Drunken Bee's 2024

Decided to drop a few seeds in december for next year so decided to start a '24 Glog early.

I'm very lucky in that in addition to a small domestic greenhouse at our house I also have access to a significant space in a commercial greenhouse (our little island used to be the UK's leading tomato supplier but the industry collapsed in the face of cheaper imports from warmer climes so there are a lot of huge greenhouses looking for uses here). In it I grow a lot of perennial stuff that needs a mediterranean climate (or is marginal there) - bananas, figs, tamarillos, various passiflora and my peppers sit interplanted with them. With our mild climate it is possible often to overwinter capsicum of all species in ground in these big greenhouses - not always though so hope for a mild winter!

Taking these into the winter to hopefully overwinter:

Annum
Chiltepin Amarillo
jalapeno lemon spice
jalapeno maylon
jalapeno X purple tiger

Baccatum
Aji melocoton

Chinense
Bahamian Goat
Bhut Orange Copenhagen
Mustard Gum Naga Brain
Pockmark Orange

Pubescens
Chocolate XPS
Oculto CLEF

10 days or so I dusted off the propagator and put in some seeds of

Cardenasii USDA X Cap 500
Eximuum Cap 1530
Flexuosum

Pubescens
Arequipa giant yellow
de La Selva rojo Arequipa
mini olive
Orange giant
Pico mucho
various Rocopica crosses

A couple of Rocoto and Rocopica varieties are up already.....Really excited for 2024!

 

[Drunken Bee]

Chocolate CPS still looking very healthy after a long winter and oculto clef firing out new growth. Pubescens and Baccatum seem perfectly placed to do well in the climate the greenhouse provides here - hence my desire to build out my collection of them (and their wild relatives). Having big overwintered plants makes a decent harvest much easier here and leaves space to focus on the Chinense and Annums year on year too.

 

[Drunken Bee]

The joys of overwintering - Chocolate XPS….

This is made all the more pertinent by the fact my seedlings are growing at a glacial perspective

 

[Drunken Bee]

Pruned back Aji melocoton this morning.
She needs a feed but this gives some feel for scale

Meanwhile Oculto clef is also thinking about flowering. This is a much more vining type rocoto than most I’ve grown:

 

[Drunken Bee]

Not sharing seedling development photos because they’re not developing. I struggled with temperature control this year and now am grappling fungus gnats too.