Little progress

The nice warm sunny weather of last week had vanished, hello overcast mild normality. The lack of warmth and sunlight is not helping the growth and germenation of my chillies and peppers. Might get some sun this afternoon hopefully and it does look ok at the beginning of next week so fingers (and toes) are crossed.
Some good news though, I have two little shoots in my Jalapeno pot. They are looking a little on the white side but hopefully they will strengthen with some sunny weather!

Jalapeno shoots.

Chilli/Pepper business on Sunday

I have been doing lots on planting and re-potting today. My first job was to set up the mini-poly tunnel that my mum had spare. With her help, some black electrical tape and some clothes pegs I attached it to a table. I wanted a structure that would provide a warm environment which be Slug and  Snail proof at the same time. The lack of space on my windowsill means this space will allow to grow many more plants.

The brilliantly developed structure of the mini-poly tunnel

 I then set about re-potting my Bell peppers. This was quite a fiddly job due to the large number of seedlings in a very confined space. Some of the roots had become in twinned in other plant's roots. Once again with the help of my mum the seedlings were divided into 13 pots and placed in the newly constructed poly tunnel.
At the same the same time I also re-potted the 3 chilli seedlings which had been growing in the same pot as one of my older chilli plants. These plants were also placed in the poly tunnel.

All the Bell Pepper seedlings plus the 3 Chilli seedlings

My next task was to plant my Santa Fe Grande and Bulgarian Carrot seeds. I planted 10 of each of the seeds in ice cream container filled with multi purpose compost. These two pots are on my windowsill.

Bulgarian Carrot and Santa Fe Grande on my windowsill

I have also planted 5 of each seed in compost from the quick mix compost that i purchased at the South Devon Chilli Farm. I have please these pots in the poly tunnel. I am trying to find out which is the best way to germenate seeds.

 A busy half day in the garden. Hopefully these plants and seeds grow well so I have lots of chillies and peppers in Autumn/Winter.

Update

My Bell Pepper seedlings are doing very well. A large proportion of the seeds have germinated and are growing very well. Not sure how many I am going to be able to re-pot. I don't think i have enough pots.

Both my Banana Pepper and Habanero Chilli plants have thrived in the recent pleasant weather and are growing well.

Unfortunately the 5 different chilli seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have not germinated yet. Looks like more waiting is needed.
Two of my older chilli plants are doing very well. They are showing signs of flowers. One of the plants already has one open flower which with some luck may produce a fruit.

My visit to South Devon Chilli Farm

My girlfriend and I had a lovely visit to South Devon Chilli Farm today. Due to it being spring the farm is getting ready to plant there seedlings out into the polytunnels. Therefore the show tunnels were not viewable. I expect that during the summer/autumn that the plants will be visually amazing with an array of different colours with the different types of chillies on display.
The farm shop was what I really went to see. I picked up some Hot Habanero Chilli sauce which I am nearly out of at home. Also picked up some Bulgarian Carrot and Santa Fe Grande chilli seeds. To help with the germination of these seeds I also purchased some "Quick Mix Compost".

Starting To Grow

During my 3^rd year of university I decided that rather than constantly buying chillies I would try to grow them. With the help of my housemate Ben who supplied me with soil from the university I planted my first seeds. The seeds that I planted were from chillies I had purchased in Sainsbury’s. Not knowing much about growing anything, I was extremely lucky when 4 of the seeds germinated.

At the end of my 3^rd and final year of university I spent my 7^th straight summer working at a YMCA run family camp in New Hampshire, USA. Luckily my mum looked after my chilli plants for the 3 months I was away. Once they had grown to a suitable size she re-potted them all into a bigger pot.

The windowsill in my bedroom became their home and they thrived due to the favourable conditions that my windowsill provided. The north facing direction of my windowsill meant that my plants had almost optimum sunlight.

In September I returned from my work in the USA to find that chillies had become thriving plants. Well three of the four had. My failure to turn my pot meant that one didn’t get as much sunlight as the rest.

The strongest of the four had a single green fruit growing. Eventually more fruit grew on this plant and the other two stronger plants. The weaker plant did eventually grow a single small fruit which never ripened.

I left all the other fruit to ripen to red which happened at different stages, all the way up to mid December. One of the chillies ripened to orange after being half green, half orange for a good few weeks. I think overall I had around 15 fruit from these 4 plants. 

Despite the harsh conditions of winter, all four plants survived. In February I re-potted them all so they each had their own pot. As of now they are doing well. The nice weather of late means they are showing some nice new growth. One of the plants had been moved out to the greenhouse as I do have limited space on my windowsill.

This spring, due to the enjoyment this hobby has given me, I have decided to grow more varieties of Peppers and Chillies. I purchased a Banana Pepper plant and a Habanero Chilli plant from B&Q in mid-February. They have shown good growth and have both been re-potted.

Habanero (Left) and Banana Pepper (Right)

Last week I planted 5 types of Chilli seeds that I received as a Christmas present from my girlfriend. These varieties include Demon Red, Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno, Tabasco and Anaheim. I also planted some Bell Pepper seeds about 3 weeks ago. These seeds were harvested from a supermarket purchased pepper. These seeds have already germinated and are growing very well. 

My five new lots of chilli seeds.

In the pot of the weakest chilli plant from last year some new shoots have appeared. I do remember planting some seeds in there but the variety of chilli is a mystery to me. My best guess would either be Birds Eye or Hungarian Hot Wax. Hopefully patience will give me the answer to their identity.

My busy windowsill

1st Post

Hi I’m Jon and I’m a Chilli addict. Well to be honest I’m not sure if this is a real addiction but I have decided to embrace it regardless. I eat them most days, for multiple meals if I can. However my love for chillies has not been painless.

As with a lot of people who have prepared or eaten chillies, a little careless behaviour can cause chilli residue in unwanted areas. Probably my earliest experience of this was at the age of 9 when I failed to wash my hand properly after cutting up a Cayenne chilli. Rubbing my eyes with said hands was not all an enjoyable experience.

Of course like many a person I have had the ridiculous experience of preparing chillies / needing the toilet incident. With me I must admit this scenario had happened on more than 1 occasion and I daresay will happen again.

Apart from stray chilli residue incidents I have also had some painful eating experiences as well. My most notable one occurred last year during a camping trip with 3 university housemates in Cornwall. This experience involved a hot dog and some hot pepper sauce. The combination of Habaneros and Scotch Bonnets made this a sauce quite a spicy competitor. I was quite liberal with the applying of said sauce. The fact that I got it on my face while eating Mr hot dog only increased the pain. This searing heat lasted for the good part of an hour. Luckily I wasn’t the only one silly enough to consume such a condiment. My housemate Ben also decided that this was a good way to eat a hot dog. Unlike me who dealt with the extreme spicy heat by complaining about it for an hour, he decided to immerse his head in a bucket of water. Very funny but it didn’t help!

Despite my numerous mishaps, my enthusiasm for the marvellous Chilli has not diminished.