Apache F1

Why it suits Ireland

The best place to grow a chilli in Ireland is often not the greenhouse, it is the sunniest windowsill in the house, because our limiting factor is cool nights rather than daylight and a house stays warm at night while a greenhouse does not. Apache is the variety that makes that practical, since a 45cm plant in a 5 litre pot fits on a sill and a 1.2m cayenne does not.

It is also early. In a country where fruit sitting green in October is the standard disappointment, a variety that starts colouring in August is worth a lot more than one with a bigger theoretical yield.

Being an F1 it is uniform and vigorous, which is genuinely useful when you are only growing two or three plants and cannot afford one of them to be a poor specimen.

Growing notes

Sow January to March with bottom heat at 25 to 30C, and use a grow light for the early sowings. Prick out at the first true leaves and keep the plants at around 20C.

Pot on through 9cm and 2 litre pots into a 5 litre final pot by late May. Pinch out the growing tip at about 20cm to encourage the branching habit this variety is bought for.

On a windowsill, turn the pot a quarter turn every few days so it does not lean into the glass, and move it back from the glass on cold nights. Tap the flowers daily when they open, because indoor air is still and chilli flowers need movement to shed pollen.

Feed with a high potash tomato feed once the first fruit set. Pick regularly from August, cutting fruit off rather than pulling, and the plant will keep producing into October.

At the end of the season this is a good candidate for overwintering, precisely because it is small enough to keep somewhere frost free without giving up much space.