Hi all,
I mainly signed up to this site for growing advice and assistance, but obviously was pleasantly surprised to see so many cooking and sauce recipes
So, here I go...
This is not strictly my first glog, as I own a pair of traditional dutch shoes crafted out of a single piece of wood. I hope that counts.
I got two (non-specific) green chili plants off a friend around mid summer 2011, and didn't buy any chillies for the rest of the year. I tried to over-winter them both, but one died. Here is the one I call, 'The Veteran':
I like to tie him down to see if he'll produce more chillies and become more lateral and bushy instead of growing up:
This guy inspired me. So on the 6th January,I started off with some seeds a friend gave me. The descriptions are vague as ever - he tells me some are 'carribean', some 'ornamental' and the rest are cayennes. I fired up the heat mat, hung up my old 125w CFL and dropped 40 seeds into compost.
24 germinated and after a few fatalities, and a few given away to friends, I am currently left with:
- 6no. 'ornamental' type
- 6no. cayennes
- 6no. 'carribean' type
I do quite like the saying "All or Nothing.." and in this instance, I went for all. Now I can't say that the first types were that challenging, and getting slightly bored of waiting for them to grow, I ordered some rather more exotic strains:
I germinated 5 of each of these strains... erm.... it was sometime around the end of January. Germination rates varied, although by this time I was starting to notice hot-spots on the heat mat, and that certain areas seemed to allow the plants to do better. Only 1 lemon drop germinated, which was disappointing.
I also carved up a birdseye chili, and dried the seeds:
These have germinated amazingly well, and all look surprisingly healthy given I bought the original chili in a well-known shopping store.
I arrived back from my university today and as I am away for up to 4 days at a time (sometimes), I rely on my sister to water my plants for me. If you are faint of heart or squeamish, please, look away now:
My sister forgot to water them, by the way. Anyway, I suppose on the bright side, killing off all but one of each strain (rather luckily!) keeps me with the strongest plant of each variety. Nearly all of these need potting up, which I will do now. Am also going to rearrange my grow area, so will crack on, and keep you updated.
If anyone has any observations, ideas or words of wisdom, I would appreciate any and/or all of them! I also have a few questions, but I figure it's rude to ask in my first post.. lol 
I mainly signed up to this site for growing advice and assistance, but obviously was pleasantly surprised to see so many cooking and sauce recipes
So, here I go...
This is not strictly my first glog, as I own a pair of traditional dutch shoes crafted out of a single piece of wood. I hope that counts.
I got two (non-specific) green chili plants off a friend around mid summer 2011, and didn't buy any chillies for the rest of the year. I tried to over-winter them both, but one died. Here is the one I call, 'The Veteran':
I like to tie him down to see if he'll produce more chillies and become more lateral and bushy instead of growing up:
This guy inspired me. So on the 6th January,I started off with some seeds a friend gave me. The descriptions are vague as ever - he tells me some are 'carribean', some 'ornamental' and the rest are cayennes. I fired up the heat mat, hung up my old 125w CFL and dropped 40 seeds into compost.
24 germinated and after a few fatalities, and a few given away to friends, I am currently left with:
- 6no. 'ornamental' type
- 6no. cayennes
- 6no. 'carribean' type
I do quite like the saying "All or Nothing.." and in this instance, I went for all. Now I can't say that the first types were that challenging, and getting slightly bored of waiting for them to grow, I ordered some rather more exotic strains:
I germinated 5 of each of these strains... erm.... it was sometime around the end of January. Germination rates varied, although by this time I was starting to notice hot-spots on the heat mat, and that certain areas seemed to allow the plants to do better. Only 1 lemon drop germinated, which was disappointing.
I also carved up a birdseye chili, and dried the seeds:
These have germinated amazingly well, and all look surprisingly healthy given I bought the original chili in a well-known shopping store.
I arrived back from my university today and as I am away for up to 4 days at a time (sometimes), I rely on my sister to water my plants for me. If you are faint of heart or squeamish, please, look away now:
My sister forgot to water them, by the way. Anyway, I suppose on the bright side, killing off all but one of each strain (rather luckily!) keeps me with the strongest plant of each variety. Nearly all of these need potting up, which I will do now. Am also going to rearrange my grow area, so will crack on, and keep you updated.
If anyone has any observations, ideas or words of wisdom, I would appreciate any and/or all of them!
I also have a few questions, but I figure it's rude to ask in my first post.. lol 
... those poor seedlings ... 
