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2023/2024, wiicek, Let's Make BalcoJungle!

Hi!
Oh, I love watching that kind of stuff...
I am not too experienced in growing peppers, I used to grow some tomatoes but since I moved out from my family house, I didn't have space to grow anything. I bought allotment garden (I think that's the word, english is not my native language) but I can't seem to find time to care about it full time from march to october, it's not as near my flat as I'd want it to be but maybe one year I will make my life a little bit less messy and take make it work.
Now I live in the apartment with a balcony, it is at western side and in the summer the heat is kinda out of control. I think it will do! Oh, I dream of the jungle here!

This year I bought some chillies from the supermarket and, as I often do, I put some seeds into the ground. Don't know the variety, but I have a picture.

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I don't have one with ripen peppers but it was red. One of them is actually orange, and one (or two - I don't know, it was not fruiting at the same time and I was constantly picking it) are sweet, also supermarket type - one is hanging on the bottom left there. It is 3 liters container and there is 6 of them in it, so harvest was small, but peppers beautiful and tasty. I ate a sauce made out of them already.

So, yea, I kinda wanted more, so, I picked some seeds, bought different types of chillies from supermarket again and gathered some seeds. I know I have a jalapeno, piri-piri and that's it from the names I know, but other than that I have 2 or 4 different types of hot ones (maybe cayenne and serrano) and one sweet one (on the picture), I don't remember if I sow a bell peppers also. I also found some ornamental ones and sow them too:

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The purple one died after I sprayed all of them with soap - aphids. Orange and yellow are still alive but aphids and soap made them look miserable... But they're coming right back!

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I don't know if I should take and shower them, they still have white stains from the soap and have sticky places from aphids. I still constantly get rid of them manually, it seems like there is always more to kill but less and less with every day. I do this daily or every other day now.

There are my seedlings!
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They were sow so long ago, from one to two months but they didn't have enought light to grow. I've had them under blue light (grow light with two flexible sticks) but it seemd like it was too weak for them, so I added one with threee sticks and it started to grow rapidly.
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After watering them and ordering them by height (and two days), the thingy looks like that:
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Yesterday I repotted guys from the first picture earler.

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It is 3 liters container and there were, ekhem, SEVEN of them in it! I dried them and made my first sauce (and from other chillies I bought for seeds then) and it was amazing! I think some of them are in my fermented sauce also. It was not a big harvest but yea, seven. I did use them good. One pepper is still hanging there, hah. It's a sweet one.
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The last one was starting to wilt one week ago, I took it out but it was too late. I had my hopes but it probably is not coming back.

So yea, I have a station with blue (and red turned off) light and above it two one-foot shells which I light up with four (two for each) 2k lumens, 4k kelvins light bulbs. It seems like too much for my eyes but plants like it.

I planted everything into special mix for special plants (Cana terra), they will love it, I'm sure. I water it without fertilizers right now but normally I have my hydroponics mix for tomatoes and for every liter of solution I add half a liter of water because I've read that peppers like less of it. I'm in the middle of making my nettle solution for nitrogen, so they will be happy. For now I let them eat what is in that rich mix.

I am making them a station but for now there is nothing to show.

I LOVE IT! Aphids can f*ck themselves (and they surely do,s all the time, but I am coming for their children with baking soda mix if it will be necessairy), I am rolling now and it's gonna be amazing!


Edit. Oh, I forgot.... I was feeling adventurous and didn't put any labels on my trays, so now it is all the mistery! I really think I was tired and stupid then but it is what it is now, lol.
I bought some Sugar Rush Stripey, Thunder Mountain Longhorn, Fatali Habanero, Aji: Lemon Drop, Pineapple and Melon; and El Oro Equador seeds! Forst three came and are in the mix now, Lemon came with 0 seeds, that was weird, I wrote to the shop but they didn't answer, I bought some more somewhere else.

Let's make BalcoJungle!
 
