Potting on, new pots

Dorset Nagas

                                                                  Trinity & Apricots

                                                             Padrons, Jalpenos & Aji Limo

                                        
                                                        
The Chilli plants have all been growing well (despite the grey British weather) so I was going to do an update on them today, but this afternoon my potting on pots & trays came in the post so I decided to take some photos of the chilli plants that were big enough to pot on after transplanting them this evening.

The pots are 8mm wide and should be ok size wise for the slow growers untill planting outside, not too shure about the Padrons & the Jalpenos tho' as they are starting to grow nice and quickly now. I shall wait and see.

I was expecting the pots to be really cheap and flimsy but they arn't bad considering I got 108 pots & six pot trays all for under £20. Once all the pots are full & watered the weight is too much for the trays really but as long as you support them while carrying them they are fine, also chillis don't like their roots in water so its good to keep them fairly dry.

More Chilli Seedlings

Yesterday I decided that I didn't have enough "Rooster spur" or "Aji Limo" chillies growing so decided to plant some more seeds of those 2 varieties.
9x Rooster Spur
5x Aji Limo

I don't know why I'm planting more seeds as those of you that have been following my blog will know, last week I found a crumpled mess of metal & plastic up the allotment where my old polytunnel used to be as in the storms the week before the wind must have ripped the plasic covering and just took it apart (once the wind gets it its like a big sail), so as of that moment I have nowhere to grow any of my super hots :(
I'm currently looking into costs of building my own polytunnel, but there doesn't seem to be any cheap options at the moment. DIY tunnels seem to use water pipe for the hoops & steel rebar for ground anchors both of which are really expensive as is the poly cover. I have a couple of months to try & get some funds & work out the cheapest options. Of course I will be keeping you all posted on events as they occur.
I also bought some new growing on pots from Dobies that will hopefully be big enough for the chillies until they are ready to be planted out. I got 108 pots with carrie trays for around £20 reviews will follow.

All my Chilli seeds this year are purchased mail order from sea spring seeds here in Dorset. Sea spring seeds developed the super hot chilli "Dorset Naga". If you are thinking of growing your own chillies from seed then I'd highly recommend getting your seeds from sea spring seeds. They have a great variety of chillies from mild to hot to the super hots, they also have some pretty looking chillies (ornamentals) that will brighten up a widow sill, consevertory, greenhouse or patio.

One Pot Pledge®

Thought I'd post this up for all of the people who follow my blog & have never grown any fruit, veg or even flowers or bulbs.
You might think that you don't have any space to grow any fruit or veg, but all you really need is a warm window sill somewhere in your house.
 I'd (Obviously) recommend growing some chilli plants, if you are stuck for room maybe something like the "Rooster spur" that I'm hopefully going to grow this year or a "Numex twilight", both are small bushy plants that produce alot of small, hot "birds eye" type chillis. The "Numex twilight" has the added bonus of looking pretty too with its purple, orange, red & yellow fruits.
 If your not into chillies then maybe some fresh herbs for cooking or even some salad leaves.

Join the one pot pledge here: One Pot Pledge®

                                                                            Twilight

Rooster spur

Not much to see here

At this time of year for the gardener its pretty weather dependent on what can be done in the garden, the main jobs are preparation jobs like cleaning out pots, Improving your soil by digging in manures & composts, deciding on what to grow for the following season, ordering your seeds & maybe sowing some seeds indoors to get a bit of a head start on the season.
The allotment here is on heavy clay soil and the weather has been really wet for the last month or so after all the frost, which is pretty typical of this time of year. With wet weather and clay soil there isn't really much to do up on the allotment right now.
Those that have been following this blog know that my chilli seedling I planted in January are coming on slowly (more photos in the next few days), but February is still a good month to sow seeds & get a head start if your thinking of planting some chilli seeds. Its also a good time to start off Tomatoes & peppers. Which is exactly what I've done today 12 Faworyt tomatoe seeds have gone into my propergator.
Not much to see at the moment but hopefully within the next few weeks we'll have some tomatoe seedling that will give us an early crop of Tomatoes.

Chilli powder

This is a great way to store any surplus of chillies. Last Years Dried Chillies (Birds eyes, Jalpeno & Dorset Nagas) Were hung up in our window to dry out & then when totally dry put into a coffee grinder/food processor & blended into a fine powder. Super hot home made home grown chilli powder. store in an air tight container.

Cam McCaul The Collective.f4v

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Some Sunday morning dubs, Enjoy

Kanka - Skunky

Dubphonic - Galactic Sushi Man

Sam Hill - World Championship Val Di Sole (Freecaster)

Got out on the bike this morning with the dog, sun was shining as you can see in the pictures above, but was really wet and muddy, great fun. Rode just over 8 miles but was real hard work due to all the mud from the rain we have had recently.
Managed to beat a few of my personal best today, but to be quite honest I've only just started so I'm kind of just setting them up. I've been using a GPS android app called Sportstracklive on my phone that does a great job of tracking your average speeds best times, miles & a whole lot more, It even shows you a replay of the route you done in real time over google maps or you can speed it up.
I'm hoping to really improve my fitness this year as I'm not very fit & I'm finding that I haven't got the strength in my legs to keep pedelling for very long to get that extra speed up when going down hill or hitting any sweet jumps
.

Made a trip up to the allotment this afternoon with some bits for the compost heap to find my poly tunnel flattened by last weeks gale force winds, absolutely gutted. I now have nearly a hundred orphaned chilli seedlings. Looks like I will be building a D.I.Y style poly tunnel this year, could be a big one if funds allow.

Chilli Seedlings

Thought it might be time for an update as alot of the seedlings are starting to get their first true leaves.
I Didn't really want to flood the blog with photos every week so have waited until most of the seeds I planted have germinated and grown on a bit.
As expected the Padrons & Jalpenos are growing the fastest at the moment. Germinating seeds are left in their propergators with the lids on on our heated tiled floor in the bathroom at around 38c, the soil temp inside the props is reading at about 28c.Once the seeds have germinated they are taken out and are put on the widowsill every morning and left there throughout the day until sundown, then they are put back in the bathroom & the bathroom lights are left on until the morning when the plants go back out to the windowsill. Thats their daily cycle at the moment.

Plant count today is as follows:
10 Apricot
11 Trinity
9 Orange Habanero
5 Aji Limo
14 Dorset Naga

Chilli Seedlings cont..

6 Rooster Spur
6 Caldero Jalpeno
6 Pimiento De Padron