Finding the hot spots for planting chillies

What a lot of power from a small vegetable. Chillies are in the same botanical family as capsicums but they distinguish themselves by capsaicin, the compound that produces the heat in chillies and is concentrated in the seeds and the white pithy ribs inside the fruit. On the Scoville range of heat, chillies can be anywhere from zero to 10 in intensity, with the smallest of chillies often producing the hottest intensity.

When our two eldest children were born I was working in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, with the central bank. Beside the entrance to a Girl Guide were two little chilli bushes. It just took a minute for young Stephen to reach out and pick a chilli to eat. Wow, it took lots of water to wash away the power of that one little chilli.

Chillies, as with the larger sweet capsicums, need warm, sunny conditions. They like quite rich soil, so dig in plenty of compost. And they need to be watered regularly and deeply over summer. Do not use fertilisers with high nitrogen, which will just encourage the plants to produce lots of bright leaves but very few flowers.

One of the mildest chillies of distinction is the anaheim, which has been grown commercially in North America for more than 300 years. It is a larger tapered fruit with thick flesh that is rated at only 2 on the Scoville scale. The stuffed shell is often filled with minced meat and onionsand used in casseroles and soups.

The Mexican jalapeno chilli plant produces lots of thick-fleshed teardrop-shaped fruit, seven centimetres long. It is rated as medium on the Scoville rating at about 5. The plants grow well in pots and look attractive along the borders of the garden. You can begin harvesting them while they are still deep green, but when they are fully ripe they will be bright red and even hotter.

The Hungarian yellow wax has a rating slightly below the jalapeno. The plant is very productive, producing lots of fruit that are up to 12 centimetres long. It is in the family of banana chillies, and can be easily sliced into thin rings to add to meat and salad dishes.

Serrano is a mid-sized oval chilli which is rated quite high at 7. With its thick flesh, it's good for salsa or pickled chillies.

Very hot chillies can be grown as well in pots or in the garden but always provide a barrier to keep small children away. The long, tapered red cayenne has a rating of 8. The habanero is the hottest chilli available for home gardens, with a rating of 10.

This week

■ Plant beans, sweetcorn and beetroot directly into the garden.

■ Plant lots of basil between tomato plants or in tub pots to provide a fresh supply throughout summer.

■ Mulch all garden beds quite thickly with quality mulch, such as sugarcane mulch, lucerne hay or pea straw.

■ Where you have plenty of space, plant out pumpkins and summer melons in round mounds with lots of compost and broken-down manures added to the soil.

■ Plant a further crop of potatoes to extend the harvest season next autumn. Hill up around the emerging shoots of earlier potato plantings.

■ Complete thinning fruit trees before the fruit has grown too much and taken goodness from the remaining fruit.

>> Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.