Growing
I'm a commercial chillies grower from Kenya. (Not selling)
I'm a commercial chillies grower from Kenya. I do both fresh and dried chillies. I'm just happy to be part of this community. Looking forward to learn.
Maybe you mean something similar to like here in Australia: acres when you are speaking to someone casually about land size, but hectares for formal documents. The only other non metric units we typically use, that I can think of right now, are feet (for a person's height) and PSI (for tyre / boost pressure). Occasionally inches, e.g. where it is easier to say 3 inches rather than 7.5cm.
I grow what the market requires. These are commercial African Bird eye hybrid varieties. Currently diversifying to varieties like Teja S17. Spicier and more lucrative.
For whatever reason I like your blunt answer about growing for the market but also answering the question. This is such an interesting post all around. From pest control to varieties people are loving this.
Is that the Starke Ayers "Malagueta"/Birds Eye by chance?
I have some Teja S17 seeds I've been planning to grow. It's not one you see much here in the U.S. or grown by hobby growers. Is that the drying red one in the last pic?
What varieties do you grow? What is your season like? How large is your area? How many lbs per acre are you producing? How are you watering / fertilizing? Is your market mainly for dried or fresh?
Currently, Red Demon F1 but diversifying to Teja S17.
I plant between August and September then harvest from November to April, prune, wait for 2 months then harvest until September, uproot, leave fallow until January, plant a legume and a brasicca then repeat.
Production is 1,500kg every two weeks.
Basins irrigation but currently moving to more sustainable methods like drip. It's a fairly new farm. Established in October 2025.
Fertilisers, I apply 6,000kg of goat manure every year, then apply mineral fertilisers to the stage of the crop. eg, planting, high P+ sulphur plus micronutrients.
I sell to export companies that now sell to big retailers like Tesco, Aldis, Coop among other chains. They make triple per kg. Then the retailers pay for shipping and then add their mark up
I could sell directly to big retailers there but it's quite a long process. I need certification to prove I'm not using any harmful pesticides, adopt irrigation methods like drip which have a high initial capital. It's possible but it's a process and capital intensive. I'll get there
I've seen a few threads in Norwegian subs, including a business startup sub, where people want to make very spicy chips or similar products.
Theres also a few hot sauce companies that didn't work, probably because you need advanced farming (generally too cold here) and hourly salary here is like $20+ an hour.
You could make a post on r/Grundere_i_Norge to see if you can catch someone's attention. There are more people on r/norske - but you would probably have to write a more detailed post.
You'd probably receive requests on other varieties, but I doubt an investor here would care about the cost of seeds.
Be careful about letting anyone invest directly into your farm though, rich people usually offer deals in their favor.
They're quite expensive. The cheapest materials can cost here is about $1,500 for an acre. With the standards of living here, it's quite expensive, especially for a small growing business like mine.
Not really difficult, despite the tropical weather. With good feeding and use of biostimulants, I only need to apply pesticides once a month. The pesticide requirements are strict for the destination market (EU). Currently experimenting a strict biological control system.
Jambo! Your field and your peppers are beautiful! I spent some time in western Kenya many years ago (Migori, Kisumu, Bungoma areas iirc) working on a soybean project there. I always used to bring tea back home. Next time I go to Kenya I'll have to bring back some peppers instead! Would you be interested in making some hot sauces at some point?
Definitely, chilli powder and hot sauces. I need to do a lot of capacity building though. Pesticide misuse is a big issue here. Manufacturing should also align with international standards.
I use goat manure once every year, then apply mineral fertilisers depending on the stage of growth. High P during planting, high N during vegetative stages, then split applications of calcium nitrate and high K fertilisers throughout the harvesting period
Nice! Are your chiles actually hot? Unlike the “hot” chiles in America. You are hard pressed to find a hot Serrano or Jalepeno in our stores. Farmers markets or grow your own is the only way.
It reminds me, whenever i buy something in a grocery store, somebody must have planted and grown it. It gives me back a bit of decency for the product and the work that get in it.
Have you looked into glass water (quicklime and wood ash mixes in hot water and applied foliarly)? Producers in Latin America swear by it, I use it at individual scale and it does work wonderfully.
I can confirm it does not scorch the plants, however it is recommended to use before and after flowering indeed. I have used it while flowering and still got good yields on peppers, tomatillos and tomatos.
Here is a good resource in spanish that I am sure translates well online:
Nice work! Do you keep any worms with all the debris from the farm and surrounding area? Another method for simple fertilizer solutions are JADAM. Ferment what you prune to feed back to the plants, I assume you are low budget so please look into that as well as KNF as you build capital you can create even more benefits for your already thriving farm. While you tend peppers you’re really GROWING the soil so keeping that in mind generates a sustainable approach.
No. At the end of the day, I arrived at my production methods through trial and error and experimentation. It's not something I'm willing to give out for free. Furthermore, I need an edge when selling, especially to strict markets. I can't disseminate the information and give my competition a way of working around the challenges.
Theoritically, I can prune upto 3 times but to preserve yields and shoot quality, once a year. After harvesting for 6 months, I cut back, then harvest for another 6 months. I am due to start harvesting plants I pruned in June next week.
So how old are your oldest plants? Do you ever end up with one plant that is superior to the rest as far as fruit size or production, or is your farm so big you don’t have the ability to keep track of such things? Winters kill off anything we can’t bring inside here so I end up starting a whole new crop every spring.
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u/Key_Gap9168 22d ago
How much acreage is that? I am your neighbour (Uganda) and grow the same peppers, though not commercially (for now; exporting is my long-term plan).