• >>Chilli Plant Gifts
• >>Types of Chilli Plant
• >>Tried and Tested - Six of the Best Chilli Plants
• >>More Chilli Varieties
• >>Caring for your Chilli Plant
• >>Overwintering Chilli Plants
• >>Chilli plant problem solving and pests
• >>Harvesting chillies from your chilli plant
• >>Top tips when cooking with chillies
• >>Chilli Recipes

Chilli Plant Gifts

Chilli plants make great gifts for the cook or grow your own enthusiast. The more compact varieties will thrive in a cool conservatory, sheltered patio, or even a sunny window sill and the more you crop them the more they produce.

One of our most popular gifts, chilli plants are easy to care for if you follow a few basic rules:
1. Chilli plants like sunshine, the more sunlight the fruits receive the hotter they will grow
2. The most common cause of problems with chilli plants is over watering so make sure you only water when the top of the soil is dry to the touch and never let your plant sit in water for any length of time.
3. Chilli plants are not hardy, so in the garden they are best treated as annuals and harvested before the first frosts. Indoors many varieties will over winter with a bit of care.
More on chilli plant care

There are over 200 known varieties of chillies. Broadly speaking they fall into several 'families', and they can come in a range of colours including green, yellow, orange red, purple and nearly black. You can normally assume that the smaller the chilli the hotter the flavour and red (ripe) chillies are normally hotter than green BUT there is a lot of variation between varieties, between different plants and even between different fruits on the same plant! Cheyenne or cayenne chillies are long, thin and pointy and hang down on the plant. Thai chillies are normally small and pointy and grow upwards, Jalepenos have thick waxy skin and a more rounded shape, haberneros including Scotch bonnet are very hot with a rounded shape more like a miniature bell pepper.

Over the last 6 or 7 years at Plants4Presents we have trialled quite a range of chilli plants and found some are much better performers than others. Whilst we will continue to trial new varieties each year we have now got a few tried and tested favourites which we highly recommend for growing and harvesting at home.

Tried and tested - Six of the best

Apache Chilli Plants - Best All rounder

These are by far the most productive of all our chilli plants and can produce over 50 hot chillies in any one season. They also have a really long growing season and tend to start fruiting in June/July and continue right through to December. Apache's are an F1 variety and have been bred specifically as a pot chilli. They are therefore perfect for a windowsil or patio and are probably the easiest chilli plant both to look after and to over winter. Some of our customers have now reported good crops from these plants in their 3rd season!The fruits are 1-2 cms long and dry well either on the plant or after harvest - in a sunny spot they will get pretty hot and you should only need one or two fruits per dish for a good flavour.

Ring of Fire

These are part of the cayenne family and are another nice reliable variety. These chilli plants have a taller habit than the apaches and you would expect them to grow to about 2ft tall in their first season and produce approximately 20-40 fruits in a season. Although they are not quite as hot as the apache chillies the long pointy fruit have a really good flavour even when green. They grow well in a pot on a windowseill or can even be planted out in a greenhouse or polytunnel.

Pretty in Purple - Best looker

These purple 'twilight' chilli plants make great pot plants, not only are they heavy and reliable croppers but they really do look fantastic with pretty purple flowers and fruits set amongst dark purple foliage. In fact they look so good it's hard to believe they are edible but they do taste good too. Pick the small chillies purple for a milder flavour or over time they will eventually ripen to red. Like other black and purple chillies when cooked the flesh will turn green but when raw they can sliced finely in salsa or other salads for a really striking look. Their growth habit is quite compact and they rarely get above 40cm or so but they can still produce up to 40 chillies in any one season

Thai Demon

These thai style fiery chilli plants have masses of tiny very hot chillies, with a distinct thai heat on th roof of the mouth. They are already looking good with over 30 fruits set per plant and look set to continue cropping right through to the end of the autumn.These thai chilli plants have a compact habit so are great for windowsills and are easy to overwinter better than the larger fleshier chilli plants.

