Day 67 - What sound does a chilli make...

... if it falls over in the boot of my car and there is no-one around to hear it? One of life's greatest philosophical questions, there.

Today I moved out of my Reading house and I was forced to bring my chillies back to my other house in Crowthorne. Location 4 proved to have the best conditions for my chillies to grow. The plants I have brought with me from Reading are much larger than their equivalents that were left in Crowthorne. I will add some comparison pictures when I unpack my camera.

The hardest part was not keeping the pots stable in the boot of my car during transportation, but sheltering the seedlings from the howling wind that threatened to break their stems.

I continue to water regularly and hope for sunny weather. The picture above is of the chillies that survived the journey from Location 4.

Day 64 - The Colour And The Shape.

The varieties with the tallest plants are Rocoto Yellow, Early Jalapeno, Jalapeno and the mystery variety. The Hot Banana plant is also doing nicely.

The more interesting plants include the Thai Bangkok Upright, which has very thin, pointy foliage and the Purple Tiger which has leaves with purple blotches.

Day 63 - Broken Leaf.

Ok then. Time for an update. For the last two weeks the little chillies have been growing happily. Actually, that's not quite true. I have the sad duty to announce the passing of two chillies plants, the Hot Banana from Location 3 and the Habanero Orange from Location 4. Both withered away peacefully at some point.

There chillies in have clearly been growing at different speeds in the different locations. The seedlings in my Reading house have thrived on the constant warm temperatures and many are already as tall as 15cm above the height of the soil. The largest leaves span at least 5cm in length. The seedlings in Location 2 are also faring well. Although not as big as those in Location 4, they are still very impressive. The plants in the conservatory (Location 1) seem to be affected by the cold temperatures at night. None have perished, but the growth is slow. It remains to be seen whether large or small seedlings will produce a better crop in the summer.

Tomorrow I'll post some descriptions of the various plants and how well they are doing.

Day 49 - Purple Patch.

Yesterday, when re-potting my chillies, I noticed that the leaves of one variety had a dark shading along the outside edges. I thought this was quite interesting, so checked my records to see which sort it was. Perhaps predictably, they are the Purple Tiger variety. A bit of research on the internet has confirmed that this plant is not only capable of producing purple chilli fruits, but should also have some purple leaves. I'll attach a photo to this post if I manage to capture the colouring on my camera.

Day 48 - ... And the rest will follow.

Today I re-potted some more of my chillies from their Tupperware trays to proper plant pots (above). It seems that the seedlings which had not yet been re-potted, are not as strong as those I potted two weeks ago. At first I thought they were taking longer to germinate, but it would appear that they are either smaller plants or just not as healthy.

As before, I only picked the seedlings that had more than one set of leaves. Where possible, I followed the same procedure as when re-potting the earlier seedlings (see here). However, this time I only occasionally had enough seedlings to fit more than one in each pot. I did manage to spare one Anaheim and one Habanero Red, which I have re-potted and given to my sister. Perhaps her house can be considered Location 5.

There are still some small seedlings in the trays that I will need to re-pot when they are big enough. However, there was still no sign of germination in tray 7B (Scotch Bonnet Red) so I threw the soil away this afternoon.

Day 42 - Seeds of doubt?

After a weekend of plenty of sunshine, it is very noticeable which locations are best suited to the chillies at this stage. The chillies that have the most warmth, Locations 2 & 4, have the healthiest looking seedlings. Several of these plants have grown tall and sprouted several sets of leaves. However, the chilli seedlings in locations where the plants get cold at night show little sign of growth since the re-potting last weekend.

Day 40 - Home Is Where The Hearth Is.

A convection heater has been placed in the conservatory. The heater's thermostat should ensure that the temperature at night does not fall below 5 degrees Celsius.

I have therefore placed Chilli Seedlings 1, back in Location 1, the conservatory.

Day 38 - In From The Cold.

This evening I had to rescue the seedlings from the Conservatory (Location 1) because the temperature at night had dropped below zero. For now, they are back by the patio doors (Location 2) until the weather gets a little warmer.