Something else

So the last week has been a little slow weather wise. A little sun and heat, but a fair amount of cloud and rain. However, the plants are doing well, in fact they are really bushing out (I had to tie a few plants back) and a good show of flowers is evident throughout the greenhouse. Fingers crossed that they set and a flush of pods start to appear.

On an aside I sowed a few seeds yesterday. One of my 'experiments' - last year I tried to grow bamboo from seed and failed dismally (nothing germinated at all), so this year I'm trying with acers. Seeds for 6 different varieties have been in the fridge for the passed few months and now they've been sown. 2 seeds per pot (mostly), 8 pots per variety and under the lights to see what will happen. I don't expect much and anything that does emerge is likely to take some time, but why not? I've got the equipment, maintenance is minor and you never know.

Now all I need to know is what will I do if I suddenly have the best part of 100 acers on my hands? A nice problem to have :-)

A few pods

So a few more weeks gone, plus a little improvement in the weather and I'm starting to see a few pods appear. 

Most plants have now some level of flowers appearing, with only a few exceptions, and a couple of the over-wintered plants that were a little stunted have got going at last - whether this will be too little, too late remains to be seen. But it's something to watch. 

I'm getting a little greenfly from time to time, but a quick squirt of ultimate bug killer and all is well.

The really big plants are the Marouga Yellow, the Tepin and the Mini Rocoto, but everything seems to be benefitting from the improved weather and temperatures of late. We've not had a crazy hot summer as yet, but we are at least getting a little sun from time to time. 

I have a few jobs to do (weeding and cutting back) around the back of the greenhouse, but these are not major problems yet. 

I'm now feeding several time a week with low doses of chilli focus, it seems to be working with no signs yet of over-feeding.

So a few photos of the greenhouse and the varieties with pods to date:

Mustard Hab growing out from the centre of the flower

Marouga Yellow

Mystery 6 - some sort of chinense, maybe a long podded hab of some sort

Mystery 2 - an upright podded annum. Not a PC1 or superchili though.

Micro Fatalii pods - including my first ripe pod of the year!

CAP 267, these pods started by growing upwards, but then swung down with the weight.

A 7-pod pretending to be a trinidad scorpion :-)

A little update

So with the weather conspiring against me (will it ever stop raining properly), it was nice to see a good spell of sun at the end of May. This really got the plants going at long last, although I suspect I am a good few weeks behind where I was last year. 

Good news - most of the plants are now in flower. I've sorted out the greenhouse, potted on the last few stragglers and made space for chilli central. I now have one or two other (non-chilli) plants to find homes for. I have pods appearing on a few varieties now (Cap 253c, CGN 21500 & Fatalii to name but a few). They are small pods, typical of early season, but it's a start. 

Bad news - many of the over-wintered plants seem stunted. The Mustard Hab, 7 pod & Naga Morich are barely moving. Hopefully they'll put on a spurt, but maybe not. By comparison the Fatalii, Tepin and Marouga Yellow are going great guns. So maybe it's a 50:50 thing. 

Anyway a few random photos, the labels tell you what's what. Let's hope for some better weather.

Some of the plants from the greenhouse waiting to be re-homed

Quick update

So the generally poor weather continues - odd splashes of sunshine, some rain, but lots of cloud. Net effect is that the plants seem to be doing ok, but not great. A few greenfly have appeared lately, but a quick squirt and they appear to be sorted. 

However, I am starting to see a few tiny signs of progress. First pods have appeared on the Fatalii and the CAP 253-C, and possibly the Peruvian Purple (difficult to tell at the moment). Nothing amazing, but it's good to see some small signs that things are growing. 

Many of the plants so far are starting to show signs of early buds (in fact some of the Habs have a really good showing to far), but time will tell if the weather is warm enough for them to set in due course. 

Overall it feels like a really slow season so far. Maybe it's just me, but I suspect the poor weather has a lot to do with it.

The big pot-on

About a week ago, I finally succumbed and started to put the majority of the plants into their final pots. I quite enjoy this step, but it can be time consuming, so ideally I spread this out over a couple of days. I still have a few smaller plants in catch-up mode, these will be moved to the greenhouse as soon as the weather decides what it's going to do. (A record-breaking wet April and poor start to May are not helping much).

Anyway on with the process...

I jump straight from 13cm pots to 22cm pots as soon as I see some decent roots showing. This is probably a slight leap for some, but it works for me. Here you can see the two pots sizes side-by-side. 

As there is quite a lot of compost required, I like to mix it up in the wheelbarrow - this is handy if I need to work indoors (say in the shed) and helps reduce the mess. Here you can see the compost / perlite / vermiculite mix ready to go. A ratio of 5:1:1 works for me. I use bog-standard B&Q compost for my chillis and have done so for years - they seem to have changed the mix a little this year, hopefully I wont notice any ill effects.

Once mixed, I fill the pot about 20% full then add a few chicken manure pellets for extra feed. You only need to add 6 pellets, as they are very strong and ensure they are mixed well. You also need to ensure that the roots do not come into direct contact with the pellets (until they've rotted down) as this can burn the roots. Hence, they're mixed in and buried well below the level of the plant going in.  (If you premix these in with the main compost, you cant guarantee this). These are the pellets, this is enough for several plants - don't be tempted to overdo it!

For potting on, I like to bury a sample pot in the large pot to get the size, position and depth correct. Here you can see the small pot in the large pot. Then, gently you can lift this out to create the perfect whole for the plant. If you can use an empty pot, life is much easier - using consistent-sized pots help a lot with this. 

And then turn the plant out and simply drop it in. Tidy up and you're ready to go. 

Next, all plant get put in the 'dunk tank'. This is simply a drip tray next to one of the water butts. This usually has an inch or so of water in it (which the local wildlife appreciate) and is a good for giving the plants a quick soak.

 
After a few minutes in the dunk tank, the plants are moved into the greenhouse and placed in the trays. I'm trying to keep then in matched pairs of the same variety, but the plants are not all at the same stage yet. Here they will get another watering from the base and watched carefully - if they need more water in a few hours time I'll add some more.

I was getting a little worried about my over-wintered plants, as many seem to have stalled. However, I've potted these on too and they are now showing some signs of being reinvigorated. Time will tell. 

So a few final photos of the plants in the greenhouse, currently these are in their trays minding their own business, eventually these will be moved around a little more to give them breathing space, but no need to worry about that for a little while yet.