Gadenin日本語Get the appThe turning points of the year
A chilli season has six moments that decide the crop. Everything in between is watering and feeding, and none of the six is judged by a date on a calendar.
| Turning point | When | What to judge it by |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing | Ten to twelve weeks before planting | Can you hold compost at 80F (27C) |
| Potting up | Two true leaves, then five or six | Roots reaching the sides of the pot |
| Planting out | After the last frost | Nights reliably above 55F (13C) |
| First set | Four to six weeks after planting | Pods swelling rather than flowers dropping |
| Ripening decision | Late summer | Six weeks left before frost, or fewer |
| The winter call | Before the first frost | Keep the plant, or clear it |
A cool early summer moves the whole thing back two to three weeks. Chillies do not catch up later, so plan the ripening end of the season from where the plant actually is.
Late winter and early spring: raising the plants
This is the part of the chilli year most often got wrong, because it happens indoors months before anything else in the garden is under way. Sow too late and hot types will still be green when the frost arrives.
| Stage | Jobs | Easy to overlook |
|---|---|---|
| Twelve weeks before planting | Sow the hot and slow types | They need a fortnight longer than mild ones |
| Ten weeks before | Sow the milder types, thin to one per cell | Cut, do not pull, the surplus seedling |
| Eight weeks before | First pot on, start weak feeding | Drop the temperature and raise the light |
| Four weeks before | Second pot on, prepare the bed | Warm the soil with plastic or a cloche |
| Two weeks before | Begin hardening off | Bleached patches mean you went too fast |
Late spring to early summer: planting and building the plant
Plant when the nights hold above 55F (13C), not when the last frost date passes. A chilli set into cold ground sits for a month without growing and never fully makes it up.
| Stage | Jobs | Easy to overlook |
|---|---|---|
| Planting day | Plant 18 in (45 cm) apart, stake, water in | Put the cane in now, not later |
| First fortnight | Water every two or three days, no feed | Midday wilting is fine if it is firm by morning |
| At the first fork | Remove the first flower, tie below the fork | That tie carries the whole plant later |
| Four to six weeks | Start high potassium feed, mulch | Mulch before the heat, not after |
| First set | Water steadily, keep tying | Flower drop in a heatwave is normal |
Plants going out into a cold or windy spell do far better under a cloche or a bottle collar for the first fortnight. It is worth the trouble once and never again.
High summer: cropping
From first set to the end of summer the job is simply to keep the plant fed, watered and upright while it fills. The one real decision is whether you are picking green for weight or holding pods on to color up for flavor and heat.
| Stage | Jobs | Easy to overlook |
|---|---|---|
| Main crop | Weekly high potassium feed, weekly picking | Picking green brings on more flowers |
| Heatwave | Shade in the afternoon, water twice a day in pots | Flowers will stop setting; it resumes |
| Mid summer | Retie, thin a congested middle | Ties cut in as the stems thicken |
| Any time | Remove split or rotting pods at once | One rotting pod infects its neighbors |
Late summer and autumn: forcing the finish
About six weeks before your first frost, stop the plant making new work it cannot finish. Pinch out the growing tips and pick off any flowers that open from then on, and the plant puts everything into ripening what is already set.
Reduce feeding to half strength and then stop. Keep watering steadily, because a dry plant at this stage drops pods rather than ripening them.
| Stage | Jobs | Easy to overlook |
|---|---|---|
| Six weeks before frost | Pinch the tips, remove new flowers | Late flowers only slow the ripening |
| Four weeks before | Half strength feed, then stop | Keep the watering steady |
| Two weeks before | Pick coloring pods, start drying or freezing | Green pods keep ripening indoors on a stem |
| Frost forecast | Pick everything, decide on overwintering | A frosted plant cannot be overwintered |
| After clearing | Remove all debris from the plot | Rots overwinter on fallen pods |
Pulling a whole plant and hanging it upside down somewhere frost free ripens a surprising number of the remaining pods. It is the best use for a plant you are not keeping.
Winter: keep or clear
A healthy, pest free plant is worth cutting back, root pruning and holding cool and nearly dry until the light returns. It will start the next season already large and crop several weeks earlier. A plant that struggled, or that has mites on it, is not worth the space and the risk indoors.
Whichever you choose, this is the moment to write the season up: sowing date, planting date, first set, first ripe pod, how the crop went and what went wrong. Chillies are grown from such a long lead time that last year's notes are the only real guide to when to start this year.