Hi from Perth Aus + Germinating photos/queries/experiment

Gday all,

Been browsing around here for a while, started growing some chilli's this year. Just got some bulgarian carrot seeds. Put em in the garden had a couple grow. They are doing well, continued to fruit over winter.

Ive never actually had a yellow or red or orange chilli from them, ive picked them all when they were green because after being ont he plant for a few months i didnt know if they would change as it was cold.

Firstly, when it hits 40 deg here in perth this summer will chilli's have to be in shade??? Im thinking i might get some shade cloth going over my plants. Will full sun be ok for chillis if they are under that green mesh shade stuff that we use in aus??


Well anyways i have about 5 plants coming of jalapeno.

and just trying to germinate some bhut jolokia seeds i bought from sydney for $2

So anyways i have a few questions. I also have just started a small experiment for differing germinating mediums.


Ill start with what i have if you dont mind, would love some pointers.

Ok so here are the two bulgarian carrots. The stick one is the one that i brought inside for winter, it has never been pruned etc it just lost all its leaves over the time. I used to leave it infront of teh window for sun in the days, now the days are nicer i bring them outside everyday and in at night.

Its got some good new leaves coming out, and some flowers already...

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This one is the outside bulgarian carrot that has fruited a few chilli's even over winter, you can see there are a few flowers on it now and its really getting bushy...my greyhound ate alot of the plant when it was about half the size so it had a handicap. Ive had it growing for say 6 months or so. Looking forward to some fruits from this now its getting hot. Its going to be 27 degrees here tomorrow and its only the 9th day of spring!! im hoping that because its already at this stage it has a massive headstart.
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Ok so i have some jalapenos that i got from one of those bunnings cup things, i lost alot seperating them as there are liek 20 sprouts in a cup size so their roots get ruined. BUT im in a pickle here. This photo below is the best of the lot, its doing ok but the last few days has gone a bit more pale and not so strong green. I think it was over watered as it poured here this week and my fiance left the pot int he rain so basically they were all drenched for a few days. I fertilise them everyweek with a seaweed fertiliser, i mix it weak though so its not too strong. I have my own worm farm so i use the diluted worm piss etc on them every so often too. All these are just planted in some normal potting mix with fertiliser built in...any thoughts on this fertilising etc would be great!!

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See these small 4 they are from the same bunch...its amazing the difference in how fast they have grown, these little ones either due to the cold or me failing and watering too much are struggling, they keep loosing their leaves and starting again so they are barely going anywhere. Im hoping now its warmer they are starting to look a bit more healthy.

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Its hard to tell but the one on the left is getting brown leaves on the end...

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Ok so now to the weird/hard part.


I bought 12 bhut jolokia seeds on ebay from a buyer there. They say its going to take 2 weeks or so to germinate as they must be quite dried.

I did a bit of research on how to germinate them, so i went and bought a small reptile heat pad. i put the seeds in some wet paper tower and then put it in a glad bag on the pad. I used my thermometer andi think its getting too hot maybe (34deg) ??in the sun in the day it will be hotter but i just measured it at 10pm and its as the thermometer shows below. Maybe because they are directly on the pad they will be too hot??

Its been almost 2 weeks, the seeds look like t hey have opened up on the end so to speak but i cant see any shoots yet. I understand some may take ages to sprout so ill stick with it.

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Now ive decided to go the mother nature route for this next few.

What i have done is tried a different mix of soil/medium and put the chilli seeds in there.

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I have tried wet cotton balls, nice 'soil' from inside the worm farm, its a good moisture holding medium. I mix a handful or so potting mix in there every so often. I have used some typical perth soil rubbish. Where i live the soil is basically 99% sand. Previously i had pixed bags and bags of fresh horse manure and hay into the soil. It doesnt look that nice but i have a lot of veggies growing in it now and i have some chillis growing in there too. The last row is a mix of worm castings and perth soil.

TOO MANY PHOTOS~!!

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Ive put the seeds below the surface and watered. I have then put the black seed tray thing on a wet paper tower in a large plastic bag. Im using this plastic bag as a poor mans green house. The wet towel on the bottom will keep it moist in there and help to transfer warmth to the bottom of the uneven tray. (I HOPE).

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I will measure the soil temps tomorrow morning after its had a chance to even out over the night.

Lastly something different. my Capsicum (bell pepper i think americans call it) plant

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So please hit me up with any ideas/critisisms. Sorry about all the photos i just took them now with my phone and flash.


If im lucky with all these plants (or even half of them) no idea what to do with all the chilli's. Either i will be giving them away here or at work with a disclaimer
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Heres a photo of the seeds, not sure if it means anything..

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If you got through all of this THANKS FOR READING!!

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:welcome: to THP and Greetings from the Metrolina in North Carolina !
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] "The taste is followed by a vicious hot spicy bite"[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] :flamethrower:[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] :onfire:[/background]
 
Hi and welcome from western Massachusetts. As a suggestion... you might want to post your pics and questions in the Growing Hot Peppers forum. I think more people might respond. Cheers!
 
:welcome: from sunny South Florida! :woohoo:
 
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