• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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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Oh, and another thing! I've made some sauce, I opened one fermented jar with cayennes, piri-piri and some sweet peppers, added some garlic and plenty of dry tomatoes. It's delicios!

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Aaaand almost gone. Few days. Hmmm.


Bought some more peppers today and a pumpkin...
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HMMMHMHMHMHMMM.
 
I've added the foil to the background of my pepper table yesterday after I posted here and wow, it is two times more light here now.

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The luxometer says it's above 7k! It was around 2-3, maybe 4 for those higher peppers. I wanted to check now but battery died, so, can't say what number exactly, but I when I did the same thing with my hydro bucket it said 8k and 11k in some places.

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Is it alright tho?
One day when sun was clearly coming to the room I turned meter on and it said 11k, so, I think it is alright but am little afraid of overdoing it...
 
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They flower now like crazy... They were having buds and I saw one or two flowers opening before but I feel like few hours after I've added the foil (don't know why I didn't do that before, I was using it as a ceiling above light and in previous setups) they just EXPLODED.

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I pollinated all of them and some already closed, but wow, it was beautiful.
 
WOW! they look really great, keep it up. 😀

Thank you! Can't wait to see them thrive outside, but it's still soo muuuch tiiime.

This year I kinda experimented with all seeds I could find and enjoying the mistery but I'm already seeing way ahead of that and planning next year's winter differently, lol.
 
Ok...

Do you also take your plants outside in the middle of winter (we don't have The Winters in Polant now, usually it's warmer) when its really beautiful, warm and sunny?

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Pardon my halfl cleaned balcony, there is no animal in that box, I just put it there and forgot, it is an elevation and some placeholder now. Had to put this information here.

I know I can't let them there for more than 3 hours. I couldn't resist even if the next time it will be probably like... in March.

~~~~~~~~~~


And that sauce I was talking about:

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Two jars. TWO!

I didn't put it through strainer this time. It's not fermented, has roasted pumpkin and a lot of dry cranberries in it.
DE LI CIOUS!
 
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Look at this tiny beauty!

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I have 3 of those small anuums sowed the same time the rest of my half-mystery pepeprs was and they were going through almost-flowering phase like two times already but aphids and my poor skills didn't let them go to actually flower. And here it is! So beautiful!

I think I was not giving them enough light also.


Ok, so, I couldn't wait and repotted all Stripeys to bigger pots - one 35l and two 18 l's. I used pine bark as a mulch. I wanna give them as much head start as I can! And they serve as a stand for smaller pods.

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I still have one 30l pod to use for the pepper of my choice and I think it will be Black Molten. This season I don't have any information about what I like the most, so, I am going with cool looks. I am looking forward to making the list of the greatest and the worst peppers of 2024 tho! Huhuhu!

WHAT ELSE....

My hydro project goes well, FV is making it hard for others to thrive, so, I will have to make some adjustments. Dark Thai Italia is having her time also, only PJ Ice looks like sisters are too big for him to show his full potential but I'm sure he will show 'em later!
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Maybe I'll put something in between them all to prevent shade but I am monitoring the situation all the time and PJ is having his leaves exposed anyway, he's just smaller in nature. Same with other seedlings.

It was second weekend I could put them all in sun, it was not as spectacular as week ago but what can we do... I still had fun chasing the sun around the apartment today. I've moved the table to the other side of the room and now there is sun around 3-4 pm when I am at work or on my way home, this way peppers are getting some of it daily! :dance:

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And everything is beautiful~~!!~!

Kinda broke one of them but maybe it'll be alright....... I grafted it back into place. But it had few fruits already, don't know how it will go in this situation.
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Ok, so, I can't wait. And this is a serious condition here. I am having fun moving them around at weekends and creating some hangers (still one to go, but I need more wood, I misscalculated the need twice already because things went a little different than I expected), and making orders for more pots and some ropes and bamboo sticks etc.etc BUT

BUTBUT BUT it's still two months to last frost. And till this day we will have -2C at the lowest. -2! It's nothing. Crocuses are out there, willows are gettig green, hedges are too, this part of the planet doesn't think about the winter for the last few weeks anymore!
I ordered some agrotextile. I'm gonna start this balcony season right after it comes. And I really really hope Mother Nature will spare me!
I really wanna move most of half mystery ones outside and give the smaller ones a chance to grow a little more.
 
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Good work moving all those plants around.
Can't wait to see your balcony grow come
together!
 
Good work moving all those plants around.
Can't wait to see your balcony grow come
together!

Thank you! <3

I gave them all such a head start and now it looks like it all goes to waste because they wait for the last frost till I'll repot them (2 months still).
Agrotextile came today, it's around 12-16 C daily and a lot of sun when I'm at work. Balcony is on the west side so it won't have the strongest sun but I measured lumens when it's not there and it was around 3-4k anyway, so, if it's not rainy like today, it's for the best to move some of peppers into bigger pots already and secure them from frost. Balcony is shaded from wind anyway and water froze there when forecasts said -10C but agrotextile weren't expensive and those 2 months will let them grow enough roots to make me a jungle at June!
And seedlings will have a space indoors to get some of these growths.

I was refilling hydro bucket today and look at those roots!
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Bad news, grafted pepepr died, I think it's because the lower part didn't have any leaves, so it sucked life out of the upper part. It looked literally like that. It got dry in few hours. Dark stuff. But the lower part has tiny leaf growing there, so, it worked. I thought peppers are all about giving, new pods, new life, children, more children, sow us everywhere! etc. etc. But it seems like survival makes a psycho even out of them. :halo: :twisted:

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SUN!

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Still have to clean some of the old buckets and trays from under the stands. I have some big 60l trash cans and 10l buckets full or almost full of dirt and kitchen scraps, I'm doing my own vermicompost this year.

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It's like 200l summed up. From my calculations for this year I needed 300l plain dirt and that was plenty of orders because I just couldn't wait. In the Chilichump's mix there is only 10% of vermicompost but I don't think making all of it vermi would be a bad idea, that is probably only for his convenience.

Long story short - I'm giving it (peppers, balcony and everything) way too much attention (and way to soon in the year) and I love it!

Edit. Had to edit that last sentence, post was written in parts and thoughts were fragmented, the message didn't go as planned. Image of me sitting there all day looking at compost was weird but funny tho.

I must say, there were days I could look at worms for hours, I was that kid running around with jars and catching creatures so I could see how they live! I breed moths and butterflies! It was so much fun watching them go through all the stages. Still want to do this one day with some Atlas moths. So beautiful!

GOOGLE IMAGE
 
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3 months has passed!

Peppers are now on the balcony full time, obviuously. I bought Habanero from the local market and my father gave me two of his Dorset Nagas I bought him seeds of in january. I don't remember what died, life was rich in events and I love it.

Dorset Naga in 18l pot
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Habanero in 18l pot
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Dorset Naga in 12l hanging pot:
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Left - I thought it is habanero but it surely is some kind of fluffy one, rocoto? Right - mini kiwi xD
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And few of different hanging ones:
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Stiripey and peach (sorry for quality, didn't see it was bad when doing photo)
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My tomatoes
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And some oca
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And this is my harvest, wooohooou
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One green snapped few weeks ago and I ate it, it was so young, it tasted like... well, unripe green plant.

It got pretty boring lately, weather is stormy, temnperatures around 20 celsius, I see a lot of growth but not as fast as I'd want, I was afraid even that something is not right but it's probably alright.

Have high hopes for this bunch!
Let's see how it'll go oveer the next few weeks.
 
The left one your calling fluffy habanero is an eggplant
Wait, what?! I know I have a few but I was so sure seeds for this one were gathered from very spiny pepper from the supermarket. But mistakes could be made. Thanks for the input <3
nice work. jungle is taking shape
Thank you <3


