Sowing and planting out times
I live in Cornwall in the South West of England and we are one of the wettest and mildest counties in the UK due to the gulf stream brushing our shores. As such, our last frost date is expected to be the 16th of April so please bear this in mind if you live further north from us. Your dates are likely to be later.
First… why grow your own chillis?
The main reason for me is choice (read heat), closely followed by ease and then just how cool they are… if that makes sense. Chillis are cool, really cool!
How hot do you like your chillis?
If you’re like me, you might not like really hot chillis, so the thought of growing them might seem pointless.
However, if you haven’t grown them before, you’ll be surprised at how many heat levels there are. In fact, they range from 0 to over 1,000,000 SHU!
World’s Hottest Chilli Pepper…
The internet is full of chilli pepper facts and claims to be the hottest chillii pepper but from what I found, the current leader backed by scientific results, is the Carolina Reaper grown by Ed Currie at 1,641,183 SHU.
What is SHU?
Chilli ‘hotness’ is measured in SHU which stands for Scoville Heat Units, named after Wilbur Scoville an American pharmacist who developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912. Basically, the higher the SHU number, the hotter the chilli.
The interesting thing about Wilbur’s SHU scale is that it’s based on using a selection of experienced chilli tasting experts to taste test different concentrations of dried chilli powder in a sugar and water solution until no heat can be detected.
Needless to say, it’s quite subjective and has been superseded by a new test called High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) which accurately measures the amount of capsaicin (8-methyl N-vanillyl 6-nonenamide) in chillis.
Okay, that’s getting a little nerdy but I thought you might like to know about SHU and why it’s often quoted on chilli seed packets. Forearmed is forewarned.
Factoid...
Defensive pepper spray ranges from 2,000,000 to 5,300,000 SHU units whilst pure capsaicin ranges from 15,000,000 to 16,000,000 units! Don’t add that to your Chilli con carne!
For more information, head over to Wikipedia or search Google for chilli pepper facts.
Okay, down to business…
Spaghetti Chillis
Genus: Capsicum
Species: Capsicum annum
Common name: Spaghetti Chilli Pepper
Heat: Low Medium, approx 8,500 SHU
Height: 50cm (my plants)
Spread: 40cm (my plants)
Fruits: Up to 30cm long and 12mm wide (my plants)
Some encouragement
If you’ve ever tried to grow chillis and failed miserably, join the gang!
To spare you the frustrations, the things I did that changed everything for me and produced the best crop of chillis I’ve ever grown.
Hopefully, this will encourage you to have a go. If I can grow them, you can too!
2020 was my first year trying to grow chillis with any conviction.
In previous years, all I did was buy a few semi-mature chilli plants from a garden centre and hope for the best. I was fascinated by them but not really thinking about them as an actual, usable crop!
Duh!
I bought my first Spaghetti Chilli seeds in 2019 from the plant sales shop at the Eden Project in Cornwall. The seeds were from SeaSpringSeeds.co.uk in Devon, check them out, they have a huge and interesting selection of seeds to choose from.
Spaghetti Chilli Seeds
The Spaghetti Chillis on the packet looked really quirky and were described as ‘quite mild’, which sounded ideal and something we would actually eat.
So, armed with my new seeds, I set forth to dream of growing my first homegrown and edible chillis.
What to do and when
Chilli peppers are heat-loving, frost-sensitive plants and because of this usually grown as annuals in the UK. They are also slow-growing plants and need a long growing season to reach fruit maturity.
This means starting them off in January or February, although it is possible to push some varieties into March. Spaghetti Chillis are faster-growing than most, so can be sown as late as mid-March.
I sowed my first ever Spaghetti Chilli seeds on February 16th.
I don’t have a heat mat or grow lights so I started my seeds off in some moist general seed sowing compost from the garden centre and placed them on a constantly warm (21°C – 26°C) radiator.
The seeds were sown approx 6mm deep and covered over with compost. I then covered the top of the container to keep the heat in and checked them daily for signs of drying out and germination.
Chilli seed germination
Chilli seeds can take a while to germinate, so don’t worry if yours take a while.
