Tuesday 21 February 2012

Easy = light work to grow chile != true

Hi!

I have a couple of days vacation. Not doing anything particular. Just being. It's great to stop for a while, and just be.

Today it's a couple of degrees above zero. A little sunshine every now and then. And there is a hint in the air that it will eventually be spring. The ice is melting. This picture is from the park :-)


It's also that time of year when it's time to repot the chiles. You all know this already, but it takes quite an amount of soil if you have a bunch of varieties growing. So today was my go-and-shop-soil-day. We don't have a car since we live in the middle of the city, and think it's more problem to have a car than not having one. But we have this trolley. So I took the trolley out for a walk today.

So now I'm prepared for the repotting season! 9 times 18 litres of soil should be enough for me this year. Anyway, if I have to buy one or more that's OK. The good thing is that the majority is home already. I had to go two rounds to the shop today (and one last Sunday). Phew. Who said it was a peaceful light job to grow chiles :-)

Broken-back-regards,
  Mats :-)

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Three more


Three more varieties showed up today!

It's my old favorite that I call "Patricia". It's really a pimenta cambuci, but I call it Patricia because it's a variety that she brought from Brazil. It's a mild very nice variety.
 http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=93



And then it's another favorite. Aji Norteño. A very nice variety.

http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=7



And then I'm very excited to see that the cumari seeds from Salvador showed up! This is how the mature pods look like.

And here are some immature pods. The plant produces a lot of pods!
http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=222



Sometimes the seedlings don't drop the seed, and gets stuck. If the dry seed is not removed, it might cause the seedling to die. So it needs to be removed. My eyes are not that good, but Patricia has been doing some "surgery" tonight :-)

Patrik has some good instructions how to do this (in Swedish) on his blog. Here -> http://chilepeppar.blogspot.com/2012/01/friserat-fro.html

Wishing you a great week!
   Mats

Monday 13 February 2012

I couldn't wait

Hi again!

I couldn't wait... I repotted bod'e roxa (there were so many of them, so I put them in two pots), 7 pot brain strain red and the black naga.

I had to go up to the attic and get the bigger "mini greenhouse", so here they are. Installed and ready.
Still no space problems. Maybe I've learned the lesson after all these years? Who knows. Anyway, it's too early to tell :-)

The other day I was walking through the park, I took this picture. I liked the way the shadows fell from the trees. Really stretching towards the sky. Exactly like we northern people do when we get a chance to feel the heat from the early spring sun.

It's soon time for the first repot 2012

Three more varieties have shown up. It's my porta da rua / aji yuquitania, canario and the cheiro from Recife. The cheiro from Recife doesn't look too strong, so I'm not sure it will make it. I saved the seeds when we were in Brazil in 2001. So they are quite old.

In total, I now have 14 different varieties growing. It's far away from the "old me", when everything less than 50 was more or less nothing :-) This is how it currently looks...

Have a great week!
    Mats

Thursday 2 February 2012

Plan "C"

Well, it looks like many of my old seeds won't germinate. I sure want some more varieties than I currently have... So I'm activating Plan "C".

Today I started some other old favorites.

  • Aji norteño (C. baccatum)
  • Maraba (C. chinense)
  • Cumari (Salvador)
  • Bod'e (C. chinense)
  • PI 441624 Porta da rua, Aji Yuquitania (C. chinense)
  • Canario (C. pubescens)

Hot regards,
  Mats