Home growing capsicums

In late 2007 I stumbled upon a thread on a certain gaming group forum about home growing capsicums – chillies*. Living in Finland, as I mentioned in my introduction a few days ago, I found the idea itself to be quite odd. Why would anyone even try that this far north from the plant’s natural habitat? I suppose the rabbit hole opened under me when I started to read the Finnish chilli forum (chilifoorumi.fi), since quite soon I was purchasing seeds online and setting up a small plant lamp in a corner of my room. Since the humble beginnings I’ve expanded my hobby a bit, but only within the bounds of my apartment. I’ve had at most some 30-40 small plants at a time, and fewer once they’ve grown. All of my plants have been pretty small compared to ones grown in a greenhouse (the usual way here, simply to combat the less than optimal climate), and my crops have been tiny, but I’ve enjoyed my time and plan to keep going and expanding, especially when I have the space for a greenhouse.

What’s in it for me?

I wasn’t really a fan of spicy foods when I first started growing chillies. I’d used Tabasco sauce at some point years before for a while, but that’s about it. Now I do enjoy my food with a bit of a burn, I dare say hotter than most people would like to eat. I feel like I get more out of even the simple foods when I add some chilli powder or sauce, possibly due to the capsaicinoids’ aroma enhancing properties. Other people might like chillies just for the fun it is to grow them, seeing the seedlings germinate, take root, open their first leaves and eventually flower and produce fruit, or “pods” as they are often called. Others, like me, are more or less collectors. I like to grow many different kinds of chillies, from the most common and tasty to the rare and difficult ones. Some of my dearest chilli plants are only known by their scientific name, since they’re not grown commercially – Capsicum galapagoense, native only to the Galápagos Islands. The sheer number of different colours, flavours and shapes can be stunning. It’s not just about the red and green “pepper” people so often think of – there are yellow, orange, purple and nearly black chillies, plus striped ones and other multi-coloured varieties! The spectrum of flavours and heat levels ensures you’ll be likely to find a fitting chilli for almost any dish you can think of. A large part of a chilli farmer’s yearly schedule is reserved for processing the crops, whether it is by freezing or drying fresh fruits or by cooking up all kinds of jams, pickling the pods whole, fermenting them or even adding mashed chilli to red wine before fermenting it (yes, that’s been done as well).

The above reasons one might enjoy chilli farming are all somewhat tied to chillies themselves, but there are other reasons chillies are great for gardeners who want to try something new. The plants are extremely flexible in terms of suitable growing methods. Apart from the basic fertilized soil in a pot or ground, you can use all kinds of hydroponic systems, such as passive systems, bubblers, ebb-flood systems and NFT-systems, aeroponic systems or so called bioponic systems, where e.g. a fish tank takes the role of the water reservoir. If you like to tinker with technology or build your own equipment, there’s a world of options, each of which seems to result in healthy chilli plants and tasty pods. In Finland, home growing chillies is particularly popular among men of all ages, possibly due to the possibilities to play with all kinds of tools. The plants can also be groomed to fit your idea of the best chilli plant – whether that is a 4m tall giant with branches heavy with pods, or a miniature tree that can take less than year to create from seed, so called “bonchi” or “bonsai chilli”. There are many cultivars made to be decorative, ignoring the taste, others to be as hot as possible, and still others to have the best flavours for your foods. The last thing I’d like to mention is the awesome community gathered around these plants. The Finnish Chili Association has around one thousand members, and the annual Chilifest (taking place in Tampere, August 12-14 this year) is a massive event with more than 30,000 visitors from around the country.

Bringing everything together, the one great thing about chillies is the variety in cultivars, uses, growing methods, etc. If you’re interested at all, I recommend checking out this site by a fellow Finnish chilli enthusiast (in English for your convenience!). Mr. Fatalii has done a great deal to benefit the chilli growers worldwide, and you can find loads of information, beautiful pictures and seeds for sale, should you like to try it yourself. Note that I am not associated with the site or its management in any way. There are many more sites dedicated to chillies, most with a specific purpose. Fatalii.net has a bit of everything about chillies, and I believe it’s the easiest place to start. Fatalii’s Jukka and a couple other Finnish chilli experts put together a book about chillies last year, and rumour has it Jukka is working on another book in English…

As always, feel free to hit me with your questions and comments!

(*Note on the spelling: I decided to go with the British spelling, being a European and in general liking the British English pronunciation better than others.)