Growlights

Every year I've tried to start chilli and pepper plants off nice and early in January.

Each year the heated propagator does the trick and the seeds germinate

fairly quickly - but a couple of weeks in I end up with a load of straggly 

seedlings due to lack of natural daylight.

I've bitten the bullet this year and shelled out £100 for a grow light kit -

after a load of research comparing CFL / Sodium kits I've gone for

a budget fluorescent setup that should keep the chilli seedlings going until

the weather warms up sufficiently to transplant them to the greenhouse.

In the end I bought the system below from Greens Horticulture (http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk)

- although still waiting for them to deliver it....... hurry up!!!!!

Once I have it up and running I'll post the results

ABCHAZSKIJ OSTRUYI - A Rare Russian chilli variety

Just reading through a chilli site and spotted a Russsian cultivar,
yet to find any pictures though. If anyone has one let me know.

ABCHAZSKIJ OSTRUYI
Species: Annuum Origin:
Russia Heat: Hot

A Russian Cultivar. This plant which can grow upto 3 1/2 ft tall,
produces good yields of 4 ¼" long by ¾" wide hot peppers which turn
from light green to red upon maturity (85 days). Rare variety.

Edit -- Found a pic of it

 

New pages added

I've finally got round to adding some new pages to the blog,
Starting an Allotment, Useful links, Chilli Taxonomy etc.

At some point, I'll also pull my finger out and add a whole load of seeds for people to buy

June31st 2011 - Small harvest

June 2011

A quick 2011 update

(Blurry pics taken on the phone)

Sweetcorn growing amongst the beans

Greenhouse plants - a few weeks ago

Beetroot, Carrots and a few lonely peas

Finally growing straight carrots

Loads of beans

As always more beans than is humanly possible to eat,

we're getting this many each week.

Runner beans, Purple beans (Italian marvel of Venice) 

& French Yellow beans

Melons!

After a slow start, the melons are growing

End of May 2010

All the beds are dug and the shed is up



Strawberry flowers

New plants

I've not had much time this year to get plants started,
although a few sweet pepper plants have germinated.

Chillies in France

One of 2007's chilli plants made it to France and
is producing chillies all year round!



*There you are Miranda's mum,
all correct now ;)

Not had a great deal of time recently,
although I have started to re-dig some older beds.

Beans, Tomatoes and Habaneros

The tomatoes,habaneros and cucumbers
are doing well in the greenhouse.
The rabbits have finally given up attacking
the Italian beans which are flowering

July 2008

Things are growing well now
that the weather has picked up.

The Cheyenne plant has a couple
of chillies on it.

CHEYENNE
Species: Annuum
Origin: USA
Heat: Hot
This variety is often found in UK garden centres
and market gardens;its heavy fruiting compact
nature makes it ideal for growing on the
windowsill, in the greenhouse or a
sheltered patio. The plant can grow upto
18 inches in the right conditions and produces
a good crop of orange medium sized fruits
which are fantastic in Chile Con Carne.

June

Not a great deal has been going on at
the allotment, due to work on the house
taking up all my free time.
However there are loads of chillies
and tomatoes growing in the greenhouse.




I finally got round to collecting a couple
trailer loads of horse manure

Despite the best efforts of the local rabbits
the borlotto and runner beans are doing well



At the moment we're growing
Chillies,Peppers,Tomatoes,French beans,
Runner beans,Italian beans,Borlotto beans
Carrots,Parsnips,Brocolli,Cabbage
Cauliflower,Leek,Onion,Pak choi
Kohlrabi,Lettuce,Sweetcorn,Radish
Rocket,Red Orach,Turnips,Swede
Beetroot,Peas

Young chilli plants

Chilli plants that are growing in a heated
propagator.
Hopefully the weather will warm up soon and they
can be moved to the greenhouse

Thai Birdseye chillies



Chillies and a few tomato plants

Bella Gardening....

Aside from the Greenhouse, there's not
much worth photographing this time of
year.................

Digging through pics taken in late summer
I found this one of Bella checking on the
Dwarf Medusa plant.

The Greenhouse has been moved

Finally got the greenhouse moved,
onto a new paved base, with a
raised bed......



Now I just need to find time to build the staging,
re-fence the plot, dig over the beds and then
maybe get round to planning what to grow
next year.

Another Cayenne plant from work

Marcia's cayenne plant



Looks like there are quite a few green chillies
lurking in the background waiting to ripen

Not much going on at the moment,
The short cold summer hasn't helped
the chillies grow.



A bed of cayenne peppers with sprouts -
I don't even like sprouts............................

Phil's Mucho Nacho Plant

Another chilli plant grown by phil
from work.



A definate challenge to Jeremy's
cayenne plant.

West dean chilli festival

We went to this years West Dean Chilli Fiesta,
although I was too busy browsing all the stalls
to remember to take photos.

Here's a few quick shots grabbed in the glass houses