Super Chilli

As the name suggests these are a great chilli, producing heavy crops of tasty and hot chillies. The fruits are larger and waxier than the apaches but they are still part of the cayenne family and a good all rounder. There do seem to be a number of different versions of this variety around but these plants are quite compact - growing to 1-2ft tall in their first season and producing nice firm medium sized chillies from June through to September.

Scotch Bonnet - our hottest yet!

These habernero style chilli plants are renowned for their fiery flavour. Scotch bonnet chillies are later croppers than some of the other varieties and don't normally start fruiting until the middle of August. The squashed bell shaped fruits start green and ripen to a hot red - be warned these chillies are not for the faint hearted! Best treated as an annual the chillies to keep well either in oil or in the freezer.

And if you still can't decide choose the 'Chilli Lovers' Collection

This collection of plants includes a selection of 4 fruiting chilli plants from those listed above. If you leave it to us we will pick out 1 each of 4 varieties which we believe are looking their best that week but feel free to specify exactly which varieties you would like from all the chilli plants listed above.

Discontinued Chilli Plants

We always like to trial new varieties over the years we have come across a number of chilli varieties that are worth a mention. Unfortunately we can't grow them all each year but if there is something you'd particularly like to see next year please do drop us a line. We normally start the sowing trials in January and at the end of the year will decide which ones to keep and sow again next year

Friars Hat

An absolutely delicious chilli, hot yet savoury in flavour.The fruits on these chillies look like squashed hats and are great stuffed with cream cheese or mozeralla and baked. Unfortunately the plants themselves are so tall and fragile we found them a little difficult to package effectively so we only grew a handful this year and we don't intend to grow many more next. A real connoseuirs chilli you can by the chillies themselves through our sister company from August-October at www.fletchingglasshouses.co.uk

Jalepeno

A popular and extremely attractive chilli variety, these plants tend to get a spindly in a pot and don't crop very heavily. Planted out in a greenhouse these plants grow much better producing good crops of waxy chillies that are perfect for pickling and pizzas.

Black Chilli

Another unusual variety, these chilli plants - capscium frutescens are such a dark purple they look black and make a really striking feature on a windowsil. They have a reasonably compact habit at 40-50cm tall and early crops of 10-20 fruit should be followed by another flush later in the year.The fruits can be picked black or ripened to red and have a complex savoury flavour with a late 'kick'. These plants have proven really popular and we are now down to the last few so snap them up whilst you can.

Demon Red

Closely related to the Thai Demon, these thai style chillies have a taller habit and normally grow to around 2ft high producing clusters of pointy chillies about the size of a young childs finger. They are pretty hot especially if left to ripen red and have a nice flavour similar to the thai demon.

Thai Mould

Again similar to the Thai Demon, these are a nice variety but out of the the 3 thai varieties we trialled we felt that the thai was slighty tastier and heavy cropping so we have not grown these again this year.

Etna

Another compact upright variety, these chillies are rounder and fatter than the traditional thai chillies and have a slightly sweeter flavour when ripe. These are a popular variety, in fact one used by Pizza express on their 'Etna' pizza. Great for a windowsil or sheltered spot these smaller chilli plants are only 25-30cm tall when mature but produce a good spread of small yellow/green chillies that will ripen to red in late summer

Is there a variety you would like to see next year - email your suggestion here...

Caring for your chilli plant

Chilli plants should be fairly easy to care for. They need to be protected from frost and will do best in a sunny spot out of any cold winds or draughts. A South or East facing windowsill or sheltered patio is ideal

Chilli plants should be kept on the dry side. We see far more problems from overwatering than over watering. If the soil is allowed to remain soggy, you often see the leaves turn yellow as the roots start to suffocate and eventually the whole plant can shrivel up and die if left unchecked. The rule is therefore to only water when the top of the soil is dry to the touch. That might be once a month in the winter or as much as twice a day in the summer. You can spot when your plant is getting underwatered as the leaves will start to droop quite dramatically. At this point you will need to water straight away but they will perk up again quickly. In fact there is a school of thought that suggests that by watering only when the leaves are drooping you stress the plant into producing hotter fruit!

