A heat spectrum of easy

Easy-to-grow chillies are a great crop for beginners and an excellent choice in a small garden, as while they need a relatively long growing season to ripen, the harvest season is long too. In fact many chillies produce so much fruit that even one or two plants can be enough to supply your kitchen for the whole year!

When to sow: August to September.

When to transplant: October to December in warmer areas and October to November in cooler areas.

Position: Full sun.

Harvest: 12–15 weeks.

Good for pots.

Good for beginners.

Chillies are heat-lovers so sow the seed inside or in a heated glasshouse in trays in August and September. As with tomatoes, a bit of bottom heat can improve your strike rate, so use a seed-raising heat pad or pop the trays on top of the fridge.

Chilli seed takes about two weeks to germinate, and it will be six to eight weeks before you have seedlings of a decent size. By then it should be warm enough to transplant them outside. Traditionally chilli seedlings can be planted from Labour Weekend onwards across New Zealand, but if the weather is still unsettled where you live in late October, or the nights are still markedly cold, then hold off until November as this tender crop will never recover from a cold start.

Plant chilli seed about 5-10mm deep in trays or jiffy pots of moist seed raising mix.

Seed should germinate in about 10–14 days.

When seedlings have two or more true leaves, pot on into individual pots, but keep inside and warm.

In the garden, space plants about 50-60cm apart.

Chillies like a rich soil, so prepare the spot where you plan to plant them with compost, sheep pellets and a tomato fertiliser (which will support the production of fruit rather than encouraging leafy growth). Give chillies a sheltered spot that offers at least six hours of sun a day, ideally more. The stems of chillies can be brittle, so stake at the time of planting and tie the main stem to the support, especially if you are in a windy or exposed spot.

Flowers should start to appear a couple of weeks after transplanting.

Chillies are an excellent crop for pots and, if you are in a region where this crop is marginal, grow them in pots rather than the ground as the soil in containers stays a crucial degree or two warmer (especially if the pot is black), plus pots can be moved to the sunniest, most sheltered place outside or into a tunnelhouse if a cold spell threatens. Just use a good potting mix which contains a slow release fertiliser and wetting agent, and be prepared to water every day.

‘Anaheim’ is a mild chilli which turns from green to bright red or ‘Hungarian Yellow’, which is sweet enough to eat raw. ‘Cayenne’ is a hotter chilli but a reliably heavy cropper. ‘Jalapeno’ chillies vary from mild to hot depending on their ripeness and growing conditions. ‘Wildfire’, sold as a seedling in the GrowFresh range, is an extremely heavy producer of medium hot fruit, or try ‘Bird’s Eye’ which produces masses of very hot chillies with a great flavour for Indian, Thai and Malaysian cuisine.

If you like super-hot chillies, choose Capsicum chinese cultivars (as opposed to Capsicum annuum) such as ‘Habanero’, ‘Bhut Jolokia’ or ‘Scotch Bonnet’, just be aware that Capsicum chinese cultivars take roughly a month longer to fruit, so perform best in regions with a long summer. In marginal climates go for fast maturing cultivars such as ‘Early Jalapeno’, ‘Hot Cherry’, ‘Cayenne’ and ‘Thai Super Chilli F1’ as they have finished fruiting by the time it cools down.

Slugs and snails can decimate seedlings, so protect newly planted chillies with a cloche. Chillies can also be infested by sap-sucking aphids, especially if under drought stress, so be sure to water regularly.