Hi

I am trying to grow green chillies in the garden. I have bought a soil from the HOMEBASE store in UK. I took out the seeds from the green chillies and put them in the soil. And i also put water to keep the soil moist. It been just the couple of days. I am quite excited. Tell me if i did the right thing.

I'm no expert (a long long long way from it) but...

Seeds for planting (the type you buy in packets from garden centres and such) always tend to be dried out.

I have a chilli plant that grew from the seeds of last years plant after the last of the chillies dried up and dropped off the plant I'd left them until early in the year (once it started to warm up a little after Febuary) and planted them back into a pot of soil and gave them a good watering (using warm water as it makes them germinate better/quicker)and kept them indoors.

Oddly the plant has grown and has two chillies on and about 50 flowering buds, which worries me as I would have expected the chillies to come out at the same time all over the plant. As it is two are almost fully matured and the rest are still just flowering heads !

So from what I know I think you should have planted them indoors/heated greenhouse earlier in the year and I'm not entirely sure if they will do well out doors even when the weather gets hotter ? (mine will be staying indoors on the windowsil - I think things like tomatoes/peppers and chillies are usually kept in greenhouses if your weather is anything like it is here in the North of the UK.

Steve

Hi - not sure how you will go planting wet seeds. Ive always let my seeds dry that ive taken from chillies. All seeds are usually dried, even vegies and flowers. Is the soil seed raising mix? Did you put them into small pots to transplant when they become seedlings?

Cheers

Steve

I bought some chilli seed packets from a well known company. Each packet had about 5-6 seeds, 2 each germinated and then died. I have been growing chillies from the seeds of the dry, whole chillies in my spice cupboard for a good few years. They have to be seeds of dry chillies, mature seeds. Green chilli seeds will probably not work, though I did grow some green peppers from fresh pepper seeds last year. They even fruited, but were rather late in the season, so did not have chance to give me large peppers.

I sow seeds in April, in my conservatory (have no green house). They are still in their, thriving. Buds are beginning to come. I usually put them outside in July/August, bringing them in, in September. they give me chillies well into December.

Incidentally, my bottle gourd is also thriving indoors and has one large bottle gourd now, ready to be cooked on the week-end.

it is usual for seeds to be dry, but if you think about the situation in nature, this seldom happens (although some seeds - not chillies though - need frost or even fire to germinate).

The chilli fruits will ripen (to red) then eventually fall off the plant, or be eaten by birds (which are immune to their heat). However, when they reach the soil, they will be rather moist and mushy, the decaying pod providing nutrient.

However, seeds must be mature enough to sprout, and I am not sure many seeds in green chillies would be ripe enough. The type of chilli may be important. Most in the UK come from Africa. I assume most of them are hybrids, and seeds do not often come true from hybrid seeds (it's all in the genes!).

It may be worth trying to grow Indian chillies, those sold in packets from Asian grocers are fine. Ones to try are

Sanam: medium hot, 70 - 90 mm long, 10 mm wide, knife shaped

mondu: the only common round Indian chilli, medium heat

byadgi, also marketed as "Kashmiri chilli" are very mild, deep red and wrinkly

dhani: known as birdseye, small and very hot

with a mix of these four, most colour/heat combinations are possible.

I sowed my chilli seed late so they are still in seedling stage, but I am sure in my temporary green house they will be able to fruit.

While my tomatoes have gone absolutely crazy occupying whole of my greenhouse even though i try to keep just 4 / 5 fruiting trusses and break off the non flowering ones. Patchoi did well in the green house too.

Mine are doing okay, just coming into flower now. I bring them in when heavy rain is predicted. Last year, I lost top half of many of my fruiting plants in a hale storm!

Mamta

frnds tell me that i have put dried seeds in the ground should i watered it daily or not.....

or when i have to water that area where i put dried seeds of my chilli

Where do you live? If in UK< they will probably not germinate. It is much too cold for them just yet. I start mine on a window sill or in a conservatory.

Yes from my experience it is better (if not essential) to germinate the seeds in the house at room temperature and then plant out when 2 or 3 inches and with a few leaves on. It is not an exact science and obviously depends on the weather conditions and how far north you are in the UK.In the UK the plants need to be started indoors so they have enough growing time in sunshine and warmth to mature and produce fruit.

p.s. I live in the UK midlands.

p.s. I do not buy packet seed but use seeds from chilli's and sweet peppers that I buy to eat. As long as these are not irradiated or in retail storage for too long they will mostly germinate and produce healthy fruit. I think I get at least an 80 or 90% germination rate......... why buy seeds?

Must admit you do not always get an exact copy of the fruit that the seeds come from or always as big but when the seeds cost nothing anything is a bonus.

I also sometimes use weak cold tea as a plant food instead of a tomato feed without any detriment to flavour.

Oh, thanks for that, Sativum: I think I'll have a go, once the weather gets warmer. I think I'll transplant them to the windowbox in the kitchen: it's north-facing, but summers are hot here in the south of France.

Or maybe I'll put them in one of the big pots outside, facing south. I had great success there with green peppers and cherry tomatoes last year. There's so much hot Mediterrean sunshine here in the summer, so the toms are really tasty. I suppose that, if the peppers did alright (I didn't grow them from seed), then chilli plats should do equally well.

Phil

Seeds should only be taken from ripe fruits (obviously) to ensure successful germination rates. Most chillies bought in supermarkets and grocery stores are hybrids. It's best to buy true seeds from a reputable seed vendor and then you can then save your own seeds from ripe fruit for the following year.

A nice Indian variety that is easy to grow and produces tons of fruit is Pusa Jwala.

Capsicum frutescens and Capsicum annuum are best started indoors around the beginning of March in the UK. Other varieties, such as chinense, baccatum, and pubescens will benefit from being started earlier as they require a longer growing season...and are a bit slower to get going.

Most chilli enthusiasts in the UK start their chinense, baccatum and pubescens plants off anywhere from the beginning of December up to the beginning of March by growing them under lights.

Plants can be put outdoors in a greenhouse in May, once the threat of last frost has passed.

Thanks, Sidney.

Not sure how easily I could find such seeds here in France. But I guess I could order them over the net. And I suppose I could start earlier than in the UK.

Phil

I received 2 chilli (house) plants as a gift about 2 years ago. One thrived and had loads of chillies for the first year the other didn't grow any more chilli's and died.

The one that survived is doing well still and the other week when we had some sun I put it out and it sprouted 2 flowers. Last summer I used to put it out in the sun and the flies and hover wasps would visit the flowers and more often than not they would become chilli's.

I dried one of the chilli's last year, hope I'm not too late to plant it.

I too received 2 chilli plants from someone about the same time as Kavey, which did okay as far as the plants go, but did not get many chillies from them! I have one chilli seedling peeping through, from packet seeds. Spice box chillies have not germinated yet!

My tomato seedlings are raising their head in my window sill propagator, so we are on our way for this year LOL! I also have 5-6 purple basil plants beginning to develop leaves. I am not sowing any more seeds until mid April. Mine get ready too early generally.

Hi,

You need to use seeds from ripe red chillies after they have been dried in the sun. Those seeds that come from dried red chillies have matured and hence may have a better germination rate than those from unripe green chillies. All the best!

True, the seeds should be from ripe chillies but then for healthy growth you need to "overwinter" the seeds i.e. putting the seed outdoors in pots during winters, make sure seeds are dry and not exposed to moisture before overwintering.