Chilli Pepper Review - Cherry Bomb

 

 Cherry bomb growing on a plant, they tend to grow in clusters of two which is probably why they look so much like cherries when ripe. They go from light green to dark green to almost black (right), then within 48 hours the green colouring drains to leave a bright tomato red.

The plants are splendidly short, just over a couple of feet tall and so perfect for windowsills or smaller spaces.  Yield is good for the size, it's my kind of pepper because the yield is staggered and long, I sowed the seeds in June (yes, very late) and have had a slow drip of peppers from August to November and it's still going...

 

 

Excuse the speaker in the photo. For scale, the cherry bomb is pretty small, same kind of size as a cherry tomato and probably very easy to hide in a salad for a hot surprise!   

 The cherry bomb is not very versatile if I'm honest. It's great cut up on a pizza, but it's in a middle ground where it's not that hot if cooked and the skin is quite thick so not that great for stuffing. 

Probably great for pickling. 

It reminds me of the kinds of peppers you get on "posh" pizza, like roquito or peppadew. That's why I chose it, because I really like those peppers. And I wasn't disappointed by Cherry Bomb either.

Taste: HOT and quite fruity, the taste is like a bell pepper but very very hot, I don't recommend you eat one whole unless you know what you're doing!

Time To Grow: Sown in June, Harvest started in August. Will be trying again in 2014 so will update then.

Please comment if you've grown these and found a good use for them. 

Recommended? Yes. A fun easy chilli.

Will I be growing these again? Yes, because the plants are very short and the yield is good, I'm still getting fruits in Mid November (windowsill)

I Beat Broad Mites Without Pesticide in One Step.

That's right. Broad mites can be eradicated on food crops in one single step safely and simply. Read on...

Broad mites are nasty little (and I do mean little!) bugs that infest indoor plants and seem to have a particular fondness for chillis

Let's be clear here. If you find yourself dealing with mites then your plants will suffer. Either by mite or by treatment,  yields will be down and plants may die.  Broad mites are very nasty.

Leaving plants untreated indoors is pretty much guarantee they will shrivel and die quickly. You have to act fast.

So - what to do? 

Heat treatment. The mites in all stages from egg to adult cannot tolerate heat. By "cannot tolerate" I mean it kills them.

Throw away badly affected plants, its best to concentrate on a small number of healthy plants.

Treat or throw away all plants at the same time. Treating just some plants at a time is pointless. You can't see broad mites easily and they will just walk back onto a treated plant from an untreated one.

It's very important to get the treatment right. Firstly because you will kill the plant if the temperature is too high.  Secondly if too low you may not kill all the mites. Both will be pretty disastrous so invest in a good thermometer that you can rely on, and get a stopwatch ready.

Bag up the pots well as you will be laying them on their sides, and prepare for a muddy mess.

Fill the bath and dunk the plants fully making sure every leaf is submerged for the full duration. Use anything you can to weigh them down.

Temperature: 43 Celsius
Time: 15 minutes

Once done, stand the plants up and rinse with tepid water.

You will expect all the leaves to shed within the next 24 hours and this may be depressing. But don't worry. New growth should start within a week and you'll be surprised to see how soon you get fruit back.

Please comment below on your results or broad mite experiences!

You can see my full post on my fight with the mites here

Chilli Pepper Review: Hungarian Wax

Unfortunately the broad mites had their way with this hungarian wax plant this year, so I only got one measly pepper off it. However, what a fantastic pepper! This is a pretty normal size pepper for this type, perhaps slightly on the large side.

They grow pointing upwards at first, but the weight usually causes them to droop down, which also creates the distortion in the shape too, so you often get one or more flat/bent spots on the pepper where gravity got the better of it. 

Corking is present on this pepper, although I believe that could have been caused by the mite infestation. Or, perhaps like jalapenos, these peppers can exhibit corking marks. 

The Hungarian Wax is normally eaten/sold unripe, which is why you normally expect to see them in a greeny yellow colour. However, if you wait until they're ripe and red, the flavour is MUCH better.

Flavour notes: 

Tastes very much like the best bell pepper you've had, but with a nice hot kick. Perfect for a spicy salad! You shouldn't really cook this into a food as it loses all the flavour, so eat raw and enjoy.

Time to grow: 

Difficult to be precise due to the mites really slowing down the ripening, but it was bought as a 6 inch tall seedling in June, and the pepper was just harvested in September, so probably about 5 months from seed to fully ripe fruit. It took an age to ripen, around 2 months, but was worth the wait.

Recommended? 

Yes. Definitely have a go, it's a very underrated variety, and incredibly rewarding to get such tasty peppers of this size.