Chilli plants should be kept in a small pot. They really don't like being overpotted and will suffer from placing in to large a pot too quickly. Most of our chilli plants shouldn't need repotting in their first year, however if you are struggling to keep up with the watering or if your plants is 3 or more times the size of it's pot then you can repot. Just choose a pot that is only 2 or 3cm bigger in diameter and use a good general purpose compost with some drainage.

Chilli plants originate in South America so do like sunshine, the more sunshine your plant can get on fruit, the hotter the fruit will become.

Chilli plants are reasonably greedy feeders and will benefit from feeding in the growing season. A tomato feed, baby bio or any other high nitrogen feed will keep the leaves nice and green and keep your plant fruiting longer. Apply in line with the manufacturers instructions every couple of weeks from July through to September.

Over wintering your chilli plant

Chilli plants were traditionally grown as annuals but with a little care they can be overwintered and will come back even stronger the following year. The more compact pot chilli plants over winter better than the larger fleshier plants and the apache chilli plants seem to do particularly well in their second and even third year.

To achieve a strong chilli plant the following season it is important to let your plant 'rest' over the winter. Your plant does need to be kept well above freezing and a cool sunny spot is best, such as a greenhouse, conservatory, porch or cool room where the temperature is roughly between 5 and 15C. At some point in December or January you should then notice that your plant slows right down and stops putting on new growth and fruits, at this point you need to harvest any remaing fruits (whether they are red or green) and hold back on the watering so that the top of the soil dries out completely. Then take sharp seceteurs and prune your chilli plant right back to 3 or 4 main branches. Always make your cuts just above the 'nodal point' where the plant branches. You are aiming to remove two thirds of this years growth and your plant will look a bit bare and pathetic when you finish.

In this state you will hardly need to water your chilli plant and in fact unless the room is on the warm side can probably leave off watering completely until march or so when you should see the first one or two new leaves emerge from a nodal point. At this point water half a teacup to get your chilli plant started and then after a week or so - once it is putting on new growth - you can then give it a dose of feed and then return to a more normal watering routine. NB new shoots and branches will develop from where you cut back your chilli plant so if you didn't cut your plant back hard or far enough it will look a bit 'straggly' the following year.

Typically chilli plants kept indoors over the winter will be a bit ahead of any sown that year so you should start to see the first flowers form in April/May with fruits soon after. In a warm room we have seen customers manage to keep their plants fruiting and flowering right through into February from the year before but plants treated in this way will eventually run out of energy without a rest.

Repotting your chilli plants. Our chilli plants are normally supplied in 1L pots and shouldn't need repotting in their first year. Because Chillies benefit from a small pot, they should only be repotted if they are either more than 3 times the size of the pot or if you are struggling to keep up with the watering. At this stage they can then be repotted into a slightly larger pot (2-3cms bigger in diameter) using a rich general purpose potting compost.Chilli plants should only be repotted in their growing season (late spring to late summer) never in the autumn or winter. If your chilli plant has been in the same pot for more than a year but it is still quite small you can always gently remove the old compost in the spring and replace with fresh potting compost and this will give it the boost it needs without the danger of overpotting it.

Problem Solving

Drooping leaves are a sign of either under or over watering, if the weather is warm and the soil is dry then water immediately and within a few hours you should see your plant visibly perk up. However if the soil is wet or damp to the touch do not water a plant with drooping leaves but try and get it in the sunniest warmest place to dry the soil out. If you can catch it in time the leaves will slowly perk up over a number of days but you may lose the odd branch. Unfortunately overwatering can be terminal. If this is the case the leaves will loose their green colour, shrivel up and eventually go mouldy and there is nothing you can do to bring it back.

