First harvest

It's fantastic to be able to pick a ripe pepper in early June! The earliest I can remember from my previous years of growing chile peppers!

First day on the balcony

Sunshine and fairly warm today. So I decided to move the plants outside! Carl assisted :-)

Repotting

I repotted my two pubescens today. Locato and CAP 217.

Aji cohincho o Kitucho is also in a bigger pot now!

It looks like my Aji del monte o Putapario is going to have open flowers in a few days. That's really early, considering it's about 100 days ago I put the seeds in soil. Spring is coming!

Repotting

It's been a while without any real chile pepper activity. But yesterday I repotted some of the plants into bigger pots.

The ones repotted are:

Rocotillo (C. chinense)
Chilipiquin - Manor (C. annuum)
PI315024 - Lemon drop (C. chinense)
Aji del monte o Putapario (C. chacoense)
Dedo de moca amarela
Cumari (Enio)

Pictures to follow...

All seedlings are repotted

End of February, and it's snowing. Summer and the chile season feels a little distant.

The first picture is of Carl this morning... to illustrate the winter. And the second one is the fastest growing variety this year. The Aji del monte (aka. Putapario).

I think the difference in growing speed between varieties is very interesting. Growing under the same conditions, in the same kind of soil would really make me expect that they grow at the same speed. But that's definitely not the case.

I think the most important factor is the viability of the seeds. This year I'm using some quite old seeds. For example, the seed from Peter Pepper is probably 10 years old. If not 11. And it germinated fine, but now it seems to have run out of energy. We'll see.

All are repotted, and I'm looking forward to following them grow.

The ones that made it through the first repotting are:
Locato
CAP 217
Malagueta liten Salvador 2001
Tabasco
Rocotillo
Aji amarillo
Orange cheiro
Chilipiquin - Manor
PI281435 - Datil
PI315024 - Lemon drop
Peter Pepper
Aji del monte o Putapario
Aji cohincho o Kitucho
Naga Morich
Dedo de moca amarela
Cumari Enio

And, it finally looks like I will be able to cut down at least a little on the number of varieties this year. :-)

February update

I have compared my notes from 2006, and it seems that the seedlings are growing faster this year. Or is it that I have less patience this year...

Half of them (9) are already repotted in larger pots, and that is about two weeks earlier than 2006. Today Carl and I repotted:
Locato
Malagueta
Rocotillo
Orange cheiro
Datil
Lemon drop
Aji cobincho o Kitucho
Dedo de moca amarela

Two weeks ago, we repotted the Aji del monte o Putapario. It's looking really good.

I will soon be back with pictures...

Two more!

Two more varieties have germinated.

Fatalii (Capsicum chinense)
Peru yellow (Capsicum baccatum)

Still waiting for Aji dulce, Timplin, Peter and Cumari. But I think those seeds have passed the 'best before date'. They are about 10 years old.

Seedlings update – January 11

Ten more varieties have germinated.

Locato (Capsicum pubescens)
CAP 217(Capsicum pubescens)
Malagueta (Capsicum frutescens)
Tabasco (Capsicum frutescens)
Rocotillo (Capsicum chinense)
Aji amarillo (Capsicum chinense)
Chilipiquin (Capsicum annuum)
PI315024 - Lemon drop (Capsicum chinense)
Aji del monte o Putapario (Capsicum chacoense)
Naga morich (Capsicum annuum)

As you see, there are too many seedlings in some containers, but as soon as they develop their first leaves, I will remove some of them, or wait until repotting into larger pots.

In 2004 I made an experiment, taking pictures to show how a seedling developed and grew during the hours. You can see it at: http://petterssononline.com/habanero/seedling.php

First chiles to show up in 2007

The four first varieties showed up today!

Orange cheiro
PI281435 - Datil
Aji cohincho o Kitucho
Dedo de moca amarela

January 1 2007

It's become a tradition to start the seeds on New Year's Day.

Carl helped me to put the seeds for 2007 in soil!

The varieties we grow this year are:
Locato (Capsicum pubescens)
CAP 217 (Capsicum pubescens)
Fatalii (Capsicum chinense)
Malagueta Salvador 2001 (Capsicum frutescens)
Tabasco (Capsicum frutescens)
Aji Dulce yellow #1 (Capsicum)
Rocotillo (Capsicum chinense)
Aji amarillo (Capsicum chinense)
Orange cheiro (Capsicum chinense)
Chilipiquin - Manor (Capsicum annuum)
Timplin - Bird pepper (Capsicum annuum)
PI281435 - Datil (Capsicum chinense)
PI315024 - Lemon drop (Capsicum chinense)
Peter Pepper (Capsicum annuum)
Aji del monte o Putapario (Capsicum chacoense)
Aji cohincho o Kitucho (Capsicum baccatum)
Peru Yellow (Capsicum baccatum)
Naga Morich (Capsicum annuum)
Dedo de moca amarela (Capsicum)
Cumari Enio (Capsicum chinense)