Summer solstice

Friar's Hat chilli in the rain

Well it's now the summer solstice is upon us and we're all lying in the garden soaking up the sunshine surrounded by a forest of ripening chillies.

Well, that's not exactly true.  Looking out of the window on the longest day of the year at the sheets of pouring rain, I'm not surprised, not even angry, just disappointed.  The garden is sodden, the slugs have grown to a size that threatens household pets and the neighbour is collecting two of every animal.

Tomato and chilli plants on the newly constructed staging.

On top of all that, the lack of sunshine means the chillies are taking their own sweet time to ripen. In good warm weather it would be entirely possible to move the majority of the chillies into the back garden and growhouses but with the cold rain and drizzle ever present I've decided to keep them on the windowsills for a bit longer.

Black Jalapeno chillies on the kitchen windowsill

Black Hungarian chilli

As a result, my windowsills are once again full, what little weak sunshine filters through the clouds is now blocked by a forest of chilli leaves.  Every windowsill is doing its duty, even the bathroom sill is sporting a pair of sweet pepper plants alongside the compulsory spider plant.

Bedroom windowsill

Bathroom windowsill

Study windowsill

Lounge windowsill

Lounge windowsill

Kitchen windowsill

On another note, having packed away the propagators for the summer and not expecting to be growing any more seedlings this year I recieved a present from a good friend of mine - photographer and retoucher Catherine Day. Cathy bought me a fantastic selection of classic and interesting seeds, including the Mexican tree chilli de Arbol, the unusual Capa Conic and the fearsome Trinidad Scorpion.  So, before anyone could say "haven't you got enough already", I'd dusted off the propagator and sown the seeds into Jiffy pellets.

I have to say that I've become a big fan of these pellets as a growing medium.  The plants I've reared so far in them have all grown healthy and strong and, although they're more expensive than seed trays or the DIY cardboard tubes I used earlier in the year, I've had a better success rate which means I'll be able to plant less in future and still be assured of getting sufficient plants.

The Scorpion and De Arbol seedlings progressing well

Safely tucked away on top of the aquarium and with a grow light making up for the absent sunshine, they're getting all the heat and light they need and have grown well.  I can't wait to be able to pot them on and despite being late in the season to be planting chillies, I'm counting on an Indian summer to give them a boost late into the year so hopefully I'll still be able to harvest a good crop before winter.

I plan to overwinter as many of the interesting varieties as I can, particularly the slower growing Habaneros, Nagas and Scorpions as it should give them a head start next year.  This certainly has proved worthwhile with the Orozco and Friar's Hat that I overwintered last year, with both plants looking healthy and producing a good crop of fruit early in the year.

Now all I have to do is wait for a bit of sunshine so everything else can catch up...

Scorched!

Under the relentless heat the plants are having mixed fortunes.  Some are thriving in the heat with the forest of seedlings on the window sills are looking very lush and vigourous whilst the Habaneros and Black Nagas are putting on a growth spurt.  

Meanwhile there is plenty of flowers and fruit forming on the plants with the Superchilli bearing so much fruit that I've had to add extra sticks to support the weight of the branches.

Superchilli living up to its name

Loco

The Friar's Hat is ripening up quickly in the sunshine

Inferno

Meanwhile, some of the Padrons in the reception at work had to be moved outside as it was getting too hot for them inside.  Sadly a hot weekend in full sunshine proved too much for them and they were badly sunburnt.  Worst of all was a plant which had been blown over and proceeded to roast next to the scalding tarmac.  I've cut the plants back, removing the damaged leaves (and in the worse case, all bar 6 inches of the plant) and moved them to a more shaded location.  Hopefully they'll make a recovery, indeed a few new flowers have been spotted so all is not lost.

The scalded Padrons

Speaking of scalding Padrons, we harvested Claudio's peppers the other day and cooked them.  Firstly I've never seen such large Padrons before - for a chilli that's supposed to get up to thumb-sized at maximum, these were nearly twice the normal size.  The plants have been kept in a very hot conservatory and apparently need watering every morning.  I'm not sure if this is the reason for their growth spurt although Claudio suggested that it's because he talks to them in their native Spanish each day.

Upon tasting, these chillies were scarily hot, having a really good burn that lasted for some ten minutes afterwards.  According to all the literature, this particular chilli should only produce one hot one in ten but ours are consistently hot enough to have people reaching for the milk! I look forward to the next batch...

