Growing chilies in Palm Springs area

last year

I recently moved to Palm Springs from Los Angeles, and I'm afraid now I will not be able to grow chilies because of the heat. We can many days that are well over 110°, and the jalapeño and Habanero chili plants that I bought at Home Depot are withering, even though I water them three times a day.

I have some chocolate Habanero plants that I bought on line and transplanted into smallish pots that I've been growing in my kitchen window, which gets a lot of morning sun. Am I going to be forced to leaving these plants indoors? I put them outside yesterday because it had cooled down to 105°, and they seem okay for now, but what if it gets to 115°?

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Comments (5)

Sherry8aNorthAL
last year
Do you have them where they only get morning sun? I googled and it seems that they need shade during most of the day. They aslo talked about using shade cloth.
Lars thanked Sherry8aNorthAL
Lars
Original Author
last year
The plants have been doing okay in the heat and do not need all that much water, but yesterday I noticed that grasshoppers had eaten ALL of the leaves off of my two smaller plants. I still have the one larger plant, but I am afraid it will be attacked next.
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Lars
Original Author
last year
A couple of days ago I discovered that it was caterpillars instead of grasshoppers that were eating my chili plants, and I'm afraid that they did a huge amount of damage. I think they killed one small plant, and they came close to decimating my large jalapeño plant, even though it had not been doing all that well.

My largest chocolate Habanero chili plant might survive, but I will be surprised if I get any chilies from it.
Lars
Original Author
9 months ago
My chili plants did all survive, and I have them in full sun, which is the way I've always grown them.

I have gotten a lot more from the jalapeño plant than I expected, and it is now in a large pot. I put one of the chocolate Habanero chili plants in a very large pot, and I put the other one in the ground, where I have an in-ground watering pipe in place for it to get water. We are now at a different house in the Palm Springs area, and so I am hoping we will have fewer caterpillars and grasshoppers here, but I will keep on the lookout for them.

The chocolate Habanero plants started producing a fair number of chilies last month, but a lot of them are very small, and none of them have seeds. The plant in the pot is producing some larger chilies, and so now I wish I had put that one in the ground. The plant in the ground should live and produce for several years, but I will have to see whether the chilies will get any larger.
Lars
Original Author
9 months ago
Here are some photos of my plants:

New chocolate Habanero plant, with stems cut off, probably by grasshoppers.

More grasshopper (I think) damage

This is the largest chili I have gotten so far, but I have picked a few that are almost this large.

I have not found any caterpillars, but I did notice damage on my plants that are in pots but not on the one that is in the ground - perhaps because it is so much lower.