As soon as the first seeds germinated, one week later in my case, the cover was removed and the whole container placed on a south-facing windowsill in our lounge. The remaining seeds germinated quite quickly after that, which I think was down to the heat from the radiator and then the sun warming the pot.
Caring for your seedlings
At this point, it’s important to state that your seedlings need LOTS of light to prevent them from growing spindly and weak. Lack of enough light after germination is a sure-fire way to grow weak and disappointing plants.
Chilli seedlings need warmth too, so if possible they’ll appreciate a growing environment kept between 18°C and 24°C during the day 16°C at night.
Finally, watering.
Keep an eye on your seedlings, and don’t let the compost dry out. I kept the soil moist, just feeling it from time to time and judging accordingly. If you can water from the bottom, all well and good. I couldn’t, so I watered carefully on the surface of the compost. Don’t water the foliage, as you risk damaging the seedlings or causing rot.
Pricking out
If you’re new to growing plants from seed, pricking out is just the process of gently transferring the seedling from its first container and planting it into a larger container to encourage further growth. There are plenty of videos on YouTube if needed.
I pricked my seedlings out once they had about two sets of true leaves, moving them to three-inch pots full of fresh general purpose compost. Again, nothing fancy, just what the garden centre had at the time. Try to plant your seedlings quite deep, i.e. near to the first pair of leaves they grew, called the cotyledons.
Again, watering and feeding are the main things to keep on top of but the seedlings romped away in the pots reaching approx. 20cm in height before I started moving them into the greenhouse by day and back into the kitchen by night.
Chop off their heads!
Demonstrating how I remove the growing tip (note, this is a sweet pepper)
This sounds drastic, doesn’t it?
The first time I beheaded some sweet peas it seemed cruel but following the same principle of nipping out to increase side shoots, I soon learnt that it’s a really good idea.
All you need to do is nip out the growing tip of your chilli plant before it starts to flower and preferably when it has about six pairs of proper leaves i.e. not the cotyledons.
Just get a small pair of scissors and nip out the main growing tip. This will force the plant to send out side shoots from all the remaining leaf nodes (where the leaf joins the main stem), thereby increasing the number of possible fruiting branches.
Snip, snip… chop off their heads!
Growing on
Spaghetti Chillis being grown on in the greenhouse.
Once the days start to warm up (April / May) it’s worth moving chilli plants to a greenhouse or polytunnel to continue their growing cycle. If you have neither, then keep them on a bright and sunny windowsill or in a conservatory if you have one.
Continue to keep an eye on the weather forecast as you don’t want your plants to be caught by a late frost. Also, don’t forget to water and feed with a liquid all-purpose plant food every other week, just to keep the nutrient levels up in the compost.
Your plants will need potting on, into their final growing space or container once their roots have started to fill their current containers. If you can see a few roots showing through the holes in their containers, try popping one or two out to have a look. If they have plenty of roots growing around the base of the container, then now is the time to pot on or plant out.
Regarding timings, this might be around the beginning of May, depending on when you sowed your seeds and how they have been getting along so far.
Mine didn’t go into their final positions in the polytunnel until 9th June because I hadn’t finished building the polytunnel until then!
Planting out
Planting out the Spaghetti Chillis in the polytunnel’s raised beds.
In 2020, I grew all my chillis in the raised beds in my new self-designed polytunnel. The beds contain a mixture of topsoil, green compost and pelleted chicken manure, so nothing too fancy.
I have not done a soil test just yet and I mention this because I read that chillis like a well-draining growth medium with a pH of 6.0 or more, pH7 being neutral.
Regarding plant spacing, I planted mine in two rows with approx. 45cm between them. I think you could add more space if you wanted, which might also help with plant growth. Everything that year was rather crammed in alongside tomatoes and Tomatillos, which I appreciate might have hampered growth.
If you’re planting in pots then I’ve read that larger pots are better, with 22cm diameter being the minimum for larger varieties. I may try some in pots this year (2021) just to free up space for all the other melons, tomatoes and cucumbers I want to grow – there’s never enough room it seems!
As mentioned earlier, watering and feeding are things to keep an eye on. Including a water-soluble feed in your watering regime once a week will help your chillis grow well and produce plenty of fruit.
