Hwyl Fawr! (literally, 'a big hello' to you in Welsh)
Well the bug has bitten. Hard.
I have loved spicy food for years and loved creating chili based dishes that pushed the tolerance of heat while keeping flavour. I have kept a collection of chili sauces and dried hot peppers etc for years. I also enjoyed getting an ever increasing range of hot peppers available in stores, but it has never been quite enough. This year I resolved to get growing.
I browsed online vendors and (not having yet mastered growing....anything really) decided to get a started plug or three rather than go from seed. I ordered a Serrano, a Padron and a Rocoto Rojo from worldofchillies.com and waited. And waited. And eventually, believing I had been ripped off, sought out a local chili grower (gower chillies) and bought a Yellow 7 Pot, a Choc Hab, a Golden Cayenne, a Ring of Fire and a Poblano.
After potting on these little beauties and learning to water, feed, dry out etc, guess what happened? Yep, the online purchases arrived (and in fine shape indeed). I potted these on and they quickly outgrew the local seedlings, being larger, bushier and greener by far! I then learned about topping and so I topped the Poblano, the GC and the RoF - initially I feared I had done utterly the wrong thing as they took forever to get going again, but once hardened off in the newly bought plastic, portable greenhouse, they really got going and now have lovely 'Y's on them!
I also then bought tomato seedlings (3 plums and 3 cherry toms) and potted them on. I wanted to do something from seed, so bought some tomatillo seeds and germinated them, potted on and now have 6 green and 6 purple tomatillo plants growing in a little growbag patch I have on the go. I caught a fancy for simple seed hrowing, so bought some easy grow cherry Tom seed pots. I also bought some growing herbs and re-potted up into much larger pots and they have also gone well.
I learned a bit too late about pricking out seedlings early on and so ended up with the tomato seed pots as little '12 plant bushes' with one huge root ball, so will probably bung them each into a large planter and stick a makeshift cage around them!
I also hadn't realised until too late that the GC, the Choc Hab and the RoF all had 2 seedlings in each pot, which really should have been bought as 2 separate pots in each case as they were already too advanced to prick out and are waaaay too 'involved' with each other to do so now.
I have had 5 pods off the Padron (surprisingly piquant for a 'no heat' variety) and 1 off the Serrano (a bit young, but I couldn't wait!). They have now re-podded with 13 growing pods on the Serrano and 6 on the Padron with lots of flowers. The RoF has 3 baby pods, 5 flowers and tons of buds, the GC has 5 developing pods, 4 flowers and tons of buds. The Choc Hab and the 7 Pot have over 25 buds on each. The Poblano (which worried me, as it stayed pretty quiet after topping) has now caught up in size with everything else and has some buds at last. The Rocoto - oh the Rocoto!!! It is by far the largest plant. A big sprawling leggy monster with leaves and buds all over, but no flowers at all - let alone pods!
Of course, I bought a newer, larger plastic portable greenhouse, but it isn't enough. However, my lovely, understanding wife (who approves of my green-fingered hobby as it reminds her of growing up with her Dad - a keen veggie patch man) has given me the all clear on a timber frame, plastic panel lean-to greenhouse build for the garden that should end up about 18ft by 10ft and 7ft tall.
I will need it too, as I was browsing the other day and noted that worldofchillies.com had an 'end of plug season' sale and so now have a Reaper, a Butch T, a Bhut, a Fatalii, a Scotch Bonnet and an Orange Hab all hardening off as little 8 leaf seedlings in the greenhouse - all went a bit 'white leafed' but the new growth is coming through shiny and green, so I think we are ok (unless experienced growers on here immediately scream 'what the hell are you doing! White leaves equals death and destruction! Quickly bring them inside/spray them with Epsom salts/ rub them with the earwax of a rabid badger/ song to them in Swahili' etc, in which case I will do all of that forthwith.
Sorry to go on, but whenever I try to tell other people about it in real life, they start to slowly die and/or try to psychically make my head explode. Maybe you might be interested? Photos soon.
