A few days ago I moved the young plants into bigger pots. They were originally sowed in 3-inch pots, small enough to fit under the lights of the Grow Light House. For the past few days thay have been indoors at night and outside during the daytime.
They have now outgrown the 3-inch pots, and besides, the Grow Light House is full of cucumber seedlings, so the chillis have been moved into 5-inch pots, and are now living full-time in the plastic mini greenhouses:
I am a great fan of these little greenhouses, and have just acquired two more (making a total of four). With their big zip-up flaps they are ideal for this time of year, when the daytime temperatures are warm, but the nights are still cold. They are also good for protecting young plants from the strong winds and heavy rain which we so often get in April and May. Whilst it is nice that they are lightweight and easily portable, they are a bit flimsy though, and you will see that I have weighted mine down with a couple of house-bricks each.
In a couple of weeks' time these plants will be big enough to fend for themselves without protection, and will be upgraded once again - this time to 10-inch pots, their final homes. When that time comes, I'll probably only keep 10 or 12 chillis, and say 'Bye 'Bye to the others.
I'll definitely be keeping this good -looker. This is "Black Prince".
Indoors, my Scotch Bonnet plant from last year now has several small fruits on it:
Just need some warmer weather now...
What a great collection of chillies, Mark! Lucky helpers getting the plants that you don't need, they all look gorgeously healthy and well cared for. Hope your greenhouses survive the current high winds - perhaps it isn't so windy where you are but things are pretty horizontal here in London!
ReplyDeleteYou must get quite a chilli harvest from all the plants you grow, do you manage to get through them all? I think I'd need more than a couple of bricks to anchor my greenhouse down today, it's blowing a gale here. I usually put a bag of compost on the bottom shelf of my four tier greenhouse.
ReplyDeleteJo; In the past I think I have only grown a maximum of 8 chilli plants in any year, so I never have a huge harvest. Any fruits that we can't use immediately go into the freezer, so this extends the season. This year I think I may grow 10 or 12 plants...
DeleteI shall be culling my chilli selection soon too.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could eat chilies. I so miss them. And I agree there can never be too many. All the varieties are so different.
ReplyDeleteI like the 'just' about the warmer weather.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about this 'black prince'.
ReplyDeleteEvet thought of retiring and going into the chilli farm business. Just rent a piece of land and buy a polytunnel!
ReplyDelete