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Nice! Looks like your jungle is off to a great start!
Thank you.
I see them starting to grow faster and can't wait to see how big they all can be.
I have this problem, in my head everything is about the future, I try to be in the now as much as I can but it's always "oh, I wonder how big it will be in september", "oh, I can't wait to see the biggest harvest!", "I want to make my own sauce NOW..., "hmm, need to overwinter few of the best ones, will I have a spot to grow them all year long?", "Let's make the table for the next season winter sowing", "Should I buy a grow tent?!", "I WANT TO BUY SEEDS NOW!"

I have to chill the fork out.
 
Enjoying the grow πŸ‘

Do you have a spot for the the tent?
You might not need a tent.
If you want to try setting up a shelf with lights and a fan to have some plants growing indoors , start seeds or whatever.

Also remember that bugs will want to come indoors with the plants.
Tents can be good for a controlled environment
But they are more work
 
Oh, and there's Pedros next to the bigger Pedros. It seems they wanted to be neighbours without my efforts.

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I didn't notice it yesterday. I knew it's somewhere but I forgot.

At least I think the right one (with a fruit) is Pedros, it looks like the ones I bought and succesfully got to ripe. That was a nice accomplishment seeing that only 3 of them (from like 20) were not too green, the rest dried to almost black colour.

The left one is labeled Pedros, so I'll see if they're the same.
It's the biggest one here now, not counting the small purple ones in the last post and the usual thai (I think? what is it, do you know?) I have in those two smaller pots (I think 7l). I have plenty of this one everywhere, it's the pepper which took me into that rabbit hole.
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I WANT TO BUY SEEDS NOW!"
@wiicek You are completely, just like the rest of us. Normal πŸ€ͺ

"hmm, need to overwinter few of the best ones, will I have a spot to grow them all year long?"
Just added 2 Aji Charapitas, 1 Scotch Bonnet & and 1 Aji Chombo Amerrilio.

I never stop buying, trading & collecting seeds all year long.
Never stop adjusting my next seasons grow list.

I think about Peppers all the time. Am I nutz?

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Enjoying the grow πŸ‘

Do you have a spot for the the tent?
You might not need a tent.
If you want to try setting up a shelf with lights and a fan to have some plants growing indoors , start seeds or whatever.

Also remember that bugs will want to come indoors with the plants.
Tents can be good for a controlled environment
But they are more work
About bugs, yea, I've made the mistake of cutting some wild poppies for a bouquet and aphids somehow survived till november hiden somewhere in my plants (there is no signs of them being anywhere other than on peppers tho) and all winter I was fighting them.

I have a table and did grow all of those peppers through winter in my room under the few 1000 lumen bulbs with aluminum foil everywhere. It was not pretty but the green was fun!
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And I have an old dishwasher where I was keeping them at the early stage with blue and red lights. I think the grow tent could easily replace it.

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I'd probably look for a way to make more shelves in a tent.
 
@wiicek You are completely, just like the rest of us. Normal πŸ€ͺ


Just added 2 Aji Charapitas, 1 Scotch Bonnet & and 1 Aji Chombo Amerrilio.

I never stop buying, trading & collecting seeds all year long.
Never stop adjusting my next seasons grow list.

I think about Peppers all the time. Am I nutz?
Thanks <3 🀣

I couldn't buy and look for seeds all year long because I would not stop myself from sowing them. Or even if I would, it'd be like 50 different varieties till the autumn and I CAN'T DO THAT. We all know how would it end.
 
It's July! 🀯 :fireball::hell::hell::hell:

Here you have pictures of all the fruits, still small but appearing at really high rate, I love it so much!