Well the bug has bitten. Hard.
I have loved spicy food for years and loved creating chili based dishes that pushed the tolerance of heat while keeping flavour. I have kept a collection of chili sauces and dried hot peppers etc for years. I also enjoyed getting an ever increasing range of hot peppers available in stores, but it has never been quite enough. This year I resolved to get growing.
I browsed online vendors and (not having yet mastered growing....anything really) decided to get a started plug or three rather than go from seed. I ordered a Serrano, a Padron and a Rocoto Rojo from worldofchillies.com and waited. And waited. And eventually, believing I had been ripped off, sought out a local chili grower (gower chillies) and bought a Yellow 7 Pot, a Choc Hab, a Golden Cayenne, a Ring of Fire and a Poblano.
After potting on these little beauties and learning to water, feed, dry out etc, guess what happened? Yep, the online purchases arrived (and in fine shape indeed). I potted these on and they quickly outgrew the local seedlings, being larger, bushier and greener by far! I then learned about topping and so I topped the Poblano, the GC and the RoF - initially I feared I had done utterly the wrong thing as they took forever to get going again, but once hardened off in the newly bought plastic, portable greenhouse, they really got going and now have lovely 'Y's on them!
I also then bought tomato seedlings (3 plums and 3 cherry toms) and potted them on. I wanted to do something from seed, so bought some tomatillo seeds and germinated them, potted on and now have 6 green and 6 purple tomatillo plants growing in a little growbag patch I have on the go. I caught a fancy for simple seed hrowing, so bought some easy grow cherry Tom seed pots. I also bought some growing herbs and re-potted up into much larger pots and they have also gone well.
I learned a bit too late about pricking out seedlings early on and so ended up with the tomato seed pots as little '12 plant bushes' with one huge root ball, so will probably bung them each into a large planter and stick a makeshift cage around them!
I also hadn't realised until too late that the GC, the Choc Hab and the RoF all had 2 seedlings in each pot, which really should have been bought as 2 separate pots in each case as they were already too advanced to prick out and are waaaay too 'involved' with each other to do so now.
I have had 5 pods off the Padron (surprisingly piquant for a 'no heat' variety) and 1 off the Serrano (a bit young, but I couldn't wait!). They have now re-podded with 13 growing pods on the Serrano and 6 on the Padron with lots of flowers. The RoF has 3 baby pods, 5 flowers and tons of buds, the GC has 5 developing pods, 4 flowers and tons of buds. The Choc Hab and the 7 Pot have over 25 buds on each. The Poblano (which worried me, as it stayed pretty quiet after topping) has now caught up in size with everything else and has some buds at last. The Rocoto - oh the Rocoto!!! It is by far the largest plant. A big sprawling leggy monster with leaves and buds all over, but no flowers at all - let alone pods!
Of course, I bought a newer, larger plastic portable greenhouse, but it isn't enough. However, my lovely, understanding wife (who approves of my green-fingered hobby as it reminds her of growing up with her Dad - a keen veggie patch man) has given me the all clear on a timber frame, plastic panel lean-to greenhouse build for the garden that should end up about 18ft by 10ft and 7ft tall.
I will need it too, as I was browsing the other day and noted that worldofchillies.com had an 'end of plug season' sale and so now have a Reaper, a Butch T, a Bhut, a Fatalii, a Scotch Bonnet and an Orange Hab all hardening off as little 8 leaf seedlings in the greenhouse - all went a bit 'white leafed' but the new growth is coming through shiny and green, so I think we are ok (unless experienced growers on here immediately scream 'what the hell are you doing! White leaves equals death and destruction! Quickly bring them inside/spray them with Epsom salts/ rub them with the earwax of a rabid badger/ song to them in Swahili' etc, in which case I will do all of that forthwith.
Sorry to go on, but whenever I try to tell other people about it in real life, they start to slowly die and/or try to psychically make my head explode. Maybe you might be interested? Photos soon.
to THP and enjoy your new addiction. As Kentishman said...it only gets worse! 
