Gardening Magazine

A Chilli Experiment, Etc

By Mwillis
It is alleged that if you put a chilli plant in a big pot, the plant will grow bigger than if you put it in a small pot - in other words that it adjusts its size to fit the space available. Not surprising, you may say, but is it true? I plan to find out.
I have two smallish chilli plants (ones which were sowed late, when I thought all of my first sowings were going to be killed off by the aphids), which are of very similar size, and I am going to use these to conduct a comparative trial.
A chilli experiment, etc
I am going to leave the one in the terracotta pot where it is, but I have transferred the one in the black plastic pot into one of the big 35-litre pots recently released by the harvesting of some potatoes:
A chilli experiment, etc
Here you see the containers side-by-side. In the background are two of my "normal" chilli pots, which are 10 inches in diameter.
A chilli experiment, etc
The growing-season is already well advanced and it is probable that neither of these plants will produce any fruit this year, but even if they don't I will be able to see how big each one grows.
Now this is the "...etc":-
The home-made compost I spread around my raised beds earlier in the year evidently contained some viable chilli seeds, because lots of little chilli plants have popped up.
A chilli experiment, etc
Mostly they are unidentifiable at this stage, but I don't think there is any doubt that this one is "Nosferatu".
A chilli experiment, etc
Well, I'm never one to turn down an offer of free chilli plants, so I have potted-up a few of the volunteers:
A chilli experiment, etc
Again, they may be too late to produce fruit this year, but these days I have taken to over-Wintering a few chillis, so these ones may be candidates for that treatment when the time comes.

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