OT: The 2009 Open Sourcerer’s Chilli Harvest
This morning I collected the fruits of the chillies I started growing on the last day of January this year.
Over the last 8 months or so, they’ve gone from this:
Some chilli seeds hopefully about to germinate
To this:
Chillies in Greenhouse
And now they are all gathered in, apart from one Naga plant that still has 6 good but unripe Nagas which I’ve moved into our porch where it should be a little warmer. I have read that you can over-winter some varieties. I’ve not tried that before, so will try it this time.
I had a pretty good crop overall. The Habanero Scutaba was the most prolific cropper but not as hot as I would have liked although they are quite variable. I will be drying the large ones and eating/freezing the smaller.
Habanero Scutaba
The regular Habanero produced an admirable crop of very hot chillies from just one plant whereas the Congo Trinidad failed to impress with regards to production. I haven’t tried them yet so can’t comment on their strength.
Habanero
Congo Trinidad
The small Nepali Orange and the Zimbabwe Bird Pepper are both quite hot and cropped well. Most of these have gone in the freezer.
Nepali Orange
Zimbabwe Bird Pepper
The Naga Jolokia, although not having produced that many fruits (I have eaten about 5 or 6 of them already) are really quite astonishingly hot. I’ve never eaten anything anywhere near this hot before. Simply amazing…
Naga Bih Jolokia
Next year I will be pinching out the growing tip of the plants when they reach about 8 inches or so. Seeing commercially produced plants that are much more compact and yet have an abundance of fruit is clearly the way to go. Mine were quite “airy” and tall. I think a more compact form seems to suit them better.
I need to say many thanks to my darling wife for watering my plants when I forgot and for putting up with half of our total greenhouse capacity being taken over by Chillies. Another reason for going for the nipping-the-growing-tip method which I will try next year.
Tags: Chilli
Really great post – very well put together and your chillies look amazing as well 🙂
[…] Open Sourcerer) got me thinking some time ago about growing chilli plants. Alan has just posted pictures of his 2009 chilli crop, and so I think its only fair that I post mine. Not quite as impressive, but then again most of […]
You really ought to move to Hungary – they grow very well indeed without a greenhouse here!
@Dave, thanks.
Sure, the best Paprika comes from Hungary but my command of foreign languages is about as good as my command of the sun and rain.
That makes me want a good curry – haven’t had one since the Naga Dupiaza at the Bengal Lounge!
[…] morning, following the great success with last year’s germinations, I have sown the seeds for this years Chilli harvest. […]