Glog of Swedish peppers

Hi guys! 
 
I'm new to growing chili's, but hopefully I've done my research right. I first got some seeds from a gardening store that I I wasn't super excited about, so I've ordered some more online. The store bought are about 2 weeks in I believe, and the new ones were put in a moist paper towel and sealed up yesterday. I think I'm a bit late planting chili's, but here it goes.
 
The ones I've planted are:
Jalastar (the store bought ones - some sort of hybrid) x7
Dorset Naga Orange x3
Bhut Jolokia Peach x3 
Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate x3
Devil's Tongue Yellow x3 
Fatalii Brown x3
Prik Leung Thai Orange x3
 
I plan to keep 2 of each I think, I don't have the space for more. 
 

One of them has funny leaves because they came up half undeveloped or dead or something. 

 

[PaulS]

 
I was actually doing some research on buckets yesterday, they all work out to be about the same price as some pots that newril suggested. http://www.professionalgrow.se/sv/fyrkantiga-krukor-och-underlagg
They work out to be a similar price and are actually quite handy. My problem is the sheer amount of plants I have. Going at 30-40SEK times 55. I'll buy a few there and then I'll just search the house for various canvas bags I've gotten for free over the years. Some of my babies might even grow in Stockholm Uni bags, just to keep them classy. 
 
 
This is an annuum, which apparently grow sideways on their own, but I have been following the topping/pruning thread, getting ready to have a go at my own plants.

 
Your plants are looking great Good job!
 
Re: Pots. I use these;

 
They are recycled plastic sacks and really cheap.
50 10-litre pots are £7.50 so 15p each they work fine for me.
I'm sure they would post to sweden, if not I'll help you out

 

[Comptine]

 
Your plants are looking great Good job!
 
Re: Pots. I use these;

 
They are recycled plastic sacks and really cheap.
50 10-litre pots are £7.50 so 15p each they work fine for me.
I'm sure they would post to sweden, if not I'll help you out

 
Paul, do you have a link to an online store maybe? Sounds like a great option. Do they do 20 liter ones too?

 

[tsurrie]

Hello Comptine and welcome!
Plants are looking great.
 
As for the pots... you can always try some local bakery or other food businesses... for example... I've got about 20 pots from the local bakery, that they were about to throw away... it was big pots of marmalade, chocolate and nut creme for cookies and other sweet stuff. Really practical containers.... just needed to drill some holes around at the bottom, and they're ready for repotting

 

[Comptine]

Hey, cheers!
I actually got a really good deal on these buckets that flower stores use for roses and other bouquets. They are 9 liters (2.3 gallons) if you fill them to the rim. They were really cheap, I could not let this pass. I intend to keep 3 plants per variety so this should  work out fine. I also intend to stick a few plants in the raised bed we'll have in our greenhouse, next to my ginger plant that apparently hates sun. I'll also order a few 14 liter (3.6 gallons) and 18 liter (4.75 gallons) pots I think, it should be within my budget. I picked up some bone and blood meal yesterday too. 
 

 
The prep for the greenhouse is also going well, it's been dug out, and we put down a weed sheet. What cannot be seen in the picture are the holes we dug out for the cement pillars to be placed in, I fell into the same one twice whilst laying out this sheet.
 

 

[Sawyer]

I grow ginger in pots under the shade of a silver maple tree.  The filtered light seems just about right.

 

[Comptine]

I grow ginger in pots under the shade of a silver maple tree.  The filtered light seems just about right.

Have you harvested your ginger? Most people seem to get very little return on their plants. I don't have huge expectations, but I'll sure try my best to get something out of it.

 

[Bluesman]

I have te same 9 liter buckets as you do. Got 5 years ago about a hundred buckets for free. Still have about half of them left. When frozen, they break up easily.
You must drill 5-8 holes in the bottom. Use a sharp drill, the plastic breaks with a worn out drill. I put some hydroton clay pebbles to the bottom for the drainage.
 