Over time you may notice the leaves on your chilli plant getting lighter and yellower. Chilli plants and particularly potted chilli plants work very hard producing fruit in the summer months and this uses up nutrients that do need replacing. Tomato feed, baby bio, miracle gro or any high nitrogen feed will soon colour the leaves up again. Apply at half the manufacturers strength directly on to the leaves for quickest results but make sure you are doing this only on a cloudy day or in the evening to avoid scorching the leaves.

Pests can be a problem with chilli plants, the most common being aphids or greenfly. These tend to attack the young shoots and flowers in the spring and can cause considerably damage if not caught early. If you are vigilant you should be able to catch and treat them early. Apidius colemanni or Aphid midges are effective biological controls for aphids but if you manage to spot them when there are only a few breeding then a washing up liquid bath will often get rid of the problem before they get hold. The only other thing to watch out for is thrips. This is normally more of a problem when the plant is young and the damage is quite distinctive leaving wrinkled and deformed leaves. Severe attacks can kill off a seedling but older plants will normally survive an attack and put on new growth to replace the damaged leaves.

A 2 year old apache chilli plant cropping well in the nursery

A ring of fire chilli plant showing yellow leaves as the result of depleted nitrogen levels

A thai demon chilli plant recovering from thrip damage

At the plants4presents nursery we also trial our chilli plants in the ground where they crop even more heavily

Harvesting Chillies

Chillies can be eaten green for a milder flavour but the longer you leave them on the plant the hotter they will become. For maximum heat, pick the chillies only when they go to a deep red and start to soften. Regular harvesting will encourage your plant to reflower and produce new chillies so you can always pick and store a glut of fruits. When storing chillies it is best to pick them when the flesh is still firm and once picked whole chillies will keep well in the fridge for several weeks.

If you do have a bit of a glut of chillies in mid summer, they can be made into a simple paste by blending with salt and oil in a food processor or alternatively fill a bottle of good quality olive oil with whole red chillies and in six months you will have your very own chilli oil. You can also freeze chillies in an air tight container or bag but once defrosted they will be soft and need to be used straight away so it is a good idea to freeze them in ‘portions’.

The hot flavour of chillies comes from the concentration of oil in the fruit flesh and seeds. Generally speaking the longer the fruit is allowed to ripen on the plant and the stronger the sunlight the fruits receive as they ripen, the greater the concentration of oils and therefore the 'hotter' the flavour. However this concentration not only varies between varieties but between plants and even between fruits on the same plant, sunshine plays a part but so does stress, temperature and watering.

So if you want the hottest chillies possible

1) choose a hot variety

2) make sure it is in a really sunny warm spot so that the fruits get as much sunshine as possible

3) allow the fruits to ripen on the plant until they go red and even red and slightly soft to the touch

4) keep your plant on the dry side and only water when the soil is completely dry to the touch

5) use all parts of the chilli pepper including the seeds and the fleshy bit where the seeds join the flesh.

If you like your chillies a little milder

1) choose a milder variety - normally with a larger fleshier fruit

2) pick the fruits before they are fully ripe (depending upon variety this will be when they are green, yellow or purple)

3) remove the seeds and the fleshy part that joins the seed to the flesh before using

4) cook your dishes a little longer - if on tasting your chilli or curry is a little too hot just cook it for another half an hour or so and some of the heat will disappear.

Top tips when cooking with chilli

It is often hard to tell how hot an individual chilli is going to be, rather than blowing your head off, cut another vegetable with the chilli knife and taste that.

You would normally add chillies at the beginning of a dish but if you don't think a dish is hot enough you can always add more later.

If you do slip up and make a dish too hot, you can cook it for longer to reduce the heat or add cream, yoghurt or coconut milk (depending upon the receipe) to cool it down.

Raw chilli is an accquired taste - less is more!

Chilli is not just for savoury dishes, try small amounts of chilli in sweet and chocolate dishes to cut through the richness.

