Really hot stuff!

Chillies are easy and fun to grow and need minimal area and care. They do best under glass with a long growing season and can be kept over winter in the right conditions. Some varieties will make excellent pot plants and can be grown indoors as ornamentals but are still edible.

If there’s one thing you need to know about chillies is that they love the heat. The implications of that shouldn’t deter you from growing them as it’s a hugely rewarding experience and when you’ve done it once, you’ll go on growing them year after year.

The downside of their love for the heat is that in the UK we don’t get the weather to grow them outdoors successfully. It’s possible, yes, but it is also a risky business and the crop is often disappointing.

The second point is chillies need a fairly long season to grow from seed to fruit. So chillies will grow much better indoors or in a greenhouse, and your harvests will be far bigger.

Aim to plant in late February, but the real goal is to have seedlings ready to transplant into larger pots once the spring weather warms up.
You should use a good quality, general purpose compost, do not use garden soil.

Your chilli seeds need warmth, 80°F(26°C), to begin the germination process. Light is not critical at this stage, but bottom heat or a warm location is. If you are using an electric seed propagation mat or tray, just plug it in and put the seed containers on it. If not, then anywhere in the house that's warm will do – airing cupboards are ideal. Compost should be kept moist, but not soggy. Over watering will damage seedlings and could stop the germination process altogether.

Check the seeds each day for signs of emergence. Be patient but most will start to sprout within two weeks. Just as soon as the seeds have begun to sprout and show above the soil line, the baby seedlings require bright light. Window sills are good, conservatories are also very good, but wherever you put seedlings ensure that night time temperatures don't plummet. Seedlings will not like the cold.

Plants that don't have enough light will grow up weak and pale, with long stems leaning toward the light. Seedlings can be grown on at a temperature somewhat lower than those for germination - a range of 65° to 80°F(18° to 26°C). When seedlings are up and growing, and have at least two sets of leaves, then it’s time to let the top of the soil dry out between waterings.

When seedlings have several sets of leaves, you need to move or ‘prick them out’ to deeper individual pots. Carefully remove the plant, trying not to disturb the roots as this may cause ‘root shock’. Push up from the bottom of the cell for best results. Then place the seedling into its new pot and gently firm the compost around it and water lightly. Peppers, unlike other plants, will make new roots along their buried stems, so if your seedlings are spindly, you can transplant them so that their stems are covered by the soil up to the base of the bottom cluster of leaves.

As the plants grow you will need bigger pots. A standard progression is, 7cm(3in), 15cm(6in) and then the final 20cm(8in). Bear in mind that the bigger the pot the plant lives in the bigger the plant will get. Once they are in bigger pots you can fertilize every day with diluted feed.

The growing process after that is straightforward and often dramatic as the chillies will flower and form quite rapidly, depending on the temperature, but again it’s a question of the hotter the better.

When flowers appear, help out the bees with some hand pollination - gently dab a cotton bud into each flower.

Snip off the first chillies while green to encourage fruiting all season - July to October. You can let the next fruit mature to red for a more rounded flavour.

The hottest and more unusual varieties, such as the habanero, take longer to ripen.

If you can get a plant through the winter, the fruit yield will increase in the second and third years. At the end of the growing season choose a healthy plant and cut it back to leave the stem and a few healthy branches.

Make sure the plant is free from pests and that the compost is relatively fresh. Place plant on a warm windowsill and give an occasional liquid feed.

An overwintered plant will produce fruit earlier and more prolifically. After four or five years, yields begin to fall and it is time to retire that plant.

Quick Chilli Pasta - serves 4

Ingredients

2 cans of tuna (2 x 185g)
Jar of pasta sauce (500g)
Bunch of spring onions
1 fresh courgette
Handful of oregano (chopped)
Handful of parsley (chopped)
A few sprigs of thyme (chopped)
Seasoning (black pepper and salt)
1 fresh pepper (red or green)
1-2 medium strength green chillies
A little oil mixed with chilli oil
Dash of chilli sauce
Pasta of your choice
Some grated parmesan cheese
Fresh basil

Method
Fry the chopped spring onions, pepper and finely chopped chilli in a little oil which has had some chilli oil added. Add the herbs, sliced courgette and seasoning. Cook for a few minutes before adding the pasta sauce and chilli sauce. Stir well and continue cooking for a few more minutes before adding the tuna.
Continue cooking for a further 10-15 minutes. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the pack before mixing in a drizzle of chilli oil. Pour the mixture over the pasta and top with grated parmesan and fresh basil leaves.

With thanks to Jane Eayrs at Farmcote Herbs and Chilli Peppers, Farmcote, near Winchcombe, GL54 5AU www.farmcoteherbs.co.uk

The Scoville scale of capsaicin strength

In 1902, Wibur Scoville developed a way of measuring the strength of capsicum in a pepper.
The fiery sensation of chillies comes from capsaicin, a potent chemical that survives both cooking and freezing.
The Scoville scale begins at zero with mild bell peppers and moves to the lower range of peppers measuring 1,500 to 2,500 such as cascabels, four out of ten. The Jalapeño chilli is mid-range at about 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units. Cayenne, aji and pequin rate about 30,000 to 50,000 units, while the habernero, one of the hottest, comes somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 units.

Varieties of chilli – from gentle to astronomical!

• Anaheim – A bushy plant can grow up to a metre in height with chillies about 20cm long, with a fresh green taste usually available in its green form, but can be left to ripen to red which is then a bit hotter, a close relative to the New Mexico Chilli.
• Cayenne - Pencil. This cayenne-type chilli is perfect for Indian cooking. The thin, pointed fruit are uniform, measuring around 140mm long, and hang down from the plants like Christmas tree decorations. They turn from pale green to red as they mature and are medium hot. The upright, medium-tall plants can be very productive and are suited to growing, with some support, in large pots and grow bags.
• Dorset Naga is one of the hottest chillies in the world. Its heat level is strongly influenced by growing conditions, so though Dorset Naga fruit will always be extraordinarily hot, there is no guarantee every crop will reach such an astronomical level. The scorching heat of the fruit is combined with a distinctive fruity aroma, making this an exceptional chilli.