I have had ginger, turmeric and galangal root growing in the greenhouse, the one that I did´t forget to take home when the frosts came was galangal. Grows slowly but I could harvest it already. Used in Indonesian cookery and especially in Satay peanut sauce which I like a lot.
 
Good luck ((lycka till) for your greenhouse project.

 

[Comptine]

Thanks for the tips Bluesman! I have never heard of galangal before, I need to see if I can find it in the grocery store and try it. 

 

[Sawyer]

That's a good score on the buckets and I look forward to seeing your greenhouse project progress.
 
The ginger I've grown multiplies slowly, but it does multiply.  I started with a single rhizome from the grocery two years ago and now have two medium-sized pots of it.  I grow it in pots and bring them in in the winter, where the plants die back.  Nothing is coming up yet this spring, but it's still been cool here and the rhizomes are still firm.  I harvested enough of it last year to use in a single small batch of pepper sauce.  I think it's a matter of scale and I hope eventually to be able to grow enough for all my sauce needs.
 
I have some turmeric planted now, too, that I found at the local natural foods store.  It hasn't started coming up yet, but I think that's because the temperature has been too cool.  Wednesday morning the low temperature is forecast to be 5º C.  After that, it's supposed to start a warming trend, so I hope that is that last cool weather we'll have here this spring.
 
I came across a recipe not long ago that called for galangal, but right now I don't recall what it was.  I've never seen the rhizomes for sale around here.

 

[PaulS]

 
Paul, do you have a link to an online store maybe? Sounds like a great option. Do they do 20 liter ones too?

I forgot the link! oops
http://www.inthegardenshed.co.uk/acatalog/Hadopots.html
 
They do from 0.5 to 36 Litre
I used 36 Litre last year but I'll go smaller this year as I have more plants!

 

[Comptine]

Thanks for the tip Paul. They don't seem to ship to Sweden though. I might however look into other suppliers that do for next season. I think the ones I've got will have to do for now. I did order some 4x14 litre and 3x18 litre pots as well. I really should have gone with less plants and bigger pots, but the first year is for learning after all. 
 
On a sidenote: I might plant the remaining plants that I fail to give away and wont fit into the green house in front of our house, sort of close to the street. We have student housing close to our house, and I'm willing to bet that the students, or even better, the neighbourhood kids, will try to steal one or two pods (I think I would have tried in my student days). Sooo, the plan is to put some of the supers there to discourage such behaviour.

 

[Comptine]

It's been a while since I last updated my glog. Whilst the growth of every new leaf is very exciting to me, I'm sure everyone is experiencing something similar. 
 
The current count of peppers is
5x Dorset Naga
5x Bhut Jolokia
5x Fatalii
5x Devil's Tongue
5X Trinidad Scorpion
7x Jalastar
7x Prik Leung
2x Scotch Bonnett 
4x Kitchenpeppar
2x Red Thai
1x Lep mu Nang
4x Hungarian Yellow Wax
1x Monkey Face
1x Peruvian purple
 
The only ones that have not emerged are the aji lemon, which I'm really disappointed about, I really wanted to grow them. Me and my mum ended up picking the last two varieties up at a garden store, the Peruvian has purple leaves which my mum really liked, and I happened to mention I was considering growing Monkey face next season, I guess it was moved up to this. 
 
Nearly all of my Jalastars are setting buds right now.

 
I have noticed that the varieties differ significantly from one another, the thai varieties seem to grow really leggy with small leaves whilst my Devil's Tongue and Fatalii are popping some big great looking ones. The one I topped is finally producing some growth from the nodes, it sort of just sat around for nearly two weeks not doing much. 

 
Still waiting for the green house to be delivered so our conservatory is serving that function at the moment, it's starting to look a bit crowded.

 
Some peppers are getting priority treatment and get to spend all day and night inside where it's slightly warmer, especially at night.

