New try in my Zengrow

Hi!


Today I took some cuttings of my Black Cayman, Porta da rua and my basil. I have fired up my Zengrow again, so that's where I put them. The Zengrow is fantastic when it comes to cuttings.

We'll see how this works. At least they don't have to suffer from the strong winds and weird weather out on the balcony. With the timer, "weather" will be very predictable. Sunrise and sunset on exactly the same time each day :-)

Wishing you all a great week!

Hot regards,
  Mats

Winds .........

Hi!

I *was* happy about my black cayman. It looked promising, and the plant was strong.

Until today. The winds were obviously stronger. So when I came home this afternoon, I found the plant broken. And not a small piece of the plant. Weird, it was broken very close to the soil.

Well, at least the sun is shining. That's the reason why you see the stripes on the picture. 

 If there is a will, thereis a way. I hope that this little fellow still will be able to make it.

Don't miss the next chapter in the super exciting world of chile peppers.

Take care,
   Mats

Excursion on the balcony

 Hi!

I got restless... Eurovision song contest is nothing for me anymore :-) So I started harvesting pictures from my little photo excursion on the balcony today.

This is my overwintered chiltepin, reaching for the sky. It's quite tall. At least 1,8m. But still no flowers.

7 pot primo
First flowers

Bode roxa

I think that these flowers are absolutely great. Pointing in all directions. Looking good.

Very nice flowers.

I love the shape of this one.

7 pot brain strain red
I really hope that these flowers set fruit!

Black Cayman
These two flowers here are turning away from each other...

While these two are hugging.

Aren't they cute?

Douglah
A promising battery of flowers...

7 pod brown
 First flowers

Have a great weeked everyone! And may the best entry in the contest win :-)

    Mats

Major repotting Friday

Hi!

It's been some really nice days lately, so the plants have been enjoying themselves a lot in the window... Therefore it was time to repot this happy bunch :-)

Sometimes they don't get enough light, and stretch too much towards the window. That makes them tall and weak. When I repot them, I plant them "deep" in the pots, so they can develop roots, and get stronger and more robust. Here is an example of that.
Before: Here is my 7 pot brain strain red before I put soil in the pot.

After: As you can see, I have planted it quite deep in the soil. That's OK, and new roots will develop.

Here are the first three. From left to right. 7 pot brain strain red, 7 pot primo, 7 pod brown.

And the second batch. Bode roxa, bode roxa and black naga.

It's hard work! So we decided to go out for an ice cream. We sang - I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream :-) A beautiful day!

Coming back home, I repotted two more. In front - Douglah, and behind it is Black Cayman.

Phew. Time for an espresso!

Wishing you all a great weekend!
   Mats

7 pod brown

Hi!

Both good and bad news today. The 7 pod brown showed up today. And the one Black Cayman that was up, didn't make it. So that mini pot is back on the bathroom floor. It's not usual that the small seedlings die that fast. I think it has to do with the age of the seeds.

But it sure looks like it's going to be a "hot" summer! This is the current list of chiles:

• Orange cheiro
• Bode roxa
• Douglah
• 7 pot brain strain red
• 7 pot primo
• 7 pod brown
• Black naga
• Indian frutescens

And I have one variety from last year. The chiltepin.

Still waiting for some favorites to show up...

In the meanwhile, enjoy a picture from a gray, icy Saturday... Anyone care for a swim? :-)

Hot regards,
   Mats

One more! Black Cayman

I was very happy to see my Black Cayman showing up this morning. I grew it last year, but it was so badly attacked by aphids so it didn't make it.

So, never ever give up. I hope it works this year!

http://www.naute.com/inspiration/never.phtml

Hot regards,
  Mats

Black Cayman

It feels like I've been chasing aphids for months, and I'm finally seeing the end of that war.

On this flower, you can still see two of them. After the picture I took care of them, so now they don't bother my Black Cayman anymore.

 

 This is a Capsicum chinense, so have a look at the typical chinense flowers.

Currently we have very warm and nice weather. Perfect weather for chinense :-)

Regards,
  Mats

Repotting

Phew! Busy days repotting chiles! Today I repotted three different malaguetas, Florida bird pepper, Girino, Black Cayman and St. Kitt's Red. That means that all of my peppers for this year are in their "final" pots.

Well, except one. The caronog from 2001. It's so small, so I'm still not sure if it will make it. Here it is, next to my turmeric:

Just for comparison. Check this picture below. All the seeds were planted on the same day, and compare the sizes of the plants. It's amazing to see how fast they grow when they are repotted into bigger pots. The three big ones are baccatum. I think especially baccatum takes immediate advantage from the bigger pots. They were repotted almost a month ago.

Wishing you all a nice Sunday!

Three more today!

• PI 596058 - Chuquisac (Capsicum baccatum)
• Chiltepin Mexico (Capsicum annuum)
• Black Cayman (Capsicum chinense)

I was surprised to see my chiltepin germinate so fast. My experience is that they take longer time. So this is either A) promising, or B) bad sign that the seeds are not pure, and therefore not really from chiltepin.

My vote and hope is option A! Promising!

The ones that I still wait for are some old chinense seeds. Maraba, cheiro de para and caronog. But also a Florida bird pepper (undomesticated annuum), a pubescens, pimenta da Neyde and goat pepper.

Well, two weeks is not that much for chile seeds to germinate. So I will stay cool!

A question to you geeks out there.
Do you keep track of when your varieties germinate, and so on? And in that case, how do you do it? I created a database some years ago, in which I log some "events", and export spreadsheets from it. If anyone is interested in the technical details, please let me know, and I can write about it and share it with you. It's based on OpenOffice / LibreOffice, so it's a cross platform solution.

Hot regards,
   Mats

Action in the mini green house

Two old favorites, and one new variety for this year showed up this morning!

The good old ones
Malagueta large Salvador 2001
Malagueta mediumSalvador 2001

And the new one
Black Cayman

Eight varieties have germinated since January the 3rd. Hopefully some more will show up!

Have a great weekend!
   Mats