Chilli Recipes

THAI GREEN CURRY (serves 4)

Ingredients for the curry paste

• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp each shrimp paste and salt
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 5cm piece fresh galangal, chopped (or fresh ginger)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 lemongrass stalk, outer layer discarded and finely chopped
• 5 green apache chillies, deseeded and chopped,
• A large bunch of fresh coriander, roots and stalks washed and chopped
• 6 fresh kaffir lime leaves (if not available use the zest and juice of an ordinary lime

Method

1. Dry-fry 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons coriander seeds in a small non-stick frying pan until aromatic.
2. Transfer the seeds to a food processor along with all the other ingredients and whizz together to make a smooth green paste.
3. Excess paste will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

Ingredients for the curry

• Vegetable oil
• 3 large or 4 small chicken breasts
• 400ml can coconut milk
• 3 courgettes, thickly sliced
• 250g shelled fresh broad beans, skins removed
• 250g asparagus, halved
• 10 fresh basil leaves

Method

1. Warm some oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add 40g curry paste and the chicken pieces and fry for a few minutes until the chicken is sealed and starting to brown in colour. Add the coconut milk, boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Toss the courgettes in oil, season, and fry on a hot griddle for 2 minutes each side. Add to the curry and cook for 6 minutes. Add the asparagus and broad beans and cook for 3-4 minutes, then stir in the basil. Serve with jasmine rice and lime wedges to squeeze over.

SWEET CHILLI STIR FRY (serves 4)

The trick with stir fries is to keep it hot! The oil should sizzle when the first ingredients are added and the pan or wok should be kept over maximum heat the whole time it is cooking, the action of continually stirring will stop it burning. Serve piping hot with rice or noodles.

Once you have the basic recipe, you can adjust the flavours to suit your tastes and experiment with different vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, salmon, duck or prawns.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Sesame/Walnut/Sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce (available in good supermarkets or asian stores if unavailable replace with soy sauce)
• 3 Apache Red Chilli peppers - finely chopped
• 2cm cube of ginger – peeled and finely chopped
• 2 large cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 3 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce (can be replaced with oyster/black bean or other shop bought sauce)
• 1 packet of paneer (oriental cheese) or 400g diced chicken or 400g diced rump steak
• 200g bag of mixed stir fry leaves/pak choi/Chinese cabbage, washed and roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, finely sliced lengthways
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced lengthways
• 1 white onion, halved and finely sliced
• Half white cabbage (finely chopped)
• Handful of fresh chopped coriander to garnish

• Heat the oil, soy and fish sauce in a hot wok or large saucepan, add the chilli, garlic and ginger and stir fry for about a minute until you can smell the flavours being released.
• Add the diced paneer/chicken or beef a few pieces at a time and stir fry until the edges brown all over.
• Add the carrots, cabbage and onion and stir fry for 2-3 minutes before adding the pepper and the sweet chilli sauce and continuing for a further 2-3 minutes.
• When the onions are translucent and the cabbage and carrots are starting to soften add the leaves and keep stirring until they wilt.
• Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with rice or noodles.

CHILLI CHOCOLATE SAUCE: (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 200g good quality Dark Chocolate
• 300ml Double Cream
• 1 chilli pepper of your choice – (pick red chillies for the richest flavours and biggest kick!)

• Start by adding the finely chopped and deseeded chilli to a saucepan with the cream and warm it over a low heat.
• Then add the broken chocolate cubes and stir gently.
• As the chocolate begins to melt remove it from the heat and stir thoroughly until the sauce thickens.
• Serve warm over ice cream or your favourite dessert.

Can you taste the difference between the slow after burn of the thai demon and the more immediate roof tingling of the apache chillies?

Do you have a chilli recipe you would like to share with us?

For more information on how to care for your Plants4Presents chilli plants or for help with a problem that is not covered here then please do give us a call on 0845 226 8026 and our customer service team will do their very best to help.