Stay hot with homegrown chilli peppers

Feeling hot, hot, hot? Well, if you want the sizzling summer atmosphere to continue in your cooking, you should consider growing some patio chillies.

Last year, research by Which magazine in the United Kingdom, put chillies to the test to find out which varieties were most suited to the hot outdoors.

Researchers grew 20 varieties from seed in March and put them out in early June, feeding them once a week with tomato fertiliser after the fruits had set.

They identified six varieties, which will do well whatever the weather.

Filius Blue, a medium-strength chilli with masses of brightly-coloured fruits turning from green to bluish purple and then red, was voted Best Buy.

Chillies are best grown in patio pots or hanging baskets and Aurora, a compact plant that produces loads of slightly hotter chillies, which ripen well in the sun is ideal.

The fruits are short and pointed, measuring around 27mm in length, held above attractive dark green foliage, and are ideal for smaller pots and window baskets.

Other good performers included Prairie Fire, an interesting-looking type, which produces upward-pointing fruits, which ripen from pale lemon through orange to bright red.

They become bushy plants, producing enough foliage to fill patio pots. However, only 15 per cent of the fiery fruits had turned bright red by the end of the trial.

Orozco and Newmex Twilight did well outside as ornamental plants, but relatively few fruits ripened, while Gold Nugget produced an abundance of small, rounded decorative fruits, many of which ripened.

There were some turkeys in the trial, though, varieties that didn't produce many ripe fruits and didn't look pretty either, including Balloon, Fish and Friar's Hat.

If you want to have a go with chillies, sow seeds in a propagator or on a warm windowsill, prick out seedlings into individual pots and then pot on until they are ready to place in their final 25-30cm diameter container.

Support the stems with canes when the fruit is developing on all but the smallest types and keep plants indoors until March when the sun weather in Dubai is the perfect time for growing chillies.

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