Chillies Worth Waiting For

The chilli plants are better than ever this year, but they are also later than ever in producing their fruit - so what did we do different this year?

Well, the seeds were planted around Easter time, as per usual, and the plants started to grow well.  By July, they had grown plenty of buds and little flowers and were looking very promising, but then they had to be moved from their usual sunny windowsill to a table in the lounge so that the cat-sitter could water them whilst we went away for a week. They did not like this at all ....  the watering kept the plants alive but the lack of sunshine caused all of their flowering buds to drop off.

Once returned to their sunny windowsill, and a boosting drink of tomato feed, they started to regenerate but this time, with a vengeance.  It seemed the shock of a week's "mis-treatment" in the summer has made the plants more determined than ever to survive - their survival instinct to produce plenty of seeds within the chilli pods.  

We only have room for 2 plants, but I have already counted over 70 chillies on them and new buds are continuing to develop all of the time.  The supermarkets are charging almost £1 for a small bag of chillies so its satisfying to know that as well as looking good on the windowsill, these plants are saving us money on our grocery shopping too!  I'm determined to try and keep these little beauties going as long as I can throughout the winter!