At work we are having a competition to see who could grow the biggest chilli plant from seeds - although I think only two of us have actually managed to grow anything. It is surprisingly easy to grow chilli plants, and this is coming from a person who has managed to kill cacti and aloe vera, possibly the easiest plants in the world to look after (..although I blame Nybble for the aloe, he managed to eat half of it before I noticed).

Who, me?

What I find interesting is the chilli peppers actually come out of the flowers. You first get very pretty, small, white star shaped flowers, which then whither away, and the chilli pepper forms. The following three photos show the three different stages of pepper growth on my biggest chilli plant. I have ten chilli's on the go, however two are doing amazingly and will produce fruit, six are a bit behind but hopefully will survive too, and two are pathetic little limp green things that I might give to the bunnies for an afternoon snack. After all, they have been providing me with a wonderful supply of organic fertilizer in the form of poo. Rabbit poo is an excellent fertilizer for plants that produce flowers and fruit as it has quite a high phosphorus content. I knew those bunnies would come in useful at some point!

Chilli flower

A pepper growing from the wilted flower

Nearly fully grown chilli