Well, I guess this topic is a good one to start for me. Hi folks, I'm in to my first year of trying to grow chilis from seeds, and stumbled upon this site in search of recipes (in case the plants actually ever produce anything...)
I think I did some things right, but that was purely by accident. I've read through a few threads already about too much water/too much light/wrong soil, ho hum.
I ordered seeds online (one store in the US, the other in the UK) to have as much variety as I could. I expected nothing, just wanted to see if we could get it growing here at all.
Some of the varieties I ordered were Pequin, Orange Habanero, Jalapeno, Twilight (just because it looks nice), Carribean Hot and Hungarian Wax. I also planted a few seeds from a friend in Tuscany (normal pepperoncini).
We used a plastic box to start with (with a cover) and this was done in several stages. The last seedlings that look like they can be potted are the Pequins (who took a lot longer to germinate)
The idea was that most seeds woulndn't germinate at all, so I put 4 in every partition. Big mistake, as all the seeds germinated.
The other varieties went a bit quicker, and were put outside once I was sure there would be no more frost, like this:
Somehow, I did label them!
I first put them into small pots (most of them anyway) because I thought they would not survive the rather unpredictable Belgian weather, but oddly enough, most of them did. That is, the ones that don't get eaten by snails (my current "enemy").
This is how most plants look now, and I suppose they don't look unhealthy, but may not have enough time to actually produce flowers/pods. We'll see.
Close up (today):
The ones that do survive will be put in larger pots this week. I don't expect a great produce, but it would be nice if I can make my chili con carne with home grown chilis this year.
I'll now go back to reading ... there's always 2009!
I don't know what happened to it. It was a Hot Pepper Tree (PI 267729). I only add the varieties to my growing list when they are developed enough so I know they won't die on me, but this seedling just, *poof* disappeared. I reckon someone knocked it off the windowsill by mistake and thought "Oh well there's so many she won't notice". Well I did notice.
your plants look very healthy. Is the weather in Belgium worse than the UK? (sorry my geography's crap so my climate knowledge for a country will be even worse). I live in England that's why I'm asking about the unpredictable weather.
