The forest grows...

When people find out about my ongoing quest to fill the house and garden with chillies, their reactions tend to vary from boredom to incredulity (rapidly followed by boredom).  However, once in a while you come across someone equally misguided and you share a brief moment of camaraderie.

One such event happened recently when a colleague of mine turned up with a brown envelope of chilli seeds he'd collected whilst on holiday in Sicily. Knowing of my interest he'd scooped up the seeds and drawn a hasty sketch of the chilli pepper on the side of the envelope for me.  I now have a number of these envelopes of mystery seeds people have given me.  It's  all part of the fun waiting to see what emerges and then trying to match it to the appropriate variety. Needless to say they're now on top of the aquarium waiting to pop their heads up.

My collection of mystery seeds.

Meanwhile the chillies I recently transferred to the grow-room are shooting away.  Those that I'd planted in the home-made toilet roll pots have fared very well and potting them on has been a breeze with no damage to the delicate roots.  I soaked the seedlings before transplanting them and gently tore the flaps of soggy cardboard  away to allow the roots to grow down into the new compost.  Definitely a technique I'll continue to use.

The DIY seedling pots in the grow-room.

Speaking of DIY projects, I've been making mini-propagators for the developing seedings that I keep on the windowsill.  I was finding plant-pots a little expensive for all the seedlings I have so I've been using cheap plastic cups instead with holes strategically melted into the bottom for drainage with the aid of a hot skewer.  At 2p each it's definitely a cost effective method.

Making the pots

For the propagator lids I've been cutting the bottom off Pepsi bottles and with holes once again melted into them, they're the perfect size to fit over the plastic cups.

Making the mini-proagator lids

They seem to be doing the trick and although the seedlings aren't coming on quite as fast as those in the grow-room, it's allowing me to put the vulnerable seedlings onto the window-ledges which, at this time of year, would be too cold or draughty for plants this young.

The finished item