That night a forest grew...

Well it finally stopped raining and the sun came out and dried up the aforementioned rain and the garden sprung to life.  Those chillies that have been slowly growing on the plants for what seemed like an age have ripened and I've even been brave enough to put some of the hardier chillies outside to enjoy the sunshine.

The chillies in the growhouse are springing to life

Certain plants are racing ahead of the field, Loco is covered in small chillies and the Superchilli is living up to its name with an incredible crop of small pointed chillies.

Loco

A dense mass of flowers on the Superchilli

Superchilli fruit

Some of the plants are taking longer than others to get their act together, the slow growing Scotch Bonnets, Chocolate Habaneros and Nagas have yet to show any sign of flowers although they have made a growth spurt in the unfamiliar sunshine.

Hungarian Hot Wax

Cayenne

As for the Jiffy 7 pellet trial, it was a huge success with all bar one of the pellets resulting in a seeding.  I've potted them on into party cups and they seems to be doing well on the windowsill. 

Meanwhile the Pasilla Bajio and Orozco seeds that had been grown in the small peat pots have been potted on and added to the rapidly expanding forest in the growhouses.  With space at a premium it won't be long before, once again, I'm looking for some new homes for some of the plants.

Potting on in the sunshine

Trays of Orozco, Pasilla Bajio and Moroccan chillies.

Marching in two by two...

I haven't needed to top-up the pond for a while...

With all the rain we've had recently you could be forgiven for building an ark. The ground is sodden through, far to wet to do any planting outdoors.Now normally this wouldn't bother me with regards to the chillies. After all, they're either still indoors or in one of the growhouses.

A rather soggy-looking garden

However, whilst the rain itself might be welcomed by the water-boards, unfortunately it's accompanied by plummeting temperatures and a lack of sunlight. And these have had a detrimental effect on the chillies.The long and the short of it is that everything has just slowed to a crawl. The cold, damp atmosphere is the opposite of what the plants thrive in and without any sunshine, the fruit that has already grown is refusing to ripen.

The sorry-looking chillies in the allotment polytunnel have not made any great progress.

Orozco and Moroccan seedlings straining for sunlight

Pasilla Bajio seedlings

So, with all of the seedlings and more mature plants on hold until the weather breaks, I decided to turn my attention to some more seeds.I know it's getting a little late in the season to be planting any more seeds (and it's not even as if I have homes for all the plants I already have) but I had a couple of good reasons to plant some more.Firstly, not all of the seeds I planted did as well as others and in one or two cases it's left me with just one or two specimens of a particular variety.  I've already had a couple of more mature plants keel over on me for no reason and some have been less fruitful than others. So a few back-up plants wouldn't go amiss, particularly of the more tender or interesting varieties.

The propagator loaded ready for growing

Secondly, I picked up a Jiffy 7 propagator cheaply the other day as was keen to try it out compared to the various methods I've used so far this year for propagation.The Jiffy 7 system is a clean and simple way of raising seedings, using compressed coir (coconut husk) pellets that swell up in warm water as the planting medium. Once the seedings are of a sufficient size, the netted plugs can then be transplanted straight into larger pots without touching the roots and risking damage or root shock. 

One week into the trial...

...the seeds are beginning to show through

Now these pellets aren't as cheap as a bag of compost and a few seed trays so in order to ensure that none go to waste I've planted two or three seeds in each to maximise the chance of a seedling taking. In the case of more than one sprouting then the weaker ones will be pinched out.

They're being grown on top of the aquarium to benefit from the same heat source as the other seeds I've germinated this year so I'll be keeping a close eye on them to seed how they fare compared to the seed trays, peat pots and the toilet-roll tubes that I've used up to now.

Potting on

Well, so far things ate trundling on quite well. I spent the weekend potting on chillies and now most if them have progressed into 1 litre pots or larger. I've been careful not to over-pot plants as having their roots restricted helps to encourage flowering and fruiting. However, some of the plants had started to get pot-bound and an addition of fresh compost has helped to perk ups few of the more tired-looking specimens.

The Padron Peppers get a severe haircut!

The new growhouse is performing well, keeping the plants free of the worst excesses of the April showers and with the somewhat sporadic sunshine some of those plants are starting to produce flowers and fruit.

