A little action

16 seedlings have now popped up. Mostly concentrated in the right-middle area of the propagator.

I shall see what happens in the next few days, but it might be time to swap the trays over to spread the heat around a bit.

This is considerably better than where I was in the previous two years. 2012 and I has 12 up and 2013 it took two weeks to get to this point. Hopefully this means that the new heating process is better - the internal thermostat is in the mid 20s when the light is off, and showing 90% humidity most of the time. The seedlings that are up seem to be loving it.

It looks like my target of 90% germination for this year could be very achievable.

Signs of Life

The first hoop appeared yesterday (28/12/13) a little earlier than yesterday. By 4pm the hoop of one of the Beni Markets was clear of the rootriot cube, and by 8pm I had seed leaves showing and another Beni Market hoop as well.

As of this morning I had two Beni Markets up, plus a Bunte Mischung and about a further 10 subsurface hoops visible. Hopefully by tomorrow it'll be double figures. Interestingly the germination appears to be from the middle out, which support the hypothesis that I was running too hot last year when only the outer edges germinated.

I shall watch with interest.

This is what we all want to see in the morning.

First two Beni Market seedlings

2014 Season

Started on 21-12-2013 with the seeds in soak for 48 hours. I know 24 hours is more customary, but I prefer two days as I find it can take almost a day for all the seeds to sink.

The seeds were placed in the rootriot cubes on 23-12-2013 and left to do their thing in the propagator. This year I'm only heating the prop half of the time (15 mins on, 15 mins off) to prevent over-heating as happened last year. I'm hoping for 90% germination this year.

Seeds in soak. This year I'd pre-written out the labels which was better than placing these on a sheet of paper.

A propagator full of dreams

So the grow list for the year... mostly sourced from semillas.de plus a few other bits and pieces I have lying around. There is one more variety to go yet, but that assumes I can find the seeds - try as I might I couldn't find them in my box, so another good look is required.

So, in no particular order:

• Pinzón
• Jellybean
• Purple Habanero
• JAFSH
• Peruvian Golden - PI 238052
• Beni Market - PI 543205
• Cumari
• Aji Cochabamba
• Pimenta da Neyde
• Aribibbi Gusano
• Scarlet Lantern
• Giant Rocoto
• Trinidad Perfume
• Bunte Mischung (x6)
• Gumdrop (x5)
• CGN 21500

Generally I've sowed three of each, except where noted. Most of these were picked from the website as being interesting, with a couple other reasons.

• CGN21500 - having failed to get a proper crop in 2012, this is a second go 
• Pimenta da Neyde - same as above. I gave up on this one in 2012 and found a couple of pods as I composted it. So now I wanted to give it another go with fresh seeds. 
• Trinidad Perfume - I'm growing these for a friend at work, she really liked the flavour of the pods last year and is no great fan of heat, so these will be given to her once they reach a decent size. 
• Giant Rocoto - I've only ever got one rocoto to germinate, and then it wouldn't set pods, so this is another try to get a rocoto pod of my own. I may put this outside in the peak of summer to help with fertilization (assuming it grows in the first place). 

End of 2013 season

Ok, it's been hard keeping the blog going this year, but thankfully the chilli plants did get my attention and a chance to do their thing.

So first, the general comments:

It's been a hard year weather wise, although July was an absolute scorcher the rest of the year was a bit below average. Net result was smaller than average plants that took a long time to flower, this in turn led to a late crop that arrived over a 8 week period starting in late September. Normally I would hope for a larger, longer crop but you have to take what you can.

The crop was not bad - not huge pods or huge amounts, but enough for me, and plenty of surplus to take into work and so on.

