(Thai) Chili Pepper
Chili 1
Chili 2
(Thai) Chili Pepper
Introduced to Southeast Asia hundreds of years ago by Spanish conquistadors. Small plants is only about 30 cm height. So I'm not sure which type is what we are having, since it is about 1 m height.
First generation Chili 1: Planted spring/summer 2021
From seeds of grocery's chili.
Second generation Chili 2: Planted December 2021
From seeds of chili 1's fruit.
First generation Chili 1 - Journal 2021
- Spring/summer
- Planted from seeds from 1 Thai bird eye chili from grocery store in spring or early summer 2021.
- Majority of the seeds grew into seedlings, there were so many. Unfortunately due to space limitation, only less than 10 is kept. Grow so fast during the peak of summer into a meter tall. Hand polinated.
- (September)
- First green chili was seen. They grow in size quite fast, but remain green for a long time.
- December
- First observed red ripe chili was December.
- Last week of December: pruning down the plants. Hopefully will be thriving. Actually the new growth have started before heavy pruning is started from tidying up since mid December. Because of that, I have the confidence to prune down quite heavily to a half of the plants. the other half are trimmed mildly only so far.
- 29: First flower from new growth observed and hand polinated.
First generation Chili 1 - Journal 2022
- January
- Early Jan: the flower didn't survive.
- Mid Jan: Soil covered in clay beads to prevent fungus gnats. It seems like it's not really working.
- 23: Fungus gnats seens flying aroudn from the pot. Yellow sticky trap was placed on the surface and pot covered in cling wrap. After 3 days, 51 fungus gnats were counted stuck to the trap. Another 2-3 flying away, 1 cought. Clay beads removed, top 1 inch soil removed, but nothing I can doo closer to the root which where they live if they are there. Pot covered in cling wrap again.
- 24: From the first harvest around Nov/Dec 2021, there were maybe 15-25 chili fruits that we enjoyed eating fresh, picking it from the tree as we need to eat it. The taste of the young ones, especially before it ripens, were mild and zesty. As it matures, it becomes spicier. The last few were frozen because they are start overripe before I can consume them. 1 of the overripen one was cut open and the seeds were planted. Since there are still 2 spots at the pot without seed, I use seeds from the next chili I ate (from the harvest too). Today, I'm eating the last chili from that harvest. It will be awhile until I can enjoy chili from the tree.
- February
- 8: The plants that are not heavily pruned flowers! Maybe between 5-10 buds in 3-4 plants. One of them even already bloom. Will hand polunate using q-tip today.
- 9: 2 more flowers starting to open.
- 13 Feb: Full bloom count 8-10. Some already seems to wilt to form fruit.
- 15: Many flower stem looks thicken like going to make fruit, 3 drops. Not sure the dropped ones are the failed ones, or the succesful one got too dry. So we water today with fertilizer. Fruit formula half strength for the flowering tree, all purpose hald strength for the rest.
- March
- 11: 1 chili fruit full size and green. 1 half size. 1 still 1 cm. Center support stalk added.
- Mid Mar: Prune further to the same height.
- 25: Watered thoroughly in preparation of 10 days holiday.
- April
- 3: Back from holiday, look very good and new growth going well. The single chili is now red, and there are buds coming. The larger one is removed. Continue to remove them in the next several days. They are removed to focus on growing foliages for now.
- 5: Warm day, temperature above 10 °C. Put outside during warm hours. Will put back inside in the evening.
- 21: Moved to new black square container (about 30cm). Plan to move chili 2 there too.
- May
- 21 May: Flower buds coming vigorously. Especialy the bushiest plant. But these are all removed to allow foliage to grow bushier first. Hope they come back just fine.
- 23 May: Yet another crazy major pruning. To about a half meter now.
Second generation Chili 2 - Journal 2021
- December
- 22: Second home generation intitiated from seeds from 1 first generation chili. There were 2 more empty spot.
- Late Dec: Several seeds from another chili planted.
Second generation Chili 2 - Journal 2022
- January
- 2: All from first chili planted seems to be sprouting.
- 23: About 5-7 cm height
- February
- 7: 5-10 cm height
- 13: Most have 8-10 leaves (4-5 sets). But not separated from the third set yet. 3 already pinched, the rest wait.
- 18: Pinched.
- March
- 11: Second pinch and thin to periphery 6. Was up to 23 cm before pinched. Now, up to 20 cm. Sad to remove the middle ones because those are bigger. But it's too crowded in the middle.
- 15: pinched uniformly
- 20: new growth from the pinchings sites are generally can be seen.
- 25: Watered thoroughly in preparation of 10 days holiday.
- April
- 3: Back from holiday, plants dried out and looked not salvagable. Watered anyway.
- 4: Lower foliages perked up, top ones still dried out.
- 5: Same as yesterday. Pruned out unrecovered dried foliages. Also white stuff is observed in some of the leaves. Pruned those out too.
- May
- 9: Combined with chili 1 in the new black square pot. Now outdoor.
Care
- Temperature above 16°C
- Fertilize every 2 week. Last: 29 Jan 2022
- Well-drained soil
- References mention Thai chili pepper doesn't need to be pinched when they are young. Also it's only about 30 cm tall. So I'm not sure why our plants are about a meter tall or maybe it's not even the same kind. So for the seedling, we are going to follow generic pepper pinching routine. Wait until there are 10 leaves (5 sets), pinch the top 2 sets.