Topic: Harvesting chillies

[euronerd]

When picking or cutting chillies from the plant, do not pick the stalk. This encourages the plant to produce more fruit. I got this yesterday from a gent native to Thailand, who lives off the things, and who gave me a demo to make sure nothing was lost in translation. ;D I've always picked the stalk, or at least pulled the fruit till it breaks off at the weakest point. I'm going to try it, obviously, and I just wondered if anybody else has come across this, or does everybody do that already except me? :-\

Geoff.

[Biscombe]

 Never heard of this. Why don't you want the plant to carry on fruiting?

[telboy]

euro,
Don't quite understand 'picking the stalk'?
I always cut through the stalk & freeze. Got so many in the greenhouse, having trouble giving them away!

[dtw]

It's probably an old wive's tale (or whatever equivalent they have in Thailand).
Try picking the two different ways and count the number of chillies you get from
two identical plants. I suspect there will be no difference whatsoever.

I brought one bolivian rainbow chilli plant indoors last year, and it started flowering again,
when it was in the warm. Two crops in one year. :D

If you want more chillies, why not grow more plants.  ;)

[euronerd]

Biscombe, perhaps I phrased it badly. I do want the plant to carry on producing but I was under the impression, being a relative newcomer to chillies, that once the predetermined number of fruit had been picked, that was it, and that this guy's trick would eke a few more out of it.

telboy, if you pull the fruit, as often as not the stalk comes with it. My Thai guy said, cut the fruit as near to its top as you can, leaving its stalk in place on the plant.

dtw, I'd planned on doing that anyway, sharing your scepticism, and perhaps I'll also bring one in at the end of the season as you have done. I do have enough chillies: I planted 32 in the greenhouse and every one germinated and raced away. Quite enough for one person. If anything, I'm short of room.

I was only asking in the first place if anybody had heard of this practice. Yes, I'm freezing some whole as suggested in another thread, and yes, I'm drying some.

Geoff.