Glog of Swedish peppers

PaulS · Jun 4, 2015

Comptine said:
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
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.

Good job! I got mine from amazon, it's too late to send it back so I guess I'm stuck with it!
Your greenhouse looks like it's going to be good, you plants look great too

Comptine · Jun 9, 2015

Got my order from pepperlover today!

Ordered: Aji Cito, Aji Chuncho, Aji Melecoton, Bishops Hat, Colombian Yellow, Datil, Star of Turkey
Also got as bonus seeds: Aji Panca, Aji Verde, Aleppo, Yukan Bakan

Given the generosity, I got like 60 seeds per variety. So I stuck 4 into each starting pot, if they sprout - Great! If not - I'm not too bothered, I don't expect much when it's this late. I might get a pod or two if I'm lucky though.

Comptine · Jun 19, 2015

It feels like it's been a while since I did a proper plant update, so I'm going to try and squeeze in a lot, and it will be picture heavy.

My dad loves to over water his plants, so our house is a breeding ground for fungus gnats, so I finally got some sand and have been putting it on the larger pots, the small ones are tricky since they will be replanted soon, and that would mean sand all over the place. This is the best group shot I managed.

Our greenhouse is still incomplete, the company keeps sending the missing pieces in two each week. So we might have a complete house by October. I did move out all the cherry tomatoes, the cucumbers that aren't self pollinating and 4 chili plants as an experiment. The wind took a toll on the chili plants, and it lost quite a few leaves. I did stake them though, so I'm guessing a bushy plant?

This is my nursery bought Monkey Face, it had some flowers when we bought it, but instead of opening those flowers it first decided to triple in size after repotting it. The flowers are finally starting to open up, so I hope some pods set soon.

And this is our second nursery plant, a Peruvian Purple, it's nice to see flowers that aren't just white.

Now, I love this picture. These two are my Jalastars (jalapeño like), the one on the left set the pod when it was still in an 11cm pot. I let it keep it, just because I really wanted a fruit. The one on the right is one that I've been cutting flowers from as an experiment. It's nearly twice the size now!

This is my third Jalastar, it has 3 or 4 pods on it now.

This is one of my Bhut Jolokias, peach coloured allegedly. It has started to bush out at the bottom, no sign of any flowers.

These two I repotted yesterday, the front one is a Red THai and the one in the back is Cayenne Long Slim

My other Red Thai, it's a little bushier.

[SIZE=10.5pt]Bhut in a 14 litre pot (the round ones are only 9 litres)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

Can I get a bump?

KingLeerUK · Jun 19, 2015

Looking really good!

Comptine · Jun 19, 2015

Thank you!

[SIZE=10.5pt]Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate - it has giant leaves! Now, I know I have mislabelled one of these, because I have more than I should. I just really don't know which one the impostor is, I also gave at least one away. Time will tell I guess. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The larger one of my two Scotch Bonnets, I'm really looking forward to this one. Mostly because I know I accidentally put one in a lasagna once when cooking for friends, I asked for pepper and meant black pepper. Asking a Caribbean person for pepper means something different. Anyway, it ended up being a memorable night.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]My largest Prik Leung, it's really tall and I think it's just beginning to branch off. I still need to get rid og one more as I have four of these and they are not my priority peppers. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I don't even know anymore, could be a Dorset Naga Orange, the label is on the inside bucket/pot, it's been a while since I looked.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I think this should be a Devil's tongue yellow. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Nearly certain this is a Bhut, they have leaves slightly different to my other poppers. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]My Fatalii Brown, this was my tricoty. It's been growing slightly faster than the other, or so I'd like to think, that it got a boost from that extra leaf at the start. I think I count three flowers from just the first node, I'd love for this one to be a heavy producer. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I had some spares, and supers are hard to unload on people, Swedes do not like spicy stuff it seems, so as an experiment I put three in a raised bed. Now mind you, I did not harden these off at all. They have been a bit sunburnt, it's been alternating between rain and full on sun. So I can see where the drops were when the sun was shining. So far they are still alive. I think they are a Naga, Bhut and Trinidad Scorpion.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]And lastly, today is Midsummer in Sweden, massive party day where we are supposed to dance around a fertility pole pretending to be frogs and singing songs (long story). We had a family BBQ, with lots of meat. It was goooooood. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]

[/SIZE]

Comptine · Jun 29, 2015

I think summer has finally come to Sweden. The cold rains seem to have passed and there a heatwave coming (it's hot for us so no judgement). Night temps seem to finally start reaching 14 degrees (52F) and day temps at the highest have been about 24C (75F). The plants have been miserable in the conservatory if I don't open all windows, it was over 40C (105F) in there the other day.