~~~~~~~

I am not topping any of them but I am picking any flower buds I can see.
The least growth have:
Black Molten (damadged by aphids but I see it's recovering)
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PJ Ice (too big of a container maybe and it doesnt seem to start growing)
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I have another PJ Ice in a smaller container, we had pretty big storm few weeks ago and she got damadged a little (twice!) but she's resilient.
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And my second Black Molten in a smaller pot (I so so so want Black Molten to be the Queen, ahhh, but she's so small ;<)
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This is Aribibi Chocolate I have put to the ground maybe in april, because the second one from the big pot got damadged by frost)
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And this is the one from my winter sowing, I think I showed it already yeaterday.
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And those are my small ocras (I have oca and ocra)
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And this one was meant to be an eggplant, but if the fluffy one is, I am so curious right now, I have few of them in the big and small pots
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This is Dark Thai Italia, seems to grow pretty amazing in comparoson to others
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This is Pedros
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This is Florescent Variegated in a 12l pot, I wanted to see it in a big one, maybe it was not a good idea but it's alright. I just harvested two peppers from it
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And those are my first tomatoes!
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Strawberries in a small pots right from nursery. We already ate some.
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In the heat of the moment I bought some plants! .... .. .. -.-

One of which is always showing itself to me in every episode throughout my life. From childhood, through my first and second flats and even now, I was searching for the second one and it was there with it. Passiflora caerulea
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It's so small, I don't know if it can flower first year, it is surely her first year. But, oh my, I am glad I bought it!

I remember the beautiful smell it had when we grew it over a decade ago in our family garden, oh, I just couldn't let it fly under my nose. I was going through different good and bad episodes of my life and every time I forgot about it or gave it away, couldn't let it grow to its full potential. But now? With all those peppers and everything? Huhuhuhu...

Second one is tomarillo, I saw multiple mentions of it here, on THP, so I finally had to check it. And the person selling saplings was selling passifloras also. So, it is on my balcony now.


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They're both in small, I don't know how big, 3-5 liters containers for now. Next year they will have better spots.

All of the peppers are getting bigger and buds are coming, I picked all of them last time I posted here, so, almost two weeks ago, now buds are all over them. Few days and they will be opening.

