Your comments and tips

05 Sep 09, kate (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Buzz - thanks for your comments and advice. As in most things in life, I probably just need to remind myself to be patient - Thank you!

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05 Sep 09, Ian.W. (Australia - temperate climate)

Take a tip and look for slugs and snails, they love chilli plants, Easy to combat too, just set out some shallow containers filled with BEER!, snails and slugs love it even better than we do, BUT, they don't know when to stop and so end up drowning in their own drink. Works a treat, and is not toxic to the environment or pets. and any leftover after setting out the traps is your reward if you so desire. I know, I have lost whole plants fruit and all overnight. Went looking at night and found the plants covered in tiny young snails.

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01 Sep 09, Barb (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Re possums, I've found growing plenty of other food the possums prefer to eat if the best way to keep them off my vegies. Apparently possums really like Plumbago and also young gum leaves, and I'm lucky to have plenty of gum trees and a huge plumbago which gets well chewed in winter when the gums have less new growth. I also have solar powered flashing fairy lights wound amongst the vegies which seems to help keep the possums away too.

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31 Aug 09, Buzz Killington (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

I don't mean to be rude, but would like to clarify a few things that have been said here, and give a bit of information. The Bhut Jolokia is supposed to be ~1.5 million Scoville units in heat and is realistically about 1 million, compared to a Habanero, which is usually ~300,000 Scoville units. The habanero is too hot for most, and the Bhut Jolokia is only for the diehard Chilliheads. Scotch Bonnets, Habaneros, and Bhut Jolokias are all Capsicum Chinense, whereas the standard chillies (pointy-ended ones) are Capsicum Annuum, and are usually alot more mild. Sweet Bell Peppers (Capsicums) are C. Annuum, and can cross-pollinate with other Chillies. Kate - Chillies are usually fairly slow-growing plants compared to things like Tomatoes etc. Right now, it may be too cold for them to be in full swing. The flowers are self-fertile, so will pollinate themselves, but you need to help them along by sticking pollen to the Pistil using a cotton bud or similar. Swirling your finger around gently inside the flower works too. When the fruit is pollinated, the flower will go brown, and drop off, and the fruit should start growing. Flowers browning and dropping could also be due to a poor feeding regime. On most (all?) fertiliser bottles you will see a NPK number set. N=Nitrogen, P=Potassium, K=Phosphorus. General vegetative growth (leaves/stems) is encouraged by high-N analysis fertilisers, and flowering is encouraged by high P/K analysis fertilisers. At this time of year, I have my chillies inside on shelves in front of a large west-facing window. Usually, I find that if the overnight low temperature drops below about 5 degrees C then they will stop growing/flowering. I would try and be patient with your Capsicums and Chillies. As they are already established, you should get a good head start this season. Good luck!

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30 Aug 09, kate (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Last autumn I planted chilli and capsicum plants which were eaten down to a stick. I seem to have protected from what ate them, but now although they are getting new shoots, they don't seem to actually be getting any bigger. Also a couple grew flowers - but these never developed into fruit. Should I just throw them away and start again or be patient? Any advice would be great. I promise to reciprocate elsewhere on the site!

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03 Aug 09, Tom (Australia - temperate climate)

Re animals eating chillis: it could be rats. We have possums, birds and rats. The birds are relatively easy to keep out - however they will find any holes in nets - particularly introduced English thrush. The possums at least eat the entire fruit and can tell which fruit is ripe - they don't tend to taste test like birds (taste testing spoils fruit which is not ripe). We have seen a rat or two in our garden that is too smart for any trap, poison etc. Presume it is the rat that can find its way through a mouse-wire cage I built for our berries and apple. I suspect rats are also responsible for partially eating fruit (different bite mark to birds).

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14 Jul 09, Jason (Australia - temperate climate)

Skunk, I tried that trick, stuck a couple of Habanero's onto the plant, low and behold they went too!!!

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13 Jul 09, the Skunk (United Kingdom - cool/temperate climate)

with reference to the question 'are there chillis hotter than habaneros ?' the answer is yes ! It is nearly 1/4 of a million Schovilles (unit measuring chillis strength) , its a beast called 'the Naga bin Jokial' and is outrageous , I ate one and went blind for over half an hour , check out Chilli Pepper Pete on the net , he loves them ! Hope this helps , maybe you could use them on the possums too .....

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19 Nov 12, Colin (United Kingdom - warm/temperate climate)

Re: The Naga Bin Jokial or The Naga Bhut Jolokia as they are more commonly known. The heat level has ranged from 661,451 SHU for green fruit, and up to 1,032,310 SHU for ripe fruit. Normally reaching around 1,001,300 Scoville heat units! This has now been superseded by the Dorset Naga which came in at 1,598,227 SHU and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion which as of February 2012 is the worlds hottest at 2,009,231 SHU

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13 Jul 09, Jason (Australia - temperate climate)

I am having major issues with my chilli and capsicums in that something is eating the fruit completely. I had a nice chilli plant with lots of green fruit on it and now it is almost completely bare of fruit, whatever it is is also eating capsicums too. I suspected it was possum so I fenced the plants in with a chicken type wire and I put some netting over the top however whatever it is is still getting the fruit. I have spotted possums around there at night so perhaps they are picking the fruit through the netting. Any ideas on what it is and how ti stop them?

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