 
I keep checking the roots on the ones in the smaller pots above to make sure they don't get too root bound. I've also got my final soil recipe, I've got some basic planting soil (mainly peat moss with added nutes), rose soil (read somewhere that it drains fast), tiny bit of perlite (running out and that stuff is expensive), blood meal, bone meal and pelleted chicken poo. I have to admit, it did not smell great when mixing that up. I've put the garden store chilies in their final containers too, the others will have an 11cm square pot before their 9 litre homes.
 
 
We also got our Strawberry patch set up this week, so that will be exciting when they grow out. We will be putting up a net once the fruit starts setting, otherwise the birds will eat all of it.

 
And the rhubarbs are setting in nicely too. 

 

[Comptine]

It's not peppers but growing...
 
I finally put some stakes into my large tomatoes.
 

 
And transplanted some of my cucumbers into an IKEA box that I've drilled holes into.
 

 

[Comptine]

Yes! Got my first flower! I hope I pollinated it right... 
 

 

[Comptine]

I've been away for six days, me, mum and my sister took a trip to London, leaving my dad in charge of all the plants. I was half expecting them to be dead by the time I got home. It's not that he forgets to water them, he actually drowns plants. Luckily they survived my absence, this is because I put a post  it note on every single pot saying Do Not Water! 
 
I've gradually been repotting mine and putting them in the conservatory. They seem to enjoy spreading their roots. 

 
I came home to a nice surprise. This is the flower I pollinated just before I left. The plants have dropped two flower stems, it seems that they were not pollinated whilst I was gone, but I think I was able to get two more flowers sorted, and there are quite a few on their way. These will need a larger pot very soon. 

 
This has me really confused. The pH should not be that high. They are mostly in peat, which should have a pH around 5.5 - 6.5 according to the bag. Our tap water is around 7. I have no idea where the nutes are at, but it seems unreasonable high. It could be a bad pH meter, it was fairly cheap, I thought it was a bargain. 

 
I feel like my cucumbers are trying out all the various problems it's able to have, whilst still growing insanely fast and producing flowers. 

 
Things are shaping up with the greenhouse, the foundation was laid down during the weekend when we were away, and we built the frame today.

 
It had two bits from the side, and two bits from the roof missing, so it'll be at least a week until they are sent out. This meant that we could not put the plastic in and move the plants out unfortunately. It does allow me to plan where the raised beds will go and where the pots will be. 

 

[KingLeerUK]

You should test your pH meter against known values (like distilled water for a pH of 7) to see if that meter is accurate.

 

[Comptine]

You should test your pH meter against known values (like distilled water for a pH of 7) to see if that meter is accurate.

 
I stuck it down in lemon juice for ages and it was still up around 8, I'm returning it I've decided. 
 
On a different note, I discovered aphids on one of the nursery plants I bought. 

 

[Comptine]

A welcome guest on my plant, I can't find a single aphid on it now. Keeping a close eye on all my plants now though. 

 

[PaulS]

Greenhouse will be awesome Your plantss are looking good
I have that ph meter, it's awful, it always gives the same reading!

 

[Comptine]

Greenhouse will be awesome Your plantss are looking good
I have that ph meter, it's awful, it always gives the same reading!

 
The meter was awful, I returned it to the store and got a full refund. I don't think I'll bother too much with pH this grow. The plants seem to be doing well enough as it is. Still waiting for the missing parts to the greenhouse, the plants need space. 
 
And on that note, I've repotted a few to their final containers. 
 
These three are all Jalastars, they were planted earlier and really needed the space. 

 
And this is my tricoty Fatalii Brown, it's getting really big. 

 
I have a few more that need to be repotted, but sadly lack the space.
 
I also put in an order with pepperlover for next year's grow, I figured it's better to start early and order a few seeds at the time, I'm sure my bank account appreciates that. I might sneak in a seed or two now though, and maybe keep them as inside plants.