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I'm worried I might have planted my chilis too late. This is what they look like now, and there are 5-6 weeks left of summer here. Will they have enough time to produce chilies?

Chili peppers in a pot

Niall C.
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Dan
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  • what variety of chili did you plant? That will tell you how many days "normally" to harvest. – Mike Perry Jul 24 '11 at 22:35
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    as they're in pots -- do you have a good sunny place indoors that you can move them to before the chill sets in? ... ps. is that a SOHO/EIT, STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI or SDO/AIA image? – Joe Jul 24 '11 at 23:11
  • @Mike Unfortunately I don't know, the smaller seedlings are Scotch Bonnet. – Dan Jul 25 '11 at 18:37
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    @Joe What do all those acronyms mean? – Dan Jul 25 '11 at 18:37
  • @Dan, As far as I know, depending on the variety, Scotch Bonnet are 60 days to maturity (lowest end), up to 120 days. – Mike Perry Jul 25 '11 at 18:47
  • @Dan : the picture of the sun ... the full disk blue pictures come from one of three telescopes: [EIT](http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/SolarCorona/eit028.html), [EUVI](http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classroom/EUVsun.shtml), or [AIA](http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/). It *looks* like SOHO/EIT to me, but the point in the solar cycle matters more than the specific instrument on how they look. (the acronym before the slash is the spacecraft) – Joe Jul 26 '11 at 13:07

1 Answers1

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Where are you and when is your first frost?

Somewhere like here in Texas has summer through to early September. But that is when the peppers start to get productive, and I get my main harvest from September through to the first frost (they start to get a bit slow as the temperatures fall into the 30's°F to 50's°F / single digit °C).

The smallest plants in the rear pot (the seedlings) are too small. Your other plants look established with good healthy (deep green) growth. If you're not seeing flower buds yet then you will do soon (look in the crown area of the two largest plants). I think you're going to get some fruit - and depending on your weather, possible quite a few.

I find they do much better putting them in beds but it is probably a bit late for that to be particularly worthwhile.

Mike Perry
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winwaed
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  • I'm in the UK. Just looked it up and apparently frosts usual start in early November. So it sounds like I'm OK? I assume your temps are in Fahrenheit? Its good to know im going to get some fruit!! – Dan Jul 24 '11 at 17:56
  • Yes those are fahrenheit. Our frosts start in December. Mild frost will make them dormant and a good hard frost kills them dead. Peppers like the sun, so finding a sunny position will help. You probably have temperate-loving varieties which will help. I have the opposite problem - and have only this year found a bell pepper that is putting out fruit in the current 100F temps. – winwaed Jul 24 '11 at 18:02