Day 127 - Flower Power

The plant which earlier had shown signs of flowering today produced three brilliant white flowers. I dashed outside during a break in the rain to take a few pictures and aid the pollenation process. I did this by dabbing the flowers with a small brush in the hope of spreading the pollen.

The plant is variety 10B - The mystery variety!

Day 126 - It's a ............. HIT!

500!


unique hits on this blog. Hooray!

Day 125 - When It Rains, It Bores

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Day 118 - No Flies On Me

Greenfly. They're back. This morning I found greenfly all over my outdoor plants in both Reading and Crowthorne. They are present in swarms. Sometimes the underside of one leaf could have as many as 20 or 30 greenfly and the occasional whitefly. Hundreds of the bastards fall to the ground when I shake the plants.

Fortunately, only a couple of the plants look to be badly affected. They are shrivelling a bit the others look ok. I've sprayed the plants well with more bug spray and I'll have to monitor the plants closely. I have no idea why there are so many greenfly. I can't remember having this problem last year.

Day 117 - Blowin' In The Wind

Well. There's not much to report, except that we haven't seen the sun in whole week and that the last two days have been so windy that I had to move my plants to a more sheltered location. It's difficult to gauge how fast the plants are growing. Those inside remain small, but those outside seem to have grown massive leaves in just the few days since potting.

Day 115 - Scotchtoberfest!

Yesterday I re-potted 8 of my chilli plants from Location 5. Tney are of the following varieties.

2A Hot Banana
2B Thai Bangkok Upright
4A Rocoto Yellow
4B Early Jalapeno
5A Scotch Bonnet
7A Jalapeno
9A Cayenne Hot
9B Ancho 101

I am delighted to see that the above list includes Scotch Bonnet. These are one of my favourite chillies and I haven't been able to produce any from Locations 1-3. I will be keeping a special eye on this one. The Jalapeno and Ancho 101 are the most successful plants. I now have three healthy specimens of each.

Day 114 - Trough ... But Fair!

Today I re-potted my plants in Location 5 (Reading). Re-potted is only half accurate because I have now placed my chilli plants in small troughs. As you can see from the pictures, I've managed to squeeze four plants into each trough. These are really a bit too close to each other. I used the same compost and techniques as before. This time, however, I've laid down some slug pellets for extra protection. The plants look much healthier now that I've picked off any yellowing leaves. There are no signs of any new damage / disease on any of the plants. Hurray! The troughs are place up against a south facing wall in my back garden. Plenty of sun (when the weather improves) and fairly sheltered from the elements.

Tomorrow I'll post details of the 8 plants that were large enough to put outside.

Day 113 - 2B Or Not 2B?

Yesterday, I re-potted the following chillies from Locations 1 or 3 into larger pots.

1A Prairie Fire
1B Tabasco
2A Hot Banana
2B Thai Bangkok Upright
3A Habanero Red
3B Purple Tiger
4A Rocoto Yellow
4B Early Jalapeno
5B Tepin
7A Jalapeno
8A Cayenne Long Thin
8B Habanero Orange
9A Cayenne Hot
9B Ancho 101
10A Anaheim
10B *Unknown variety

I had enough large plants of some varieties to re-pot more than one. These 'extra' plants i gave to my father. I think he plans to take them to his work (Location 6?).

2A Hot Banana
4A Rocoto Yellow
7A Jalapeno
9B Ancho 101

Which means I do not yet have any of the following outside.

5A Scotch Bonnet
6A Habanero Orange
6B Serrano
7B Scotch Bonnet Red

Day 112 - Movers And Shakers

I spent this afternoon re-potting many of my chilli plants from their 5-7cm pots into larger 15cm+ pots. I used normal multi-purpose compost and have taken the opportunity to put some bamboo shoots in the pots to support the growing plants.

The tallest of the plants are about 40cm high, so may need some assistance growing straight. I have tied the plants to their support using ordinary string. After a good watering I put them in a sunny spot in the garden and gave them a good spray with my bug gun.


