UK gardening - chilli pepper house plant "Apache" advice

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chilli pepper house plant "Apache" advice

jives11

2007-11-29, 1:25 pm

greetings,

I bought a small potted houseplant Chilli pepper ("Apache") back in
October and have had some excellent chillies from it.

My experience of house plants so far is limited to the hardy Spider
plant, and I'm having a few problems:

1) many of the leaves have small holes and on investigation, there are
pinkish/brown aphids on the undersides. I have tried immersing the
plant upside down in soapy water a few times, then rinsing. This
doesn't seem to help. I have also removed the little blighters by
hand, but they seem to come back. The leaves look a bit dull and limp
too.

2) is it normal for the peppers to shrivel on the branch ? Most of
mine appear now to have gone from smooth shiny peppers into wrinkled
dark red ones. I have cut some off and chopped and used in food and
they seem to taste fine (i.e HOT). is that normal ?

On the plus side I have kept the seeds and planted a few in a pot and
they seem to have germinated so I intend growing some more plants.

many thanks

2007-11-29, 1:25 pm

jives11 <jonathan.ives@gmail.com> writes
>greetings,
>
>I bought a small potted houseplant Chilli pepper ("Apache") back in
>October and have had some excellent chillies from it.
>
>My experience of house plants so far is limited to the hardy Spider
>plant, and I'm having a few problems:
>
>1) many of the leaves have small holes and on investigation, there are
>pinkish/brown aphids on the undersides. I have tried immersing the
>plant upside down in soapy water a few times, then rinsing. This
>doesn't seem to help. I have also removed the little blighters by
>hand, but they seem to come back.

They do that :-)
Don't pick them off individually, try running your fingers up each side
of the leaves and stems. Do it daily, more often if possible. Eventually
you'll get there. Remember they're born pregnant ;-)

> The leaves look a bit dull and limp
>too.

Probably the aphids
>
>2) is it normal for the peppers to shrivel on the branch ?

Eventually, yes. I find it a convenient way to store them, others
advocate picking when red and storing some other way (eg deepfreeze)

> Most of
>mine appear now to have gone from smooth shiny peppers into wrinkled
>dark red ones. I have cut some off and chopped and used in food and
>they seem to taste fine (i.e HOT). is that normal ?

Yes.
>
>On the plus side I have kept the seeds and planted a few in a pot and
>they seem to have germinated so I intend growing some more plants.
>
Good idea. They don't particularly like the low light levels in winter
so it's handy to have new plants. Keep some seeds in a cool dry place
over winter and sow a few more in spring, too.
--
Kay

Marco Schwarz

2007-11-29, 1:25 pm

Hi..

jives11 wrote:

> greetings,

Retourned..! :-)

> I bought a small potted houseplant Chilli pepper ("Apache") back in
> October and have had some excellent chillies from it.

Fine but it's a F1 hybrid..

> 1) many of the leaves have small holes and on investigation, there are
> pinkish/brown aphids on the undersides. I have tried immersing the
> plant upside down in soapy water a few times, then rinsing. This
> doesn't seem to help. I have also removed the little blighters by
> hand, but they seem to come back. The leaves look a bit dull and limp
> too.

Welcome to the club..! :-)

Where (and how) do you keep them..? Here there's only _one_ sort that seem
to make trouble..

And relating to the main question "what's really normal today"..?:

Nothing..!?!

> On the plus side I have kept the seeds and planted a few in a pot and
> they seem to have germinated so I intend growing some more plants.

Well but it's a F1 hybrid..
--
cu
Marco

jives11

2007-11-29, 5:25 pm

On 29 Nov, 18:21, Marco Schwarz <marc...@t-online.de> wrote:
> Hi..
>
> jives11 wrote:
>
> Retourned..! :-)
>
>
> Fine but it's a F1 hybrid..
>
>
> Welcome to the club..! :-)
>
Thanks for the encouraging,informative and rapid replies. What is an
F1 hybrid - it's not an eco racing car I assume

> Where (and how) do you keep them..? Here there's only _one_ sort that seem
> to make trouble..
>
> And relating to the main question "what's really normal today"..?:
>
> Nothing..!?!
>
>
> Well but it's a F1 hybrid..
> --
> cu
> Marco

Bob Hobden

2007-11-29, 5:25 pm

Jonathan wrote ...((snip))
> Thanks for the encouraging,informative and rapid replies. What is an
> F1 hybrid - it's not an eco racing car I assume
>
It a first generation hybrid between two separate breeding lines so seeds
from F1 plants will not come true.i.e. they will not be Apache.

I am not alone in finding that trying to keep chilli plants going through
our winter a thankless task, yes I know they are perennial plants but they
don't like our winters even in a heated greenhouse, if you succeed well
done. I grow fresh plants every year for planting out on the allotment.
"Thai Dragon" is my preferred variety.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

jives11

2007-11-30, 3:25 am

On 29 Nov, 22:00, "Bob Hobden" <b...@invalid.com> wrote:
> Jonathan wrote ...((snip))
>
>
> It a first generation hybrid between two separate breeding lines so seeds
> from F1 plants will not come true.i.e. they will not be Apache.
>
> I am not alone in finding that trying to keep chilli plants going through
> our winter a thankless task, yes I know they are perennial plants but they
> don't like our winters even in a heated greenhouse, if you succeed well
> done. I grow fresh plants every year for planting out on the allotment.
> "Thai Dragon" is my preferred variety.
>
> --
> Regards
> Bob Hobden
> 17mls W. of London.UK

Thanks Bob, I'm really rather enjoying this. I'll keep harvesting the
aphids by hand and keep the plant nice and warm and in a sunny spot.
Just 3 of the chillies (with seeds removed) chopped and added to a
dish really has a kick.

MikeCT

2007-11-30, 1:25 pm

"Bob Hobden" wrote in a message:
> I am not alone in finding that trying to keep chilli plants going through
> our winter a thankless task, yes I know they are perennial plants but they
> don't like our winters even in a heated greenhouse, if you succeed well
> done. I grow fresh plants every year for planting out on the allotment.
> "Thai Dragon" is my preferred variety.
>---
I too have never been able to over-winter chilli plants in my conservatory.
"Thai Dragon" sounds really HOT! A chef on a recent television cookery
programme recommended choosing green chillies if you don't like them hot,
I might just try a few next year.
Any tried and tested recommmendations?

MikeCT

Marco Schwarz

2007-11-30, 1:25 pm

Hi..

Bob Hobden wrote:

> I am not alone in finding that trying to keep chilli plants going through
> our winter a thankless task, yes I know they are perennial plants but they
> don't like our winters even in a heated greenhouse, if you succeed well
> done.

Here in the cold but frost-free conservatory in northern direction the
ornamental pepper (an orange fruiting Italian variety) and an unknown red
fruiting sort of C. frutescens do well..

My problem child is another one _indoors_ kept C. frutescens, that's a
magnet of/for aphids and whiteflies..

> I grow fresh plants every year for planting out on the allotment.
> "Thai Dragon" is my preferred variety.

Well too hot to me, and in my mind too _less_ flavour.. ;-)

--
cu
Marco, an unconvincable supporter of good old European sorts..

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