So, a few photos of the crop:

 From top left - Trinidad Perfume, Serrano, Inca Red Drop, Santa Rosa, Ecuadorian Brown, Fatalii, Bunte Mischung, Butch T, 7 Pot Barrackpore

Main Crop being washed

Main crop drying out

Some chilli porn - notice the black naga pods

More chilli porn

So my notes and memories of the year:

• It was great to grow some 7-pots after previous years a low crops. It was probably the seed quality with the earlier plants. 
• I used chempack 5 as feed throughout - this seems just as good a chilli focus and a lot cheaper. I will use this again in 2014.
• The holiday watering system I rigged up seemed to work - if anything a little too well, more on this another time.
• I still suspect I have a dead spot in the greenhouse, where nothing will get pollinated. Next year I will put some plants outside from time to time. Removing some panes of glass has helped here, but not entirely cured the problem. 
• I took some chillis into work. I told them the fatalii were hot. Very hot. But someone decided (after some goading) to try a bite. Apparently he nearly passed out. I missed seeing this myself. Gutted. 
• The Peruvian Purple in the office was growing very well, but would not pollinate properly. Within a week of bringing home it was covered in pods - clearly there are limits to what you can achieve at work. 

I will post a variety by variety review in due course. 

4th July 2013

So a quick update...

When you venture down the greenhouse once or twice a day it's difficult to notice that things are growing. But when I look back at the last post from about 2 weeks ago, I can clearly see that everything has bulked up. The weather has not been great, but it's been good enough and the proof is there to see in the greenhouse.

So what's new? Well there are buds on almost every plant, flowers on most things and pods on a few varieties so far. Pods are most apparent on the 7 pot Barrackpore, Inca Red Drop, Serrano, Trinidad Perfume and Bunte Mischung. I'm hoping to add the Black Naga and Ecuadorian Brown to that list soon.

I've also been lucky enough to have a few ripe pods off the Peruvian Purple in the office in the last week or so. This has grown really well, but despite my best efforts the pollination level is low and there is severe flower drop. Still, as a novelty it is holding its own.

So latest pictures:



Greenhouse LHS 4-7-13



Greenhouse RHS 4-7-13

Peruvian Purple at Work

A few photos

So, finally I managed to get me, the camera and the chilli plants in the same place at the same time. So voila, a few photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where did that go?

Time waits for no man and I'm afraid this blog has been a little neglected of late.

I blame myself.

However, the chilli year marches on, albeit in fits and starts. The weather has been cold and wet (April was ok, but May was poor and June has been mixed so far).

Well, lowlights so far:

A lot of the seeds didn't germinate. I suspect the heated prop is too hot, in the end I had to fit a timer and oscillate between on and off. Major hassle. I did a second sowing and this has resulted in most varieties coming up - but these plants are definitely behind the first batch.

Nothing survived the over-wintering process. I have no idea what happened, but zero survival rate is unheard of. I will have to try something different next year.

After a month in the greenhouse, nothing much had happened and the early leaves were looking shabby - I suspected red spider mite, but couldn't see any evidence, but gave the plants a quick spray anyway.  They do seem to have perked up in the last weeks or so, but the new generation of leaves are smaller (and greener) than the ones they replace. Hmm.

Generally the plants are a lot smaller than last year, but here's hoping for a bit of catch-up

I tried to get my usual supply of Chilli Focus - but was quoted £20 a bottle (I usually pay £15) so I refused on principle. This year I am therefore using Chempak 4 instead. I hope I wont regret this.

Highlights:

Well, not many.

I have a few pods on 7-pod barrackpore and on bunte mischung, with flowers appearing on a few more plants.

Some of the varieties are looking better than others - I'll endeavor to do the camera thing at some point - hopefully a switch in the weather will help. Come on sun.

Last autumn I took a Peruvian Purple into work - I have a very warm office area that  hits thirty degrees in the morning when the sun is on it. The plant loves it. It struggled through the winter, but now the light levels have got better the plant has just gone crazy. The only downside is the lack of flower pollination (despite my best efforts) means not too many pods. However, as an experiment you have to say it's been a great success.

Ok... so that's the update for now. Hopefully pictures and more commentary to follow.