Peach! There are so so many... 😍😍😍
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Cayenne:
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Fluorescent Variegated but not variegated:
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Ramiro - last time I named her Pedros, but she said no:
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This should be Pedros still:
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Bell, maybe red, maybe yellow... Maybe orange! More germinated but I am not a fun of growing them, so the rest is somewhere in small tiny pots (in my mind it's not as fun as growing other peppers, but maybe I'll stand corrected):
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More cayenne, I am so proud of this tree, this one was growing in a double bucket in winter and it's so obvious that it's at advantage (and it grew in like half liter bucket, not more!):
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Jalapeno, I think (I see only one jalapeno for now, I wish more have germinated! I think I sown more than one but can't remember what happened):
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This one I don't know the name, can't even say if it's hot or sweet, don't remember...
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Dark Thai Italia, I think:
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More cayenne:
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And small tiny Ramiro, at least thats' what tag says, we'll see...
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Strawberry tomatoes!
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Overall look:
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Home set-up with hydro basil, few FV, PJ Ice and Dath Thai Italia. Left FVs are in pots, not hydro...
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Habanero, Dorset Nagas and all the Stripeys are still flowering or in case of Stripeys thinking about flowering.

All tagged "LP" - it was a name of an eggplant - look like Aribibi Chocolate, so, I will call them that from now on, and they are almost flowering. The 35l poot one is starting to grow big, but is still like 10-15cm high. Same with 18l Black Moplten, wchich is even smaller. But I have high hopes for them both.

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My Dark Thai Italia in 12 liter pot has weirdly deformed flowers and pods.

Flowers have petals curved like a dress on a windy day and pods... well, cool and monstrously deformed, like something tried to reach them from another dimension. That is fun. Dark. Thai.

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I think it may be from fertilizing, rain is rich in some stuff and I also give them some onion peal water or banana peal water every week or two and I just gave them some seaweed yesterday (onion and banana was the other wednesday maybe). And the bonemeal should start decomposing already...

Or maybe they are just cool and I should look at them more, let the Abyss show some more...
 
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I just noticed that the pots I was calling 18l, are actually 20l. I don't remember how did I get the idea of them being 2l smaller than 20 but it was for sure real in my head for 10 months or more. If I'd smoke, it would be really a good moment to. :high:


I did some pictures few days ago, 13th of july, but something happened and nothing got posted. So, today it's EVEN MORE PICTURES. :woohoo:

What a cool guy! He's life was short but appreciated!

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Aribioi Chocolate was 5 days ago almost as wide as the pot (pot has 44cm, but I am just being goofy here, it's not growing as wide as it could, sun is shaded there so it is going for the right side and small leftover tomatoes in a pot way too small for them AND a small arabica are blocking the left half of a pot anyway, so, it was ALMOST HALF THE DIAMETER OF A 44cm POT!)

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And today even MORE ALMOST AS WIDE AS HALF OF A POT! πŸ˜‚ Nah, in fact I think it's bigger now and will start making pods soon.

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FInally, Pigmenta Jolokia Molten Black went high up then but today I see buds! I did the photos on a different angle and now I see that the second one looks like way bigger... And maybe it grow so much, it's hard to say lol.


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The rest one aren't a comparison, because I just did some different fun pictures then and today I wanted to show you the habaneros and dorset nagas, the rest was just fun, again.

13th of July

Stop and look at them DANCING, like wtf, really. I love their passion. We should all live our life like that!

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Dorset Naga, it had only few small pots after loosing flowers for some time, I think I have made a mistake before and put it closer to the left, where my balcony door is, so I could see it all the time but the sun there is just deadly for her. Now it's coming back to normal, the shame she is the last one to set fruits (not caunting Stripeys which, I think, just forgot for a moment what it is about, it happens to the each and every one of us sometimes, I love them anyway, whoever and whenever they wanna be)!

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At least I remember them smaller then................

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Dorset Naga in a smaller pot!

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Didn't have plenty of them but were bigger than scorched sister.

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Bells! I wrote Bellas, so maybe I should call them that! BELLAS!

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Pedros, funnmy how he goes sideway like that. Cool. I think the influence of The Dancing Queens of The Abyss few pots away on the left is too strong to resist. Also, pots hang there a little... askew? I didn't know the word for 29 years of my life. But it gives them only more force to resist!

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Meanwile, Ramniro, The Giant is resisting The Ripening. I think he is getting wider now, because I've made him stand on the ground there like a week or two ago. There are more of them higher above him but not as big, they are coming tho.

