Started my hot chilli's

[ancellsfarmer]

Reference the aphids that are a plague, my Grandma would submerge the whole pot plant in soapy (Lux) water for 12hours overnight, and then drain thoroughly. She said that when they held their noses, they had to let go of the plant!!!. Seemed to work ok for her, even on african violets and other tricky pot plants, should be ok for peppers.

[ancellsfarmer]

[galina]

Thank you Goodlife and Ancellsfarmer.  Ultimately planting up and then finding ladybirds and showing them the way to the greenhouse will be the answer, but I haven't seen more than one or two this year.  A total immerse for 12 hours sounds good, not sure how the soil stays in the pots but good to know that the plants come to no harm.  I think I have some ancient Lux flakes hanging around.  It would need to be the bath tub and the plants would need to be on their side.  How often did your Gran do this?   

[goodlife]

My mum still rely on similar 'lux' remedy too, but she uses 'pine oil soap'. It is very old 'general use' soap for household cleaning in Finland...where it is still commonly used washing rugs on waters edge washing places.
I think here is UK something similar would be Fairy soap (the green bar) or olive oil soap bar/flakes.
Mum would grate some in water to dissolve and then immerse the plant (tops only) in a bucket of soapy solution....just a dip so that plant is wet all over. She always wrapped towel or plastic bag around the pot to keep compost intact.
And the bucket would get lid on...and put in corner..to be use again later on or being used for ready made soapy solution for cleaning.

Thinking of this again....it really is just a same thing as 'washing up liquid with drop of oil in spray bottle', just different version..oil and soap, but with dip/soak in the solution...one can be sure every single little hidey hole is treated and no insect/egg will escape their 'bath'...with spray one will never get them all and the treatment has to be repeated over and over again.
I bought some olive oil based soap from Ebay for felting wool..I MUST try that as 'insecticide' for a dip/spray.. I have very few 'dip-able' plants as most tend to be in big containers or planted in ground..so in most cases plants would have to be sprayed.

[clumsy]

What I use is neem oil mixed with garlic and some times put a hot chilli put in. It can stink but it does work but you have keep spraying when you see them.

[BarriedaleNick]

I just use a spray of soapy water.  Dunking an entire plant is water seems a bit too much effort! Especially when I have a dozen or so plants..

[galina]

Thank you for more suggestions how to get rid of the little blighters.

What is your source of Neem oil Clumsy?  Is that the stuff that is organic but not safe for ladybirds?  Not really know much about it.

Nick, what do you do to get to all the parts of the plant with the sprayer?  Lift the pot? Rotate it?   And how often do you spray?  Sorry for all the questions, but there has to be an easier way rather than swabbing with cottonbuds 

[clumsy]

I just buy neem oil from asian shops. I'm not sure if its organic but It does not do harm to wildlife, it just makes them move away from the plants. I also use it on mooli or icicle radish's it does deter the slugs not 100% but less. Lots of people around the world use neem fertiliser as organic.

[Silverleaf]

I've used neem oil to treat ringworm in rescue hedgehogs! ;)

[clumsy]

update on the progress so far.

[galina]

You can be very proud of these, Clumsy 

[Silverleaf]

I've finally spotted some tiny flower buds on one of my plants (Alberto's Locoto)! Nothing on the other plants yet though.

[BarriedaleNick]

I've got fruit on my Locos and some just forming on the thai plants.  However the 7 pot Jonah is still the slowest growing thing I have ever seen and is nowhere near flowering yet.

[Silverleaf]

My NuMex Twilights are also really tiny. Healthy and full of sideshoots, but tiny.

[clumsy]

Update on other chilli's.

[BarriedaleNick]

How are everyone's doing in this odd year?  Mine aren't too shabby - the Thai plants are fruiting really well and ripening up but I gave up on the 7 pot Jonah as it never really got going - something for another year.  Happy too with the African Bird's Eye which seem prolific and tasty.  Next year I will return to the really hot ones I think.

[Silverleaf]

I have NuMex Twilight and Hungarian Black fruiting (none ripe yet though), Aji Fantasy has one fruit and some flowers, and Lemon Drop is just starting to set tiny fruits. Alberto's Locoto has grown tiny flower buds about three times but they've shrivelled and fallen off each time - I'm not sure what's wrong. :(

I have to admit I was expecting fruit earlier than this. Are chillies normally this late? If not, what might I be doing wrong?

I think I'll attempt to overwinter these plants to give them the best chance next year. Is that hard to do?

[ancellsfarmer]

Uncle Google gives us this:
Sweet & Hot Pepper Production Guideline 2014 - Starke Ayres  (CUT & paste)
but for it's climate possibly Zambia, where this comes from, may be more to the peppers liking.

[squeezyjohn]

All my outdoor chilli and pepper plants are miles behind this year ... I think it's very unlikely that I'll get any sweet pepper fruits at all.

[Silverleaf]

I've never managed to get anything from sweet peppers. I've tried a few times but the slugs love them, and once they have even a tiny hole the fruit rots.

[clumsy]

Sorry for the late reply. The hot ones are going ripening along. The thai birds eye seem good.