Day 9 - What To Do With Them All?

Day 9, and the first real problem is upon us. I now have signs of life in almost all of my 10 trays. Unfortunately, each pot contains two varieties. Therefore, it is possible that one variety has germinated and requires light to grow, whilst the variety has not germinated and still needs dark, warm conditions to do so. I should point out that this problem was, indeed, anticipated. My thinking prior to sowing was that last year I successfully grew seedlings using only one tray. Having ten trays must still be some progress. Perhaps something to think about next year! My short term solution is to put the trays on the window sill during the day and above the boiler at night.

No new seedlings have appeared today, but those which only began to emerge yesterday, have now grown into strong little plants. I keep watering and hope that the other varieties come through soon.

Day 8 - A Veritable Forest.

The seeds are now germinating so fast that if I make today's report in the evening, it will be substantially different from a report I would have made earlier in the day.

As of this evening, the Tabasco and Scotch Bonnet seedlings have now grown to the top of their trays. There are also signs of growth in the trays for Hot Banana, Thai Bangkok, Habanero Red, Rocoto Yellow, Habanero Orange, Jalapeno, and the Misc. variety.

Here are a couple of pictures. The close-up is of the Tabasco seedlings.

Day 6 - The Germinations Are Coming!

First sign of germination. Seedlings have begin to appear in trays 1 and 5. After checking the records I can confirm that these are varieties Tabasco and Scotch Bonnet. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

I've returned the trays to their spot in the dark above the boiler to give the other seeds a chance to come through. When the seedlings have reached the height of the container I will remove the lids and place the trays in a light spot by the window.

Day 2 - Too Many Varieties ?

Here is a list of the seed types I've sown this year. Some are the same, but bought from different sources. The box numbers are also detailed for reference.

1A Prairie Fire

1B Tabasco

2A Hot Banana

2B Thai Bangkok Upright

3A Habanero Red

3B Purple Tiger

4A Rocoto Yellow

4B Early Jalapeno

5A Scotch Bonnet

5B Tepin

6A Habanero Orange

6B Serrano

7A Jalapeno

7B Scotch Bonnet Red

8A Cayenne Long Thin

8B Habanero Orange

9A Cayenne Hot

9B Ancho 101

10A Anaheim

10B *Unknown variety

The varieties highlighted in yellow are ones that I attempted to grow last year. The others are all completely new to me.

Day 1

Well, I guess today can be considered Day1. The seeds were sown yesterday, Sunday 22nd January, so from now on that day will be referred to as Day 0. Below is an account of what I did yesterday...

I began by finding the seeds that I'd bought on eBay in 2005. I realised that I also had a whole load of seeds from last year's chilli crop. However, I decided that what I really wanted to do was grow new varieties this year. Consequently, the seeds taken from last year's chillies were thrown in the garden. With any luck they'll grow anyway - perhaps even mutate with the tomato plants and form some sort of ToMacco-esque super plant.

Anyway.... the next stage was to find something to plant my seeds in. Last year I used one seed tray which I covered with a pane of glass to keep the humidity in the soil. This seemed to work fine, but in 2006 I plan to sow even more seeds that in 2005, in the hope that I'll be able to select even healthier seedlings for re-potting later. So, at my mother's suggestion, I used some cheapo Tupperware style containers that I had once bought for use in my camper van, but had been sat in her cupboard for years. The good thing with these is that I have plenty of them and that they each come with their own lid - ideal for retaining humidity after watering.

I filled all 10 containers almost to the top with ordinary compost, divided each one into two sections with a cardboard divider, and then watered the soil. I then took care to label each pot, in large indelible ink, with the number of the container and the variety of the seeds that I intended to plant there. Details of the chilli varieties can be found in the next post.

The number of seeds that I have for each variety varies greatly. I found that I had space in each half-container for nine seeds. I, therefore, planted nine sees of each variety in each section unless I found that nine seeds amounted to more that 80% of my total supply. I have kept some seeds back, just in case this planting is somehow spoiled and a second attempt needs to be made later, in the spring. The seeds were buried 50mm deep and covered with a sprinkling of compost.

