Growing chillies indoors

[Rachel Ferguson]

Last year I planted some chillies in pots on the windowsill of my guest bedroom, as it's like a sun trap. I got plants, and leaves, albeit it long and thin - there wasn't much 'bushiness' going on, but very few chillies. Out of five plants I think I got around 15 chillies, which was really disappointing. Any ideas what I may have done wrong? I didn't actually feed the plants, I just watered them - could that have been the problem?

 

[maddie]

I grow chilles all year round. I do almost the same thing except that I add some compost every now and then to my plant. I get about 1Kg of chillies from one plant. I keep giving it away to my friends. As I cannot use that much.

 

[Rachel Ferguson]

Maddie, I did have the plants in organic compost. Should I have kept repotting them into bigger pots?

 

[Victor Leigh]

Not too sure about the chillies you have there but the species that we have here needs a lot of sun. They just don't do well in the shade. Once I did come across one species that came from the highlands. That particular species was acclimatized to growing without much sunshine. I have tried growing it under the shade of big trees and it thrived.

 

[maddie]

Maddie, I did have the plants in organic compost. Should I have kept repotting them into bigger pots?

Rachel, that could depend on the varieties. A moderately sized pot is generally enough to grow chilies. Sunlight is important.. but for a plant to produce more vegetables or flowers you need to feed it some nutrients. This is true especially of plants in containers. I prefer to go organic with my vegetables while I use chemical fertilizers for my flowering plants.

 

[Victor Leigh]

Just curious. What kind of organic fertilizer do you use? Here we have organic fertilizer made basically from goat's droppings. When I was living in the countryside, I used the goat droppings unprocessed, more or less, from the source.

 

[Rachel Ferguson]

Victor, as I mentioned in my first post I didn't fertilise, I planted them in organic compost and then just watered them. I will probably feed them with a liquid fertiliser next year to see if that helps. Can't hurt I guess!

 

[Victor Leigh]

Organic compost? That's a very good start. So did you make the organic compost yourself? Or is it sold in the stores? I have not seen any organic compost being sold around here yet. Only organic fertilizer so far. The government is giving a lot of incentives to companies producing organic fertilizers.

 

[maddie]

Just curious. What kind of organic fertilizer do you use? Here we have organic fertilizer made basically from goat's droppings. When I was living in the countryside, I used the goat droppings unprocessed, more or less, from the source.

I use kitchen waste for my composting.. But I usually buy vermicompost for my veggies as my home made compost is never enough. No, I do not use dung of any kind as I do not want the smell to spread into my home..

 

[tasha]

Last year I planted some chillies in pots on the windowsill of my guest bedroom, as it's like a sun trap. I got plants, and leaves, albeit it long and thin - there wasn't much 'bushiness' going on, but very few chillies. Out of five plants I think I got around 15 chillies, which was really disappointing. Any ideas what I may have done wrong? I didn't actually feed the plants, I just watered them - could that have been the problem?

I grew a chilli plant in the garden and it really grew quickly. I got a few chillies out of it until the monekys came and decided to eat what was left and then damaged the plant. Paprika chillie grows nicely in the garden and I have also tried growing it indoors now but it doesnt seem to be doing too well there.

 

[Chuck]

I grew a chilli plant in the garden and it really grew quickly. I got a few chillies out of it until the monekys came and decided to eat what was left and then damaged the plant. Paprika chillie grows nicely in the garden and I have also tried growing it indoors now but it doesnt seem to be doing too well there.

You probably are not getting good pollination indoors or lack of proper sunlight

 

[tasha]

I think it might bethe lack of sunlight because the kitchen doesn't have sunlight all day long, only in the mornings. I have placed one in the office near the window that gets sun all day long and will see how it goes. Hopefully I will be using those chillies for Christmas.

 

[claudine]

There are many different varieties of chillies. Maybe yours doesn't bear a lot of fruits. Start fertilizing it regularly. This won't do any harm and might do some good. Growing chilli plants indoors is definitely possible.

 

[headfullofbees]

Some chilli plants are just naturally bigger than others.
I grow chenzo chillis as the plants are compact, suit windowsill growing, and give hundreds of fruit!

 

[Turbotim]

Hi All, I currently have seven varieties of Chilli plants that I took indoors around October (just waiting for the weather to take them outside again), I'm struggling with watering them in time, I usually end up waiting for them to wilt for fear of over watering and root rot but a couple of times the leaves literally dried and fell off looking dead, has anyone used those terracotta watering spikes on Chilli plants before, again I have a fear of having the soil constantly moist.