Hello Mamta,

Thanks for the mango chutney recipe, it turned out with white wine vinegar as malt vinegar no problems and very tasty with some cheddar cheese and oatcakes.

Anyway, I remember you said that you can grow chillies from the seeds in chilli pods.

Well I tried it and split a chilli and take out the seeds and put them in a flower pot, water them everyday but no luck, they are not sprouting. I also bought a packet of chilli seeds and did the same and they are coming on well, I have about 10 chilli plants but not many chillies.

I wanted to ask did you dry your chilli seeds on a saucer before planting them ?

I live in Spain and there is no problem with the hot weather for them.

But I did not have much luck, I planted them 2 weeks ago.

Chillies are very expensive here think ?3.00 for 100grms

Any tips would be welcome.

Best Regards

Hirta

Hello Hirta

I grow chillies from seeds of ready dried whole chillies that I buy, or seeds from chilli flakes, not from fresh chillies. I have grown green peppers plants from seeds of fresh peppers, but the fruit was very much smaller. So, try with seeds from your spice box.

Hope your bought chilli seeds do ver well, dry and save some red chillies from them for next year.

My chilli plntas are outside, colder than Spain. I have had one chilli so far, they are flowering at the moment.

Mamta

If you want the seeds from a fresh chili pod you should make sure that the pod is ripe (red, yellow, orange - depending on the variety) and you should dry it out for about six months before planting the seeds. (I have also heard that you can put green pods in a paper bag with a banana and it's meant to ripen the pod. However, I have never tried.)

I just hang the pods in the airing cupboard, but another way of doing it is to cut the pod in half and store it in a paper bag.

You should try giving your chili plants a feed once every week when the flowers start to appear. There is a plant food on the market especially for chili plants and I think it's called 'chili focus', but don't quote me on it. I just use a weak solution (half the recommended amount for tomatoes according to the bottle) of tomato feed once a week.

Mamta, are the dried whole chilies that people buy in big bags from Asian grocery stores heat treated in any way? Because I planted a few seeds from a dried pod in March and they didn't do anything for me.

Mamta,

Thanks to you and John so far for the advice but I think John is not right to say that you have to dry them for 6 months.

I used to look at a website in UK that sells Chilli seeds but not for profit and they had many ideas about growing your own chillies and peppers from the fruit.

Unfortunatley I cannot remember the name of the site but if anyone wants to google chilli seeds uk then it must be there somewhere. I think it was an alternative living site.

They said to dry them on a saucer overnight and then plant them, I did not dry them, too lazy I guess.

I have 10 chilli plants growing from the packet and have only 4 chillis but early days, the flowers are budding crazy now.

All you get in a packet of seeds is about 20 seeds, It seems to me if they are free with the chillies then why not use them.

Anyway I am going to have another go and dry them this time.

Let you know how it goes.

We can get dried chillies here, they come in a box and are called guandillos you get them either picante *hot or dulce *sweet, they are whole chillies including the seeds. Just blitz them in the food processor and store them in a jar for dried chillies.

Maybe I will try the seeds.

The problem in Spain is we cannot get Indian supplies, Spanish dont like Indian food.

I wish I was still living in Tooting !!

Sorry for the long reply.

Best Wishes

Hirta

Hola Hirta, the seeds need to be dried out properly before you plant them. I'm not saying that there won't be an occasional fluke if you don't, but for the best germination rate the seeds should be dried out properly.

I've read that the seeds should be dried for six months, but I have successfully grown chilies after drying the pods for just 5 months.

This year I have 4 Dorset naga plants that are grown from a dried pod. I started drying the pod last September and I planted the seeds in March this year and out of all the varieties I'm growing this year they were one of the first varieties to germinate.

You may be getting confused because some people recommend soaking the seeds overnight on a saucer with water and saltpetre. The saltpetre is meant to speed up the germination rate.

Good luck.

That's ironic that you should say that, Hirta. We go to Gran Canaria quite a lot and everytime we go I always take spices in my baggage because I can't imagine spending two weeks without my Indian food.

So I'll have a pan of something Indian simmering away on the stove and everytime one of the Spaniards walk past the bungalow they sniff really hard, pull a funny face, and give us a dirty look.

I have found a store in Playa Del Ingles that sells spices and Indian supplies, so when I'm over there I frequent the place almost every day - the other half just finds me annoying and can't understand why I spend so much time looking for spices.

In the resort we stay at there's only one Indian restaurant that I know of, and although I have never eaten there apparently the food is awful.

Hello John,

Yes maybe it is ironic but having lived here for 7 years on the Costa del Sol with the amount of UK people here you would think that they would at least have one Indian shop that would sell what we could get back home. Perhaps there is I just havent looked hard enough. There was an Indian shop called the Indian Project in Marbella but it closed after a few months, they had some curry mixes and some spices, I went there and it was just a little shop, but at least it was better than Sharwoods curry powder. But nobody wanted to go there.

As far as I know there are 4 Indian restaurants in Marbella and 2 of them are not good, formula curry from the 1980s including paper tablecloths with curry stains on them !!

I can count on one hand the amount of Indian people I have seen in Marbella in 7 years. I guess it is not popular place.

I think the London curry scene has seen the last of these days but not in Spain It is alive and kicking, now thats ironic !!

Well after 8 pints of lager and a chicken vindaloo your far too gone to be ironic.

But it would be nice to see Indian restaurants doing something more better but I suppose tourists are used to the humdrum. Indian food is a lot better than most people think. Thanks to Mamta and her website, she knows the difference.

I suppose when in Rome do as the Romans do.

I will try your ideas about the chilli seeds.

These are some of the varieties I'm growing this year:

Trinidad seven pot/ 7 pod

Trinidad scorpion

Bhut Jolokia

Bih jolokia

Naha Morich

Dorset Naga

Fatalii

Prairie Fire

Jalapeno

Hot Lemon

Orange Habanero

Cayenne

Ring of fire

Tabasco

Caribbean red

Tepin

Red scotch bonnet

Yellow scotch bonnet

I wish you well with your plants, Hirta. X

Hirta, a friend of mine claims that chili seeds don't need to be dried at all and they will come up really well when fresh - so I guess you are right with what you read.

I have never done it this way and never knew it worked - but I will certainly be giving it a try.

I hope it works for you. X

I do admit to taking a bottle of Tabasco with me on holiday which has rescued many a meal!

It was also a godsend when I was in hospital until I discovered that by ticking the box for the halal menu you got much tastier food even on the NHS!

I love tabasco sauce, especially the habanero one. I find it has a much better kick to it that the encona west indian hot pepper sauce.

This is interesting, we also take a small bottle (or two) of Tabasco with us sauce on holidays. This was taught to us by an English friend, who is no more, bless him!

Mamta

LOL! Now have visions of readers to this site being stopped at Airport Security Control and being made to 'taste' their bottles of tabasco!

"But please it is only to make the airline food edible!"

Tabasco sauce habanero eh JOhn? will try it. Have tried the west indian one though.

Ive always dried my seeds when harvesting from fresh chillies.

Cheers

Steve