hopefully you will avoid damaging the roots of the plant.

Depending on the time of year, your location and amount of light available you can keep the plants on you windowsill, in the greenhouse or under artificial lighting. Pepper plants love light, so the more they get the faster and stronger they will grow.

Depending on the variety you may need to re-pot the chillies on again in a few weeks time. It is a good idea to avoid potting on to early as there are many theories that potting on too early into too big a pot focuses the plants growth on growing the roots rather than stems, leaves, flowers and ultimately chillies. A general rule of thumb is to only do this when roots are appearing through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pots.

Once the risk of frost passes you can put the plants outside. Initially you might want to harden them off by placing outside for just a few hours a day. This will get the plants used to the direct sunlight and wind that they may not have experienced so far during their indoor life.

Bookmark this article >>

Hide Sites

It seems that despite the heat outside, we just can’t get enough warmth if the demand for our ‘Chilli Cube‘ hamper is anything to go by. As well as the delicious Chilli Jam, Chilli Chutney, Chilli Chocolate and hot Habanero Chilli Sauce, we’ve included a packet of Chilli seeds which you can grow yourself.

Growing chillis is quite an art, so over the next few days we’ll be bringing you some hints and tips, inspired by The Chilli King.

The first step is germinating your seeds. The Chilli King recommends:

• Plant your seeds early in the year (Jan/Feb) and nurture the seedlings indoors or under glass. The plants can then be put outside once the threat of frosts pass and will produce chillis all summer.
• You can place the seeds in between two sheets of damp kitchen roll and put into a either a sealed freezer bag or plastic container. Place the bag somewhere warm such as an airing cupboard. This method will help keep the heat and the moisture around the seeds, speeding the germination process.
• Probably the best advice is to try and keep the temperature of the seeds constant. This can be achieved a number of ways such as by using a heated propagator or old electric blanket under your seed trays.
• The key is to be patient!

Bookmark this article >>

Hide Sites

In the last few days, our Chilli Hamper has gone from being a delicious gift for those who like things a little spicy, to a tongue in cheek gift for families who have been stranded abroad and are making their way home in drips and drabs. Fortunately though, our Chilli Hamper poses few problems for aircraft and complication is only caused by fighting over the contents!

Fittingly presented in a bright red gift box, we’ve brought together the fieriest flavours that we could find – chilli chocolate and chilli puffs, as well as a packet of seeds so that you can grow your own and a jar of chopped chillies from English Provender Company.

If you order before 13:30pm, we promise to deliver the next day, without any delays!

Bookmark this article >>

Hide Sites