28-1-12 not much to report

Not much to say this week. Nothing new has germinated from the original seeds this week, so I suspect this may be my lot.

However, there are a few bright spots to note. The potted on seedlings have really shot up in the last week (no losses either), clearly they were starting to hit the limits of the rootriot pellets and a bit of compost and space was all they needed. (Compare the photos below). The right hand column have been potted up today, so don't compare to these.I may start adding a tiny bit of chilli focus to the water for this batch - nothing much just a drop or three - I did this last year and I seem to get better growth rates than most.

Bright spot two is that I have 3 CAP 267s up already. Nothing amazing to report, but another spare seedling to share at this rate. No signs of life from the mystery seeds though.

This week:

Last week:

21-1-12 Potting on

Today I bit the bullet and potted a few of the seedlings on. I usually wait until I can see roots showing in various places on the rootriot cube for a fair few seedlings, a point I reached about a week ago. However, time conspired against me and it was today that the opportunity presented itself.

I followed my usual plan of action at this point - a mix of B&Q multipurpose compost with a good dose of perlite and vermiculite added, brought into the house 24 hours in advance. The latter point seems to help acclimatise the mix and prevent the seedlings drooping from shock.

I pot on into 8cm square pots since these are easier to organize and plant a little bit deeper to allow for rooting from the stem. Generally the seedlings are a little leggy - but nothing that worries me, this is normal and many of the wilds are naturally leggy anyway and this hasn't reduced my crop in previous years.

I had planned to pot on the 12 seedlings that were further along, but in the end did 18 (and could have easily gone a few more), but this seemed about right and cleared some space in the prop for a top up and second wave of sowing.

Added to the grow list were CAP 253-C, CAP 267, PI 260560 and 6 mystery seeds from the Chillis Galore pass-the-parcel. These seeds have all had a good long soak (4 days or so) so hopefully germination will be a little better than last year, when only one mystery seed surfaced and promptly snuffed it.

A few hours after potting on all was well, no drooping and no dramas. Fingers crossed all goes to plan from here on.

A few photos:


Seedlings in the prop prior to potting on.

A few examples of the seedlings and root growth - the results always seem superior to those obtained from jiffy pellets at this stage.

The potting on mix, compost with plenty of perlite and vermiculite.

The first 18 potted on and back under the T5 lights.

RIP Kevin

Kevin the office-based chilli plant is no more. Having been otherwise engaged for a week or so, my colleagues neglected the poor little fellow and he is no more.

Original thread

A moment's silence please.

15-1-12 and all is well (ish)

Just when I think it's all over a few more seedlings pop up. I now have 2 of most things and so I will need to re-sow very little. 

The stalled loops appear to be dead - somehow they've managed to decapitate themselves coming out of the rootriots, thankfully one of them is redundant and the Hab can be resown if necessary.

So, a few quick photos as a catch-up.

Seedlings:

Overwintering plants:
The three largest are the Tepin, Fatalii and Marouga Yellow

Close up Marouga (top) and Fatalii (bottom) showing buds which will be removed some time soon.

Mid Jan (13/1/12)

Just when I thought things were starting to slow a couple more hoops popped up. Most interesting among these was the mini rocoto. I'm quite looking forward to this variety - I had numerous attempts at germinating rocotos last year and failed dismally, so I'm one up on last year already.

So far it's not looking bad, I've now have one or more of most varieties with a couple of exceptions - the lances and rhombs  (which I expect to wait for) and the Pimenta da Neydes. The latter, I suspect I may have fried - these were some of the first to show signs of life, but then never made it up above the surface. I suspect the prop is too hot in the middle and this may actually have caused the problem, in fact most of the best germination has happened on the outer edges of the prop.

I have a couple of stalled hoops, which I suspect also were too hot and may not grow further (one is a Habanero Hot Lemon, the other a Peruvian Purple) - time will tell.

The plan now is to start a second batch of seeds as a gap fill and for the few things I couldn't fit in last time, these will be in soak shortly. Hopefully then I'll have 2 of my chosen varieties to grow on and a few spares besides.

Happy New Year

As of 1/1/12, I now have 14 seeds germinated ten days after sowing which is about as expected. It's quite nice at this time of year to wander down to the propagator first thing to see what's come up overnight. My only concern here is that I seem to have an uneven heat problem - I have had 10/12 germinations in the outer columns of the prop (extreme left and right) whereas elsewhere it's only 4/36. This could just be one of those things, but I think I'll give it a couple of days and then I might start moving some of the cubes about, to see if this changes. 

I've already got 3 out of 3 up for 3 varieties - assuming I don't do anything stupid these will be spares to go to a good home. 

The overwintering plants are a slightly different story. A few of them (Tepin, Marouga) are going great guns, many of them have some early signs of growth and three (Peach Hab, Aji Rojo, Red Savina) look dead. At the moment they're no trouble, so I shall leave to their own devices, but I suppose 9/12 isn't too bad. In previous years I've overwintered differently - just bring the plants in, give them a trim. But this year I've cut the plants back, and heavily pruned the roots back before bringing them indoors. This is better from a space perspective, but clearly there are some impact on survival statistics. You cant win them all.