The growhouse is rapidly filling up

Black Hungarian

Cayenne

Inferno

Hungarian Hot Wax

Friar's Hat

Not all of the plants have been so successful. A few of them have dropped most of their leaves and are looking somewhat sickly. I suspect this is due to over-watering so I need to keep a careful eye on then in the future.

A rather sad-looking Monkey Face seedling that didn't make the grade

The seeds from the Moroccan chillies have sprouted with a reasonably high success rate. These have been grown alongside some Pasila Bajio seeds,a mild and smokey chilli used in Mole sauces. The initial batch yielded only a couple of plants so I planted some extras, expecting only a few to sprout.  True to form, nearly all have germinated so, once again, the windowsills will be overflowing.

Pasilla Bajio and Mystery Moroccan seedlings on the windowsill

One of the prettiest chillies that I grew last year was the Orozco.  This highly ornamental plant produces small hot black fruit that ripen to red.  The variegated leaves start off dark and then lighten with mottled patches of white.  I've got a large Orozco that I overwintered from last year but I thought it would be worth growing on some new seedlings as it's a popular plant that attracts a lot of attention.

Orozco Seedlings

Orozco flowers and leaves

Spring has sprung

Well I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front for a while. Truth be told I haven’t been doing much on the chilli-growing front, just allowing the plants to get on with the business of growing and gradually shifting some to the greenhouse outside to harden off.

Pimientos de Padron

I managed to escape for a holiday to Morocco for a well deserved break (well, at least in my opinion it was well deserved) and left the chilli plants at the tender mercies of my family & friends with strict instructions not to forget to water them.

Thankfully I got back to find that none had dried out (I’ve got my assistants well trained!).  However the greenfly had made an unwelcome return and decimated a couple of the plants, causing leaves to curl and shrivel and flowers to drop.  Normally I’d take the eco-friendly approach and spray them with soapy water to get rid of the aphids but I wasn’t feeling in a very forgiving or patient mood and instead treated them to the horticultural equivalent of a napalm strike.

Hopefully the plants will make a recovery but I’m going to have to be extra-vigilant to ensure they don’t make a comeback.

Hungarian Hot Wax chilli

Whilst in Morocco I did buy a bag of dried chillies from the souk. I’m not sure what variety they are but the pods are a couple of inches long and the skins look very thin.  I’ve not tried them for heat yet but the shopkeeper  assured me that they were ‘very hot’.  Judging from some of the chilli sauce I tried in the night market I don’t doubt him. I’ve extracted seeds from a couple of pods and will see how I get on growing them.

Meanwhile the plants at work have been doing well, putting on lots of growth and plenty of flowers.  Of particular note is the Friar’s Hat chilli, which is looking very sturdy and sporting plenty of immature fruit.  I’ve been pinching out the tips of the plants to prevent them from getting too tall and to encourage them to throw out more side shoots and put more energy into producing flowers and fruit.

Friar's Hat

Padron

The great chilli give-away has continued apace with more little plants finding new homes amongst friends and colleagues.  I’ve even taken a few up to the poly-tunnel on the work’s allotment.  I had a few Padron peppers that hadn’t fared too well at home (I think in part due to the overcrowding) so I’ve taken a risk and planted them directly into the soil in the tunnel as a sort of kill-or-cure remedy.  Joining them are a few of the Hungarian Hot Wax chillies I had going spare.  It still may be a little cold for them at night so I’ve left them under cloches as well for added protection. We’ll see how they get on – I suspect that if they survive and manage to gain a foothold in the poor soil then the resulting chillies will have a real kick to them.

Padron chillies at the back of the polytunnel and Hungarian Hot wax chillies under the cloches

Back at home, with a battle for supremacy raging between the chillies and the tomatoes for window-sill space I’ve had to find some more room outside.  I’ve purchased a small growhouse to go on the patio and it’s allowed me to shift most of the plants outside.

These little growhouses seem like a neat solution and are reasonably attractive in the garden as well.  The downside is the build quality of these houses is disappointingly low. Even the sturdier (and more expensive) houses are still very flimsy and badly finished.  I had toyed with the idea of making my own, along similar lines to the one I built last year.  It wouldn’t have been any cheaper but certainly would have been more substantial. Unfortunately, a lack of time forced me to compromise and go with a flat-pack version instead.

Maybe next year…