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Jalapenos, oh, I really like their look. One of Ramiros in a bigger pot is actually a Jalapeno also, so, I am really glad I have more than one. I did sow one few weeks ago and he is now few cm big with few set of leaves already, so, even more. I should make a picture and show it at the end!

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I have so many I am the proudest of, oh. Peach. Look. She's my princess.

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Habanero. They were tiny but cute! I don't want to think about the nasty beasts they will grow into one day. Eating hot peppers like this community does all the time... too scary for me. I like it hot but with my pasta or seasoning my sandwiches or hot dogs! Or, probably, just anything.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Omg, they look so cool and big on the pictures. Not that they don't look cool for real but when I do pictures I'm always like "oh, man, people are showing way cooler pictures!" and now I see the magic of isolated view on a computer screen!


WO. Ok.
Now
18th of July
I love summer now.

Jalapeno I was talking about earlier! And the smaller one in the background is there too!

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Oh, and when we're at this... Ok. I did sow something. And I don't know what. :banghead::clap:

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I mean, I know the tomato was The MOST BEAUTIFUL yellow, so big and so tasty with the shade of red going from the bottom to the top, stripes but delicate and only few of them. I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE OF COURSE. And it almost didn't have seeds so I don't know what will grow out of it but damn, it was beautiful.

But the rest? Look like peppers but how the fuck so many. I don't get it. Maybe it was in the soil I've got out of the compost... I don't know what was thrown out there, nothing special tho. But I have to say, they look incredibly healthy and beautiful as an army. Cuties.

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Stripey, finally flowering... The leaf there screamed "nooo, look, it looks better with me!" like 6 times so, I did a picture. Flowers of Sugar Rushes look so delicate and pretty with that green there (I kinda always think they have aphids but I just were fighting them for too long - ladybugs ate them all already, I think).

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I will have here some pictures here and there showing how big they are.

Mmmmm.

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That tip here. Wow. It made me do this post finally.
MMMMMMMM.

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Habanero today. It's starting to showoff!

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I am falling in love with that one every time I see her.

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Bellas are probably gonna be bigger than I thought, they already are almost half the diameter of the supermarket ones. AND THIS ONE GROWES UPWARDS, WTF?!

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This is my Cayenne Jewel. Love him.

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This was a big one!
Thank you all for visiting, hope it was cool, had good vibes and you enjoyed everything!~

Have really wonderful rest of a day! <3
 

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I was little impatient today...

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Do you have an idea of what pepper could that be?