The containers were then watered again, partially covered by their lids, and place in the warmest place in the house - next to the boiler in the kitchen. Now we wait. And water.

Comparing The Heat Of Chillies.

The intensity or 'heat' of chillies is measured using the Scoville Scale. The scale is a measure of the concentration of capsaicin, a chemical compound that can be found in most chillies. It is the capsaicin which which stimulates thermoreceptor nerve endings in the tongue to create that 'burning' feeling. The test was introduced by Wilbur L. Scoville (1865-1942) in 1912. The test involves diluting an extract of chilli pepper in sugar water until the 'heat' of the chilli is no longer detectable to a taster. The level of dilution dictates the measure of the chilli on the Scoville Scale. For example, a sweet pepper that contains no capsaicin will have a Scoville rating of 0. However, a very hot chilli such as a Habanero will have a Scoville rating of 300,000+ (meaning that it must be diluted with 300,000 parts for its heat to be undetectable. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the hottest chilli ever tested is a Red Savina Habanero which scored 577,000 Scoville Units. Pure Capsaicin measures 16,000,000 Scovilles. Although the Scoville Scale is still considered the accepted method for testing the heat of chillies, it is clearly subjective. A more accurate method has been devised using HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography). HPLC measures the amount of capsaicin in chillies.

Scoville Chile Heat Chart
Variety	Rating	Heat Level
Sweet Bell Peppers	0	None
Anaheim	1	100-1000 Scoville Units
Ancho, Prairie Fire	2	1000 - 1500 Scoville Units
	3	1500 - 2500 Scoville Units
Jalapeno	4	2500 - 5000 Scoville Units
Serrano, Hot Banana, Thai Bangkok	5	5000 - 15000 Scoville Units
Purple Tiger	6	15000 - 30000 Scoville Units
Cayenne, Tabasco	7	30000 - 50000 Scoville Units
Rocoto, Tepin	8	50000 - 100000 Scoville Units
Habanero, Scotch Bonnet	9	100000 - 350000 Scoville Units
Red Savina Habanero	10	350-855000 Scoville Units

Chilli, Chili or Chile?

The three common spellings of the word are chilli, chili, and chile. All can be found in English Dictionaries.

• Chilli is the correct spelling according to the Oxford English Dictionary and the variation I've used in this website.
• Chili is commonly used in the USA, but its use is discouraged by some, as this word is more commonly used to refer to a popular Southwestern dish as well as to the mixture of cumin and other spices used to flavour it.
• Chile is the Latin American (uncommon elsewhere) spelling which refers specifically to this plant and its fruit. This orthography is universal in the Spanish-speaking world, although in some parts the plant and its fruit are better known as aji­.

The name of this plant bears no relation to Chile, the country, which is named after the Quechua word chin ("cold"), tchili ("snow"), or chilli ("where the land ends"). Chile is one of the Spanish-speaking countries where chillies are known as aji­.

The 2005 Project

Click here for pictures of my chilies from last year.

Pale Green Fingers

Hi again.

I think it is probably best to point out at this stage that I am not a professional chilli grower. In fact, I'm just about the least qualified person to attempt this challenge. I am not a gardener. I don't even have any plants in my garden, and most of the plants inside my house look as if they're about to die. These pages are certainly not intended to serve as a guide on how to grow chillies, but merely to catalogue my experiences.

Having said all that, I tried a similar challenge last year which did actually result in the production of 'real' chillies. I'll attach some pics when I work out how. Naturally, I have learned some lessons from last year's experiment - mainly to label the plants more carefully! There were far too many plants which I could not identify at the end.

Bring on the 2006 project....

Welcome

Hi.

Welcome to my blog. I'm hoping to keep a blog of my attempt to grow chillies from seeds that I bought on eBay. Unfortunately, being somewhat un-geek, I don't even really know what a blog is. I even contemplated doing a blog on me learning how to do a blog, but it messed with my head. So I've settled for this instead.

Hopefully I'll post details of my progress as things go along. And work out pretty pictures and things.

Pete