If you’re using fresh compost in your pots or your beds have been well composted and fertilised for the new season, you will not need to start feeding until a few weeks after transplanting.
Maintenance
Many websites state that Spaghetti Chillis grow quite tall and need support. Mine did not but if yours do you can do this in several ways.
- The first is using three canes pushed into the ground or pot and tied at the top to form a teepee around the chilli plant. Don’t go too close for fear of damaging the roots but far enough out to help support the branches and keep the plant upright.
- The second is using purchased plant supports which you can find on Amazon or possibly your local garden centre. These are usually made of metal and covered in green plastic.
- Finally, and this is not always possible, you can use strings tied to wires or the framework of your polytunnel/greenhouse which you then attach to the plant. You might use a main string for the stem and support strings for branches.
Harvesting
The chillis at different stages of development.
Like most chillis, Spaghetti Chillis start off green and mature to a lovely red colour.
You can harvest them at all stages but they will be milder when green and hotter when red. I guess this has something to do with capsaicin levels in the seeds and ribs, as the fruits develop.
The chillis do reach full size in the green unripe stage so it’s best to harvest when each chilli has stopped growing in length.
The other thing I learnt is that chillis will produce more fruit if you pick the ripe red fruits from the plants, as they ripen. Leaving them on the plant can reduce yields and even prevent other chillies from ripening.
In my experience, the Spaghetti Chillis continued to ripen and obviously dry out once picked. I tied all of mine around the long stalks with garden twine and hung them in our kitchen to dry. Some are still there as they make interesting decorations but the rest have been chopped, dried and turned into powder for cooking.
Stringing up the red chilis to dry.
My Spaghetti Chilli plants
My Spaghetti Chilli plants grew to a maximum of 50cm high, most were slightly shorter.
Many websites I have since looked at say they grow very tall and have so many chillis on them that they need support. This is to stop them from toppling over and also to stop the branches from snapping under the weight of the ripening chilis!
Mine didn’t reach such heady heights, nor did they need supporting even though they were quite thin-stemmed with a delicate and an open habit.
Flowers
When my plants were about 30 cm high, they started producing delicate white star-like flowers on the ends of thin, extended stalks.
Spaghetti Chilli flower.
Initially, I hand-pollinated using a small paintbrush but then learnt there was no need, so I stopped. However, as my plants were in the greenhouse and polytunnel without much airflow, I continued to brush my hands over the flowering bushes to help release the pollen.
I’m not sure if it helped, but I figured if it helps tomatoes, it might help chillis too.
Fruits
When the chillis are young they are a lovely green colour and firm with glossy skin.
Starting off green, they ripen irregularly along the length of the fruit until it is all bright red. Fruits then darken with age to a bright ruby red and when dry to a dark rich royal red.
They grow quite quickly and can reach 30cm although most of mine were between 20 and 30 cm long and 12mm wide
Each chilli has quite a pointy end and they can dry a little on the plant once ripe. I picked mine when firm and red to encourage more fruits and the others to ripen up.
The fruits on each plant ripen at different times to one another.
Fruits have thin skin and dry very easily. I advise harvesting when red and binding around the chilli’s stalk with string. This way you can dry a whole bunch very easily just by hanging in your kitchen or larder.
Freshly picked ripe red Spaghetti Chillis.
A recap of what I learnt
- Chillis take a long time to mature so they need to be sown early in the season, in the UK that means January if you have a heat mat and grow lights or mid-February if you’re using a radiator/airing cupboard and bright windowsill once germinated.
- They need warmth to germinate.
- They need plenty of light once germinated to stop them from getting leggy.
- The seedlings need warmth and plenty of light.
- Water from the base when young and don’t allow to dry out.
- Prick out and pot up when 3rd set of leaves appear.
- Don’t let the frost get to them.
- When they get their 5th or 6th set of leaves, nip out the main growing tip to encourage side shoots which will have more chillis on.
- Move out to a greenhouse for the summer if you have one.
- Give them plenty of room to grow.
- Pick Spaghetti Chillis when red as they’re still quite mild.
- Hang in bunches to dry.
- Use raw, pickled or dried for powder or adding to stews etc.
- You can probably freeze them, taking out when you need them… I didn’t try this.
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