Chili plants in the house

Chillies need heat to germinate and grow. It takes about three months from sowing to flowering. The fruit matures for another three months. If you do not start breeding Habaneros {: class=”chili-link”} until after the last frost in mid-May, the harvest in the garden will not be successful. For warm-loving chili plants with a ripening period of 90 days, you should start growing chillies in the house as early as January.

At the latest when autumn is approaching, it is time to bring the chili plants into your home. Most Capsicum species are damaged under 6°C. First they lose flowers and leaves. Below - 0.7 °C it means certain death for Capsicum annuum and frutescens. Indoors wintering is possible without any problems. Too little sun is critical. Here, however, you can easily help with plant lights.

You can also grow chili plants indoors all year round. On the windowsill or under artificial light it is not only a pleasure to grow plants. It is also a beautiful sight. Fresh green is good for the mood in the gray season. When the plants start to bloom, they look particularly decorative. Preparing a spicy recipe and harvesting its ingredients fresh is cool.

When growing chili indoors you have to pay special attention to some things: Dry air, space requirements and suitable lighting.

Chili plants like a humidity of over 50 %. Capsicum chinense are accustomed to a higher relative humidity from their home in the Caribbean. If the heating air is too dry, chili plants wither quickly. Room fountains or water bowls on the radiators provide a remedy to improve the climate.

Choose chilli varieties that are not much larger than 80 cm. Thai Dragon, Peter Pepper and Fresno, for example, are ideal for indoor cultivation. Use flower pots about 15 cm tall with coasters for planting. Alternatively, chili plants can also be grown in a hydroponic culture. Especially if you grow chillies in the kitchen, this can be a hygienic alternative.

If the days become shorter or the rooms get little light, you should support them with artificial plant light. Fluorescent tubes in daylight white simulate sunlight well. Many chili growers use LSR 865 with a light color of 6500 Kelvin for cultivation. The lamps are cheap to buy and the electricity requirement is low. LEDs have also become increasingly interesting for chili growers.

They are available for lamp sockets, as LED plant planes and as power LEDs.

Indoors, spider mites and other pests can proliferate quickly on the plant. Treatment with neem oil can provide good protection against sucking pests. If you hollow the plants purely for overwintering, a previous treatment is recommended.

If your chili bears flowers, you should help with pollination. In nature, this is done by bees and the wind. With a soft human hair brush you go from flower to flower so that your chili can also form pods.

When it comes to growing chillies on the windowsill, this chili is the first choice. The small chili plant produces many red chilli peppers. Sometimes you have to worry if the branches can carry the load. The Apache chili plant is frugal in light requirements and flower pot size. Bushy plant that rarely grows taller than half a meter.

When the tufts of elongated fruit ripen to an x-mas red, they look like a Christmas star (Poinsettia). The indoor cultivation is worthwhile because of the sight and taste. Each year the chilli plant yields more fruit before it dies after three to four years. Ideal as a snack with salads or for seasoning with moderate heat.

If you grow several varieties indoors, take them with you. It does not grow larger than 60 cm and forms huge quantities of thin chillies about 5 cm long. As with many small chili plants, they grow upwards and strive towards the sun. Medium sharpness with compact growth.

Perhaps one of the smallest Capsicum annuum varieties. Great plant for home or office. Prairie Fire chillies in green, yellow, orange and purple look great to bite. At a sharpness level of 9, some colleagues will regret secretly nibbling on her.

When their pods start to ripen, it is a particularly beautiful sight. The upright green, yellow and red chillies look like a flame. Etna Chili has a compact growth, perfect for indoor sowing.

This small Habanero forms cream-coloured mini-Habaneros which are not inferior to the other Habanero varieties of taste. The growth is bushy, and they are between 0.5 and 0.8 meters high.

Chili peppers from the macho ripen to a violet. She is accustomed to a few hours of sunshine. They look beautiful and go well with spicy goulash.

The famous chili powder is ground from Cayenne Chilis. With a height of 0.8 meters it can stand well as a pot plant in a bright room. Cayenne plants are relatively easy to grow. The thin-walled pods are perfect for drying. However, many do not know that the Cayenne pods also taste very good fresh. Very tasty in Hungarian goulash or cooked with rice.

A bright window to the south is perfect for a miniature greenhouse to germinate seeds. Rocotos that like to grow in semi-shade also like to grow on windows to the east. A winter garden offers ideal conditions for chili breeding. At the sunny places it becomes fast narrow.

A heated mini greenhouse with adjustable temperature is ideal for germinating the seeds. Heating mats placed under seed boxes are usually cheaper. They keep the temperature high in the micro-climate. Complete sets are practical for a quick start in chili cultivation.

Coconut source tabs are the easiest to use as a growing substrate in greenhouses. To germinate the seeds in flower pots, use an unfertilized growing soil. As soon as your chili plant forms new leaves next to the cotyledons, use them in tomato soil, for example. Which soils are suitable has already been described in this article. You can also read there how you can mix Chilisoil yourself.

If you want to cultivate chili plants successfully indoors, you cannot avoid lamps that support growth. You can get growth lamps as fluorescent tubes in the DIY store or in the pet shop. LED plant panels are no longer as price-intensive as they were a few years ago.

Almost all chili growers have their chili plants in their homes during the cooler months of the year. Chillies are a lot of fun on the balcony, in the garden and in the flat all year round.