Growing the plants

[blondie]

Where is the best place to grow the plants, i have them in the green house but they dont seem to be growing well.

[Chilli Willy Team]

Hi,

A greenhouse is a good place to grow peppers, however, sometimes plants grown in such conditions tend to require more water.

Are the plants receiving sunlight throughout most of the day?

Also, now may be a good time to introduce a fertiliser if you haven't already done so.

Regards,

Chilli Willy Team.

[pepperlover]

Do these peppers grow best in sun or shade when planted outside?

[Chilli Willy Team]

Hi there,

Thanks for your question.

The plants do like being in full sunshine when they are outside. The best place is somewhere with plenty of sunlight and a light breeze so that the plant can get the benefit of the sunlight whilst staying cool.

This also acts to produce strong stems as a reaction to the increased airflow.

Please let us know how you get on!

Regards,
Chilli Willy Team.

[spb854]

If you save your seeds to plant for next year, a word of caution.

I have been told that growing different chillies close to each other will often result in "mixed breeding". Now, I don't know if they will STILL be peter peppers or not, but their "heat" will be decreased somewhat.

Anybody know if the genetics will make the resulting plants NOT peter peppers?

Steve

[hothead]

Hi Steve,

Growing chillies, especially chillies that are a specific shape like peter peppers will caused diluted results and normal looking peppers.

I have seen a lot of cross pollinated chillies that do not look anything like the original variety. Once I grew some peppers that had absolutely no heat value and no seeds in the pods either!

The best way is to keep different varieties apart while they are flowering and pollinate the flowers as they open with separate clean pollen brushes.

Hope this helps,
Hothead.

[Chilli Willy Team]

Hi Hothead and others who asked this question,

That is correct. Chilli plants easily cross pollinate with one another. Sometimes this is a good thing though if you want to combine say a hot chilli with one that has a particular taste you like but is too mild.

This is especially the case when growing Chilli Willies though. Please be careful to keep them away from other varieties when they flower, right up until they have fruited as cross pollination may result in different or "diluted" looks from that of the original variety.

Most Peter Pepper seeds have been diluted by cross pollination. We only grow Genuine Peter Peppers to ensure that no cross pollination takes place with other varieties and that the plants retain their much talked about appearance!

If you want to learn more about Peter Peppers, please visit: https://www.chilli-willy.com/what-is-a-peter-pepper.html