I managed to re-pot at least one plant from 16 of my 20 varieties. The plants of the other varieties are too small to be re-potted at the moment. All of the re-potted chillies are from Locations 1 and 3. The chillies in Location 2 are fairly small and those in Location 4/5 will be re-potted later this week in Reading. Tomorrow I will publish a full list of those potted. In several cases I had been growing more than one plant in each of the small pots. The intention was to prick out the weaker plant of the two. However, I hadn't done this so when it came to extracting the plants from the pots, it was near impossible to separate the two stems. In these cases, I ended up cutting off one of the plants at the base and leaving the roots entwined.

Day 111 - Mixed Vegetables

This morning I took the time to inspect the plants in Locations 1-3. There was both good and bad news. First of all I spotted a greenfly and signs of whitefly. I killed any that I could find and washed the leaves. I removed any leaves that looked beyond repair. Unfortunately, I had left my bug spay in Location 5, so was unable to spray the plants today. I'm slightly disappointed by this aphid infestation as I can't recall anything similar happening to last year's crop.

The good news, however, is that I can see the first signs of flowering on some of my plants. Bizarrely, the most advanced is the Unknown Variety. This already has a small flower and the buds of several more. I must re-pot all my large plants into bigger pots as soon as possible. Probably a job for Sunday afternoon!

Day 110 - Pest In Peace

Today I bought some bug spray and slug pellets. Unfortunately, a lot of the bug spray leaked in my car and soaked my CDs. I know that's not strictly chilli related, but it was annoying. I did, however, manage to convince the shop lady to give me another one. I sprayed the plants in Location 5 as soon as i got home from work. I have no idea how it really works. Does it kill the greenfly / mites or is it more of a repellent? I also bought some tomato food because I decided that chilli food probably doesn't exist (yet) and with a bit of persuasion I could probably convince the plants to eat it.

Day 109 - Q: What has yellow leaves and flies?

A: My chillies, of course.

I got home from work today and checked my plants thoroughly for any signs of what is clearly killing off my chillies. Well, it didn't take long. I instantly found many greenfly all over the underside of the leaves. I also found several small spiders eating away at the leaves.

Now, my understanding of nature from Mercury Rev records and nursery rhymes is that, at the very least, I would expect the spiders to eat the flies. But to have both just seems unfair! So, naturally I squished all of the bugs and huddled the plants around my Venus fly trap for protection.

Since, as I always maintain, I know nothing of plants, I'll need to research a solution to my problem before my plants die altogether. Suggestions welcome.

Day 108 - Chilli Helpline

Now I am really starting to worry. Many leaves are drying-up and falling off the plants. I'm taking them inside for safety. Anyone help me? Are they too hot?, too cold?, infected?, plagued?, over watered?, under watered?, faking it?

Day 107 - Yellow Fever

Upon closer inspection, it appears that about half of the 20 chilli plants in my garden are now tuning yellow. I have absolutely no idea what to do.

Day 106 - Yellow Mellow?

It appears that several of the leaves on one of my chilli plants are going yellow. This plant is one of the ones outside my back door. The leaves are slightly dry and yellow on the top side. Unfortunately, I know nothing about plants, so I have no idea what has caused this and if it is a bad thing or not.

Day 103 - Parklife

Earlier today, I decided that the weather is now good enough to move my chillies outside. For the time being I've placed them on my patio overlooking the park (see pics). They seem sheltered from the elements, yet will get plenty of sun for most of the day. Is this Location 5?

Day 102 - Hot Hot Heat

Today I had to dash back to my house in Crowthorne, because I had left most of my chilli plants unattended for four days in the middle of a heat wave (English style). Most of the plants in Locations 2 and 3 were still in good shape, but those in the conservatory didn't look so healthy. Two of the plants looked almost dead; droopy stalks and pale, curled-up leaves. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, so I have no pictures. The thermometer said that the temperature had reached a peak of 46 degrees C. However, I gave them all a very good watering and I'm sure that they'll survive.