I have slowly started bringing a few of my nicest plants outside. I think I started with three or so for two three days, and then have gradually brought 1-3 out every day. I found the best sheltered post we have. The sun rises to the right of them, and sets to the left of them. So they get quite a bit of the morning sun, then the tree protects them during the day from the full sun, and they get a little bit more in the evening too. I chose this place primarily because of the wind protection. I feel that they are a bit more vulnerable against that. I think one of the primary reasons for bringing the plants out was that my Monkey Face was loaded with flowers but none were setting due to the temps in the conservatory, so I'm hoping for better temps now and a bit of bee action.

Oh, we have a door now! It offers better wind protection now. Even if the roof is still missing.

These are the first ones aI brought out nearly a month ago, I think the wind gave them quite a beating. They seem to only just have begun recovery. They are mostly growing some side branches, not so much upwards.

My Jalastar is setting new flowers, that's always nice

And my very first fruit still refuses to change colour, it's even getting stretch marks!

Essegi · Jul 2, 2015

Good luck with your grow! Looking forward to see that greenhouse in action. Plants look really good!

Comptine · Jul 2, 2015

Essegi said:
Good luck with your grow! Looking forward to see that greenhouse in action. Plants look really good!

Haha, thank you, I look forward to seeing that in action too!

Comptine · Jul 21, 2015

Now that's a sight! Took me two and a half hours to assemble that one window and a few panels. The instruction are not great, and would you believe it, I'm still missing pieces.

Pepper wise things are going fine, the chinenses are opening a few flowers, albeit tiny and green looking flowers. They have been taking some pounding from strong winds, so they aren't the nicest looking plants on the block. I'd take pictures but theres been heavy rain all day.

Comptine · Aug 4, 2015

August has finally brought some sun and (relatively speaking) heat. My supers are starting to open their flowers finally. I think my Thais are lagging behind a bit, but apart from that things are looking good. We still have a lot of strong winds nearly daily, so a lot of plants have permanently moved into the greenhouse. I keep finding aphids on quite a few plants, and I actively spray them with a (harmless to the plant and humans) pesticide. I read up about some neem powder you can put into the sail and this will discourage the aphids straight away. I'll have to buy it for next year.

I have made an observation about my supers, their flowers are a lot smaller and they seem to contain less pollen than say my jalapeños, so it's difficult to know if they've been pollinated when I try to do it myself.

This is a scotch bonnet, see if you can spot the little pod in the picture. It hasn't fallen off the plant so I'm assuming it's here to stay.

Also a bit hard to spot, but there are two tiny Bhut pods, and I'm praying to the higher powers for these to stick.

I could not get my phone camera to focus on them, but two Cayenne Long Slim pods

This is a jalapeño tucked away in a corner in the greenhouse, so hard to get a full shot of the plant. This is a plant I was picking flowers off of for ages, and it seems to have produced more than the two I didn't do it with. This one has about 30 pods set, whilst the other two have 10ish each. It had a bit of an accident where a few pods and a small branch broke off after the wind had knocked the whole pod over.

Greenhouse shot, a lot ot chili plants visible, and a lot of tomatoes in the outer layer.

Peruvian Purple in the conservatory. It's loaded. I tried one unripe full sized pod, it did not taste particularly nice though.

My Russian sweet peppers are putting out pods too!

And finally, my winter project is underway. Just a few seeds I got this summer and planted a few, to see how I liked the, so hopefully I get a pod or two to test them out before a full growth.

Comptine · Aug 18, 2015

This is sort of paper related so I figured I'd put it in here. Last year mum and me started processing our garden harvests, mostly because of the abundance of fruit we had. It mostly turned into marmalade, since it's really easy to make and makes a great gift. I have had quite a few jalapeños growing to a decent size, but the plants seem to have hit their capacity, and dropped the flowers they had and stopped producing new ones. I figured I'd do a harvest and encourage the plants to give me a second harvest later. I settled on a jalapeño x mango marmalade, and it was yummy!

Quite a nice haul!

Deseeded, I hate seeds in things. I save the ones from the mature red one, so if anyone is interested let me know.

It took some time to cut them up into small pieces.

Letting it simmer for 45 minutes before adding in the sugar (with pectin)

And the result, 4 cans of goodness, that looks a little bit like chicken soup.

Chilidude · Aug 18, 2015

Start the chilis much earlier next year. Your greenhouse looks to be too full of plants and they are shading the chilis too much. Chili plants need all the sun they can get in our cooler climate and you really should consider to buy another greenhouse..maybe some cheap polytunnel like construction, that can been taken down in the winter, if needed.

