Premier Seeds DirectHOT Chilli Pepper - Lemon Drop - 20 Finest Seeds

OK - I admit I'm new to growing chilli plants; inspired by a newspaper article in Feb 2019 pre-lockdown that gave me a bit of added gardening interest during the pandemic. Initially I tried Apache, Habanero, Hot Wax, Jalapeno and these Lemon drops. Initially I was disappointed with the lemon drops. While I had all the others coming through I had no lemon drops at all. I tried again with my little propagator on top of the hot water cylinder instead of on a warm shelf. Bingo. They germinated in a few days and I got more than I bargained for and had to cull some. They like it really warm to germinate. I repotted to 13.5cm (1 ltr) pots, then on again to 22cm pots or bigger. They need support. I grew large ones with 2m canes. You need to pick the sunniest spot in your garden for maximum growth if in the open. Also (outside in the UK) these seem the slowest ripening of the chillis I grew. I recommend planting early to get the most benefit from the summer heat.I got plants between 0.8m and 1.4m tall with regular feeding and so many chillis I made a quarter litre of dried lemon drop chilli flakes and a freezer tub of chopped chilli. Fruit were typically 5 to 7cm and a fantastic yellow. I actually gave away some of the plants. The other stars were the apache plants and hot wax. I actually brought a couple of smaller plants inside in late September and pruned to encourage ripening. One finished ripening in November! I also found you could ripen green lemon drops with ripening tomatoes and bananas covered with a tea towel. Outside I had no pest problems. Inside they will attract any resident or imported white fly and greenfly that you'll need to control. I guess outside the bugs have other favourites and I have a lot of hoverflies in my garden - the larvae are aphid predators. Apache's didn't seem to have this problem period and generally are more house friendly.I found these lemon drops are really potent - more than the 30,000 Scoville rating suggests. Easily as potent as my apaches which are really quite hot (rated 80,000). Unlike the apaches I found I had to wear a face mask when scrunching up brittle dried lemon drops between gloved fingers or in a pestle. They are really peppery. Fortunately under lockdown PPE is within easy reach. They also have a zesty aromatic smell - which is really quite pleasant. I now use these in preference when adding a bit of heat to a fish or seafood meal given their zesty/lemon twist.

Have grown this variety before, it crops very well and is easy to grow though it makes for a very large plant. As a rule of thumb treat it like a tomato plant!

Some seeds germinate

All geminated within a week in a heated propagator.

I had a decent germination rate on these and they all grew really well. Each plant had lots of large chillies which eventually turned yellow and ripened. The ripe chillies were all delicious with a pleasant citrus flavour that others have mentioned. However, none of them had any heat at all, which was really disappointing. It could have been something I did wrong when growing them, but I did have a batch of hot padrons growing in exactly the same conditions and they were all scorchers.Either way, the chillies would be a really nice addition to a salad as, like I said, the flavour was great. Personally, I'll be making them into a batch of hot sauce, with a couple of supermarket scotch bonnets for heat. I would grow these again but will just adjust my expectations next time.

These arrived promptly and the seeds appeared to be very fresh. I sowed 15 for starters and 10 have germinated so far, and they are looking strong and healthy. If I remember, I'll report back in a few months time and let you know how the chillies taste.EDITAs promised, it's now six months later and I can confirm the chillies are delicious! They do have a faintly lemon flavour and a nice amount of heat - not too much but enough to be tasty. They're particularly nice in fish cakes or fish curries. I ended up with more plants than I needed so gave several away to friends - always nice to share the joy!I'll definitely be growing these again.

Good seeds

Unfortunately there was only 15 seeds in the packet, I know they are small but a bit disappointed