Huacatay, Peruvian Black Mint

• Sow the seeds in March in a warm place. (February if you have a greenhouse/conservatory). Water lightly with a fine spray or mist generously.
• As soon as the seedlings appear, uncover them, and leave them somewhere bright, so they’ll get sturdy. Water, if needed, as above. Don't overwater as they will become mouldy.
• Pot these little seedlings up in small 7cm-9cm (3″-4″) pots with compost meant for seedlings. Place them in a bright place. Get grow lights if you haven’t got a handy windowsill.
• Then, you just wait for them to outgrow their pots before repotting them. I usually do this twice more. When you repot the chilli plant, a lot of energy is spent on growing the roots, so planting up into a large pot too soon, can result in unhappy plants, as the much needed energy goes downwards instead of upwards.

  Water regularly.
• Plant out in May, when the evenings are not too cold anymore. Water and feed regularly. I love Chilli Focus, just do a Google search.

Sowing Aji Amarillo Seeds and Germination

• Start your seeds indoors, March at the latest. Fill your pots with the compost and lightly flatten down.
• Give each pot about 4 squirts of water.
• Drop 2 seeds in each pot and cover with a fine layer of more seed compost.
• Place in a propagator or on a heated mat. If the propagator has a temperature dial, it wants to be set at 20° Celsius, max 25.

  Cover with the propagator lid or just place a cardboard over your pots. Germination can take anything from 7 – 21 days, 14 is usually the closer mark for me.
• Keep the compost moist but not wet. Give it a spray every other day but check it every day as you don't want it drying out. My heated mat is a little on the warm side, compared to the propagator, so I have to spray every day.

Planting On

• When your seedlings are sturdy enough to handle, transplant them onto slightly bigger pots. Your 9cm pot should be able to hold the plant for a month or two before it'll need a bigger pot. You need to play it by ear. Check the base. If lots of roots are protruding, it's time to pot on.
• Use a slightly bigger pot to pot on. If you use a pot that's too big, all the energy is going to go into the root system and not the top. So if you started with a 9cm pot, move on to a 13 – 15 cm pot (about 1 litre +).
• Then sometime in May – June (maybe even July if your plant is slow to grow), pot it up to a 5 litre pot (about 23cm top diameter) and place it outside. Don't forget to harden your plant for 2-3 days before moving it out permanently.

  I like to go for a final pot that's fairly big as the aji amarillo plant does go quite tall with big, heavy fruit. So a solid base is always good.
• I suggest you pinch out the earlier flowering shoots to encourage a bushy growth and a good harvest.
• Water regularly but don't keep your compost wet. Once flowering, feed with a high potash plant food. This, Chilli Focus, is what I use on all my chilli plants from the young plant stage, found on Amazon (affiliate link).

When the temperatures drop

• I bring my aji amarillo pots in once September comes around. As mentioned in the post, it takes ages for them to ripen to that beautiful orange. I've yet to have one ripen before October.
• If you maintain your plants throughout the winter indoors, they'll start flowering, fruiting and ripening earlier. This is something I've only been doing in the last couple of years.

  You can see a reader suggesting the same thing too.

• Peel the papery husks off and rinse off all the sticky residue with warm water.
• Use as the recipe calls for. See above for the recipes on LinsFood.