Comptine · Aug 18, 2015

Chilidude said:
Start the chilis much earlier next year. Your greenhouse looks to be too full of plants and they are shading the chilis too much. Chili plants need all the sun they can get in our cooler climate and you really should consider to buy another greenhouse..maybe some cheap polytunnel like construction, that can been taken down in the winter, if needed.

Oh, totally. I started really late, but I'm a newbie and only got into growing this year. I've learnt a lot these past few months. Buying another greenhouse isn't really an option, they are expensive and then there's the issue of space. But yeah, next years grow will be a lot more planned. I haven't quite worked it all out yet, but I will in time for the next season.

Chilidude · Aug 18, 2015

Comptine said:
Oh, totally. I started really late, but I'm a newbie and only got into growing this year. I've learnt a lot these past few months. Buying another greenhouse isn't really an option, they are expensive and then there's the issue of space. But yeah, next years grow will be a lot more planned. I haven't quite worked it all out yet, but I will in time for the next season.

Not that expensive to buy a simple reinforced plastic greenhouse like the one i am using right now. My 4x2 metres greenhouse costed only about 160e and it is very useful in the summer time to give the chilis a better place to grow.

Comptine · Aug 18, 2015

Chilidude said:
Not that expensive to buy a simple reinforced plastic greenhouse like the one i am using right now. My 4x2 metres greenhouse costed only about 160e and it is very useful in the summer time to give the chilis a better place to grow.

It's still a bit of money I'd rather spend differently. I would not have the space anyway. Next year I'm cutting down on the tomatoes. And the chilies with smaller leaves do well outside actually, I have a bunch of annums there, not affected by the strong winds like all the chinenses were. So that is a consideration. I think I'll be growing a lot of baccatums next year, I have quite a few Ajis I want to try out.

Pettson · Aug 19, 2015

Nice growth! although you started late

Have you thought about having some indoor lighting?

Comptine · Aug 19, 2015

Pettson said:
Nice growth! although you started late Have you thought about having some indoor lighting?

Thank you! And currently I'm not really looking inte indoor lighting, they will have to get by with the old trusted sun.

Comptine · Aug 20, 2015

Right, time for a proper plant update.

I have quite a lot of supers that have grown into massive green things, but somehow fail to set fruit. I just never see any bees around doing their job, the bumblebees are only interested in tomatoes. So I have to hand pollinate them, and the trouble is that they produce very little pollen, which makes it all the much harder. End of August is nearing, and realistically they need to start setting fruit soon if at all, I doubt my season will last beyond the end of September. I realise that I started my seeds too late, especially the supers, so I just have to take whatever comes, still, a handful of fruits from each plant would make me really happy. I'm sure the low temperatures and lack of sun here in Sweden this summer didn't help. I guess this is all about the learning experience right now, and next year will be very different.

Here's a Devil's Tongue, loaded with flowers, still nothing. I took it out of the green house to let the wind help with pollination, because I'm growing tired.

I've essentially brought all the supers that don't have a single fruit between them outside, most have open flowers. The winds aren't supposed to be that bad either next few days.

[/URL]

A plant that surprised my is my red thai, it absolutely exploded with flowers that are setting into pods. I did not see that coming, but I'm glad, because that one I will use a lot of for cooking. I have no idea what specific variety it is, I got it in a trade and it was just labeled as red thai.

[/URL]

There are a few other good news, this kitcthenpepper is setting fruit and has quite a few flowers coming in too

[/URL]

I could not get my camera to focus on the fruit, but it's a hungarian yellow wax, allegedly, this one fruit though is really spiky. I got a few fruits on this plants.

[/URL]

A few cayenne long slim coming in, just not as prolific as I'd like the plant to be.

[/URL]

I have two tiny, oddly round, bhuts on this plant

[/URL]

My only scotch bonnet fruit, hopefully the flowers in the picture will set.

[/URL]

And I've got some sweet peppers that are doing well.

[/URL]

Chilidude · Aug 20, 2015

I think those supers would like to have another chili pollen to really start producing. Last year i had lot of bees and such around to pollunate my chilis, but this year there are very little bees around to pollunate anything.

Comptine · Aug 20, 2015

Chilidude said:
I think those supers would like to have another chili pollen to really start producing. Last year i had lot of bees and such around to pollunate my chilis, but this year there are very little bees around to pollunate anything.

I worry about purity, I'd like to save seeds, as well as trade seeds.