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I still think overall plants are little too small for my liking but maybe our weather is not ideal for them, windy, around 15 Celsius for some days. But for those 12 days they grew a lot, seeing the pictures and that just means I am impatient as always.

Two of my smaller peppers which I repotted at the end of may to those 3-5 liters pots flower like crazy!
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It was hard for me to take a good picture but SO MANY PEPPERS.
It's nice to have some smaller ones where I can see peppers so soon and enjoy every part of growing them at once.

The hydro bucket I took inside because after the storms the leaves were dropping. I poured the nutrients out, mixed some new, covered with some foil and put under the light next to my desk.
Right higher one - Dark Thai Italia, Left low one - Florescent Variegated, and the smallest left of the tape 'x', not doing great one - PJ Ice (but I see it got darker inside already, the roots are not dominated too much, each of them has it's own space inside the bucket for now).

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Yea, that's it for now. I love watching everyone's pictures. I hope next year a I will do everything a little bit better tho, with bigger plants and few peppers already!

What to change:
- manage saplings better, more time inside under the lights, not taking them out so soon, temperature is more important than sun;
- less fish meal, I think I gave them all a little bit too much into mix and it stunned some of them until the rain got rid of it;
- sowing everything at once, less chaos, everything planned better, smarter repotting, too soon means more time to grow roots = less foliage = slower root grow;
- more varieties, less mystery, I know I've had fun sowing everything this first year and it gave me a lot of energy, now I'll have fun looking at the fruits but next year I want to choose more hot ones and to know what I am growing;
- less peppers everywhere, more control over place, tomatoes, ocra, strawberries... I knew I am having way too much and not every sapling will go into big pot, maybe I will have more control and space for different things next time;

That's for the sowing and preparing etap, winter-spring. We will see how the fruiting and harvesting one will treat me!
 
For some times I've had flowers starting to appear, so, I guess, I will post some pictures!
I kinda lost some labels to heavy storms... I'll try to write what is what.

Dorset Naga in 18l pot, she's high and gracefull, sideshoots are working their way but not as fast as the one in 12l pot (she's hanging outside of the balcony, so, has better access to rainwater. RAINWATER! It rinses out nutrients ALL THE TIME but who cares if it has its own, pff. "Stupid humnan, do all those weird fish and bone and bonemeal and onion peal water and banana peal water shit, it's funny how you waste money...")
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In comparison, without (or way way less) rainwater:
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With so much rainwater I am kinda scared for them sometimes:
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Stripey! One of 3, they all are slower than peach. Way slower. Just started to grow for real, 3 months in? I fucked up something really bad this year with that fish meal.
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Darh Thai Italia
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Those two mystery ones, first one may be Pedros but I don't know:
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Ladybug! Or something else, this larvae looks more like a potato beetle but I have plenty of ladybugs now everywhere. they've started to come slowly in adult state, I hope they laid eggs but I kinda stole some larvaes from trees few days ago while walking dogs, so, more of them work for me now.
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Pedros (for sure) had tough time latelyu, I broke one of his shoots, tried to tape it back but figured out it will only slow him down. And then storm came and... didn't break anything but it was scary, I tied him like crazy:
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But he's so big, I'm proud!
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Florescent Variegated in 12l pot, at least I think it is FV, I remember I repotted small one there one day and it exploded with growth. Now I regret not repotting one with more dark variegatrion, it looks so normal and boring ;<
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Dark one:
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Or even less dark one:
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Peach! I am proud of her so much, she's bushy now, so so so many buds, this first flower is so beautiful - green stripes, whaat?! Gorgeous! I know they ripe slowly but she's gonna be so prolific and started already, I'm excited!
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So many of them:
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Habanero is starting to bud like all of them:
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Ramiro, one of two, the bigger one:
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Second one:
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Mystery chinense, I think it's Aribibi Chocolate because I didn't have other which has light green leaves like AC in different pots which I for sure is AC. This one and every mystery (they were labeled as an eggplant, so, something weird happened here in the winter) is way bigger than AC in 35l pot. Understandably, roots are doing their job. 3rd month but still. This one has aphids still but ladybugs and my killing skills are on it.
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And small ornamental one from seeds from those at the first post pictures (aphids like her so much lately):
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I hope this is different one, I've had 3:
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Aaaand I think Pineapple?? I can't remember what happened half a year ago, I know Mango and Ayuyo died and maybe pineapple but then one of those germinated again?!?! ANOTHER MYSTERY ONE! Repotted some timne ago, first to 12l pot but then I repotted Wild Brasil and small Aribibi Chocolate to 12ls and took this one to 18l pot:

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3 Ocras in one pot, they're starting to grow nicely:
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Eggplant is currently forming his spiky flowers and it looks so cool! And also aphids are all over him, I used something on him because they were all over him, I hope ladybugs won't suffer. He's also behind my wooden pergola and it's hard to take a picture. Hard to water, hard to do anything! I kinda forgot that he had aphids and that's why it's bad.
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And mini kiwi! Looks amazing!
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My excitement is unreal.

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:



AAAAAAND, I forgot, I bought something!

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Vacuum sealer!

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

:hot::hot::hot:

:violin:
 
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