And I have second question: when do you pick your chillies at this time of season? Do you wait for them to be fully rippen, start to ripe or maybe do you have different idea about it? I kinda want to pick them early so the plant could go and do more magic but maybe it doesn't matter so much... I can't tell yet, first season, impatient, don't want to lose harvest and probably too anxious :think:

~~~~~~~~

It's really hot for few hours - and lately it was colder, so weather is not stable - they wilt at full sun. I bought shadecloth and it was better today but don't know if having it up all the time is a good idea. I put it up after work till 18 pm, or at least I plan to. Today was the first day. It's little annoying but we'll see.

Is few hours of wilting bad for them? When I come back from work it's already hot.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, PICTURES TIME!
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I've edited previous post, have some questions there, if you can help me.

It's harder and harder to take pictures. It's a Jungle, I love it but also, I'm scared of it.

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This is Aribibi Chocolate in the smallest pot, it's 7 liters. It's going there
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Ramiro in 7 liter pot, nice one
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Stripey
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The one and only PJ Ice in really small pot, it may be 3 liters, maybe 5.
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Dorset Naga, really beautiful view
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Wild Brasil, it was a freebie
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Stripey in 35l pot, it is slow but I'm having big hopes
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The Queeeeeen! Sugar Rush Peach
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Not Pineapple ;(
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Habanero!
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This cutie, I don't know what it is, ornamental from seed
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Aribibi Chocolate in 20l pot
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Dorset Naga in 20l
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Surat Rush Stripey! This one has the most babies
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Edit.
Harvest from this week! 😁
Small steps but, whoah, ending will be epic!

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Mmm, smell of fresh halapenos is just gorgeous!

I tend to always go back to growing things because of tomato leaves smell. It's amazing, brings back childhood and always has been.
But peppers are not in any way behind, I can see that, wow. Nice.
 
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It's not an update as in my normall sense but I've had to take them one by one inside today to secure branches - they're big and storms are rolling every few days, so, it's better to be safe.

And, wow, they are so much bigger than it looks like from my normal point of view.

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Just wow. 😍

It helps me go out of this weird state when I constantly compare them to peppers I see on the internet and think that there is something worse about mine. It is not!



And the PJ Dark Thai Abyssalia is turning green xd

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Look at them dancing!

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Aaasnd casulties!
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Those peppers are looking really good.πŸ˜‹
Plants are getting big

And look at the nice dog, sitting in that chair. Looking cute.

Sorry for answering so late but sometimes I just hop in here to check some things and can't really stay for long πŸ˜‡

Thank you so much <3

He's name is Misiek (Bear in polish, Beary or something like that, Little Bear) and he likes to make my chair worm from me moment I go out of the room and pretends not to understand that I want to sit there. The only time he jumps off of it is when he sees me with food going there with confidence.

Second one there is Q (first picture). Little sausage of excitement.


I went picking today!
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One Dorset Naga is getting brighter, that excite me so much, it is my first superhot!
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And those I'll give few days. I like the brown before red, it's fun.
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Pictures make it brighter than I see but orange is my favourite color lately, so, I'll take it!

And first Ramiro is changing colour FINALLY. This guy.
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There is some change of colour in the Fluorescent Variegated next to Ramiro on that photo, it's getting orange, uuu.

Other than that everythings looks similar. They still grow and flower and bud, I think I still have maybe a month of flowers to fully ripen if the weather helps. I think I have the kindest weather here on the balcony. It will be my delusion for the next couple of months. 😁

The biggest Aribibi still doesn't have flowers the smaller ones have few fruits developing.
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It has less fruits than other superhots but its ok.

Black molten has few flowers which are not visible in the picture but they are fully opened already and probably pollinated few times already. It begins.
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Stripeys started to explode which is always fun.
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And that's it. Tomatoes from the windows site are trying to make it impossible for me to went through the balcony but it's okaaaay.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I try to catch some rainwater when it storms heavily. .

Give them some masterblend from time to time...

And magnesium with calcium...

And some seaweed....

Small doses but mixed a little. I hope it's not too much, I just want to boost them with potassium and sometimes I see yellow singular yellow leave drops in chinenses. It looked like magnesium deficiency.

And one of my tomatoes had bloosom end rot but after those waterings (like two or three times in over a month) it didn't appear in any of the plants.

Just that one sad tiny poor tomatoe. 🫣
 
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Yo! First superhot harvested yesterday!
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It might be a little to early but I couldn't resist. And I didn't even try it, I let it sit till today, harvested some more almost rippen peppers and rippen tomatoes...


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...added it to previous harvests...

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...and made a new ferment!

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I already have three tiny jars of my tiny tomatoes there.


It was perfect amount for this perfect jar. I've added only salt and few cloves of garlic. I usually add some tumeric and thyme but I'll do it after ferment this time.

πŸ₯°
 
Looks nice. Don't forget to burp! :P
 
Looks nice. Don't forget to burp! :P
Sure thing! πŸ˜‡ 🀣

The smallest were the most aggresive I think I have ever made, haha. I usually don't do so small but these tomatoes are so tiny and cute I had to. xD

Thank's for looking, liking, commenting, I appreciate it all <3
 
I was at the post office writing post above. Now I'm home with my new babies!

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So, they all are here!

......
..
....
.

Now, the part when I wait for my balcony to get more colors and be excited about all those harvests this year...

And wait patiently for the november, so I can start some BABIEEES...

And not to start anythig earlier...

And not to be in this weird state not knowing if I prefer having my current babies grow and fruit and rippen or having november already... πŸ‘€ :confused:


I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM, WHAT A MONSTER!


.
 
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