UKC

Hey green fingered UKCers

I have germinated too many chilis - oops - from mild to super hots. 30 or so varieties.

I tend to grown them on a south facing window ledge inside but this year Ive gotten a bit excited and I dont like to kill a plant if I can avoid it. 

I have a south facing covered area and a south facing slighly more exposed spot too. 

Has anyone has any outside chili success here in the UK?

Not done it myself but surely its worth a try. Outdoor tomatoes seem to grow OK but they tend to have a tougher skin, which will probably not be your main concern if  you're eating something that can dissolve your stomach lining.

At least the bastard wood pigeons won't eat them like they've just done to two rows of my kale

I feel your pain. I tried broccoli once and chasing off cabbage whites every 10 minutes was too much in the end. Now, the wood pigeons just eat all the seed I put out for the birds whilst simultaneously destroying all the adjacent plants by trampling them to oblivion.

Interesting about the tontos. I grow them pretty successfully and as they are from the same place and are related plants.

Grown plenty outside with good success over the years, just for the next couple of weeks keep an eye on the weather forecast and be prepared to whip them back inside overnight if frost is forecast.

Yeah normally have some outside as J101 says just keep an eye on the forecast and be ready to bring them inside temporarily.

They might. Capscaicin has no effect on birds, parrots and other birds eat chillies. Pretty sure they have no effect on reptiles either, tortoises and iguanas can and will eat them.

OP: If the plants are well established and you have a garden with full sun and sheltered from wind then some varieties will do OK, so long as it doesn't get too cold at night.

Incidentally there is a series on Netflix called We are the Champions. The second one is about a chilli eating contest in Carolina. It's better than it sounds and utterly insane. The first is about the Cooper's Hill cheese rolling race. It's brilliant, a must see.

Reapers? 

(Im growing some this year)

It involves the guy who bred them. He has bred even hotter ones now. I expected the contest to be a bit of an undignified zoo but it's pretty entertaining and, as someone who was enthusiastic about chilli eating bravado in his youth, very impressive if slightly shocking and perverted.

The dangers of long term chilli abuse seems to be a problematic one for experts. 

I know a young lad who grew chillis of every type and had a thriving internet sales business for plant and seed. He also consumed a vast number of very hot chillis weekly himself. over a period of years.

He is now in a poor way with severe stomach problems which he has been told may be irreparable and chronic IBS might be  the best he can hope for.

And yet googling the topic of long term excessive chilli consumption gets lots of results claiming that there is no long term damage and your body can only benefit from eating the plant. 

Normally I would just accept that the jury's still out on the matter but having seen the poor lad and noticed the physical deterioration I think I know which side I'll go with.

( I don't think he just liked the odd hot chilli recipe but was more or less addicted to them in some way)

Went to an RHS place last year and saw loads of them out in their veg beds looking fairly successful. So we're going to give it a go this year. No expectations and not going outside for a few more weeks yet but we'll see what happens.

I grow lots of chillis, all in a tunnel (well some in a mini tunnel). The chinense varieties (basically all the proper hot ones) forget about it. They will set fruit no doubt but they’ll be the size of a pea. And probably won’t ripen. 

But some are fine outdoors. Ones you eat green like padrons and jalepenos do OK. Massively depends on the season. Nigel’s outdoor is a chilli bred for UK climate outdoors .

Real seeds are good for chillis suited for the UK climate outdoors so I’d start there for info. 

It’s really cheap to build a little tunnel tho. Chillis love the heat and protection from wind/rain etc. And they need the humidity when setting the fruit. 
 

Who knows but that’s just anecdotal nonsense. Sorry, no offence like. 

None taken . But my young friend faced with a lifetime of IBS might not feel the same way.

Definitely anecdotal but you're wrong to call it nonsense.

Anyway, ignore the anecdote and do a couple of hours reading up on it. AS I said, it's a problematic subject for the medical profession and there seems to be little or no consensus.

he was eating them right and not err using the French way?

I put mine outside the majority of the summer, just keep an eye on the weather and bring them in if need be.

The lawn is 90% moss and crawling with ladybirds so putting them out next to it is a very effective aphid treatment.

If regular hot chilli consumption causes permanent bowel problems then how is this not an issue in multiple countries around the world? Plenty of places where people will snack on a ridiculously hot pepper. 

The typical Western diet is definitely linked in to bowel problems. 

I grew a few against a south facing Yorkshire wall a few years back. Never had much luck with them indoors.

jk

I can't answer your question but if you read around the subject a bit you might find some answers.

Anecdotal again, but I used to eat a lot of hot chillies, mostly Scotch Bonnets or Habaneros. I'd cook everything with them or smother everything with Encona. A vindaloo was my standard curry and was substantially less fierce than what I cooked at home and ate on a daily basis. Also in my less mature years I did indulge in mind-over-matter chilli eating contests, all of which I easily won. I also developed some gut issues, which persist to a minor degree today. I still use chillies regularly but not to excess. However I also have a history of drinking too much strong coffee and I eat far too quickly without chewing my food, (only child with Labrador as sibling syndrome). There was a coincidence of high chilli consumption and gut issues but there may be other factors involved, the vinegar in the sauces being a suspect. 

That's indisputable.

I can highly recommend growing any brassicas under a large frame with a small-aperture net over it. Effective at keeping both birds and cabbage whites at bay.

Just don't do what I did last year, which was to transfer some late cauliflowers with caterpillers already in situ into the net...

To the OP: I would give it a try in a south-facing sheltered spot. Nothing to lose, really. The worst that happens is that you lose some plants, or they don't fruit well.

Yeah. Some varieties grew a lot better outside than inside (Carolina Reapers for one), while others fared better indoors.

It's all a bit puzzling because it seems like bowel cancer and the western diet are definitely linked  but if you look at figures for stomach cancer as well, then the countries with the worst rates are mostly in the far east. Even India's figures are much higher than the UK.

This is NOT me saying that chilli causes cancer, by the way. 

There is also a world of difference between including hot chillies in your diet and guzzling them like sweets every day for years on end to the point that they make you sweat like a 70s DJ when the doorbell goes. Lots of nutritious foods are bad for your health if eaten in excess. I suspect chillies are one of them.

i think the problem arises when people like the young friend I mentioned earlier start to find them addictive in some way and consequently do end up guzzling them like sweets.

I am one of those people that guzzle them like sweets. The thing to note here is that correlation does not mean causation. As an example, I do have IBS and I do have lifelong stomach issues. They both predate my chilli eating. If they were diagnosed later in life it would be tempting to attribute one to the other, but I was in hospital with a stomach ulcer at the age of 4, long before a chilli entered my digestive tract.

I understand what you are saying. 

I am a bit surprised though that in the light of your digestion problems you still eat them in the quantities you do.

Do you also eat the very hottest varieties?

And do you see it as a form of addiction?

Yeah, the doctor that treated my gastritis when I was a child was extremely surprised by this when he saw me 20 years later. Regular amounts of heat do not seem to exacerbate my IBS much.

Yep, although when I do I sort of accept that the aftermath is not going to be pretty.

Sort of. I like it and it makes me (as in the brain part of what is me) feel good with endorphins etc. I'm not sure I'd call it an addiction but I do chase that feeling so perhaps it is.

It's also possible it's just masochism.

That was me for about a decade. Definitely addictive.