I noticed today that one of my Birds eye Chilli seedlings wasn't doing quite as well as the others it was in the same seed tray as. On closer inspection there was what appeared to be a green lump on the side of the stem, then I realised it was a rather plump aphid. I immediately removed the offending creature and treated it to a size 10 on the back step (I wasn't going to take any risks of it getting back in).
A quick google later and it appears aphids are very difficult to shift once they move in. Particularly on tiny seedlings like mine. So I marched back into the kitchen and squeezed the top of the seedling between my 2 fingers as hard as I could (to squash any other hiding greedy green gits) and pulled out the seedling and dumped it into the food recycling bin.
I guess only time and vigilance will show if I have caught things early enough, but I certainly hope so.
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Chillitastic
I have mentioned previously that I have tried to grow chilli plants from seeds, well it seems I may have made a mistake. I started by putting 10 seeds from a Birdseye chilli I was using to make chilli scrambled eggs into a seed tray with compost and leaving it on the kitchen window sill. After about 2 weeks of seeing nothing, I decided to use the paper towel method of germinating Birdseye chilli seeds, which after 4 days had germinated all the seeds, so I took these 12 seeds and put those in a seed tray with cells.
Now I am not complaining, but I am wondering what to do with all of the 22 chilli seedlings. I have already given one of my 5 Jalapeño seedlings away and have an idea who will have 2 more but I am not sure I can find homes for rest.
Now I am not complaining, but I am wondering what to do with all of the 22 chilli seedlings. I have already given one of my 5 Jalapeño seedlings away and have an idea who will have 2 more but I am not sure I can find homes for rest.
Saturday 12 March 2011
My first year dabbling with veg growing (part 2)
This is the second part of this post, please see the first part here.
I scrabbled around in our garage which had become a dumping ground for (amongst other things) all the plants pots we have ever acquired without their deceased occupants. I found a few pots and in went the rocket and lettuce seeds.
Around this time I also brought a root trainer seed tray that I thought would be good for growing tomatoes from seed. It allows you to kind of split the pot and peak inside to see how the root system is coming along, also handy when potting up. Tomato seed went into this located at the kitchen window and before I new it I had 7 baby tomato plants.
I brought 3 potato planter bags for my seed potatoes, started reading up on what 'chitting' was (it basically means to allow the potatoes to grow sprouts before planting). Fortunately I didn't have to encourage the seed potatoes I had brought, they came with plenty of sprouts already. So I carefully unravelled the potatoes and sprouts and planted them in the potato bags with general purpose peat free compost.
Before long I was out in the garden every weekend finding things to do. Whether it was adding more compost to the potato bags, potting up tomato plants, watering and fertilising or harvesting spinach, rocket and lettuce I realised I must be enjoying it.
The kids were still not that interested so I appealed to their way of thinking by encouraging them to get their hands dirty by helping me pot up the tomato plants. This only really gained interest with my daughter who loves tomatoes.
Tomato plants were certainly one of the most successful attempts of last year. Eventually I put 6 of them into grow bags up against the south facing wall of the house and knocked nails into the wall to support them. This is when I realised that I will be trying bush tomatoes next time, cordons really are a flimsy lot and need a loads of support. Unfortunately the tomato crop never really matured on the plants, it seems the weather wasn't warm enough. So for a while my kitchen window sill and airing cupboard were full of ripening fruit.
Growing your own food is really feast of famine. One minute you are all excited because you have loads of something on had, be it potatoes, spinach, spring onions or tomatoes, the next you are just encouraging seedlings to germinate.
2011 will hopefully be a little bit better planned than last year but I am hopefully going to get a new patio built. This will be a dark colour, which will hopefully catch more heat and allow me to grow things a bit faster or grow some things that I wouldn't normally get away with in Northern Ireland.
I scrabbled around in our garage which had become a dumping ground for (amongst other things) all the plants pots we have ever acquired without their deceased occupants. I found a few pots and in went the rocket and lettuce seeds.
Around this time I also brought a root trainer seed tray that I thought would be good for growing tomatoes from seed. It allows you to kind of split the pot and peak inside to see how the root system is coming along, also handy when potting up. Tomato seed went into this located at the kitchen window and before I new it I had 7 baby tomato plants.
I brought 3 potato planter bags for my seed potatoes, started reading up on what 'chitting' was (it basically means to allow the potatoes to grow sprouts before planting). Fortunately I didn't have to encourage the seed potatoes I had brought, they came with plenty of sprouts already. So I carefully unravelled the potatoes and sprouts and planted them in the potato bags with general purpose peat free compost.
Before long I was out in the garden every weekend finding things to do. Whether it was adding more compost to the potato bags, potting up tomato plants, watering and fertilising or harvesting spinach, rocket and lettuce I realised I must be enjoying it.
The kids were still not that interested so I appealed to their way of thinking by encouraging them to get their hands dirty by helping me pot up the tomato plants. This only really gained interest with my daughter who loves tomatoes.
Tomato plants were certainly one of the most successful attempts of last year. Eventually I put 6 of them into grow bags up against the south facing wall of the house and knocked nails into the wall to support them. This is when I realised that I will be trying bush tomatoes next time, cordons really are a flimsy lot and need a loads of support. Unfortunately the tomato crop never really matured on the plants, it seems the weather wasn't warm enough. So for a while my kitchen window sill and airing cupboard were full of ripening fruit.
Growing your own food is really feast of famine. One minute you are all excited because you have loads of something on had, be it potatoes, spinach, spring onions or tomatoes, the next you are just encouraging seedlings to germinate.
2011 will hopefully be a little bit better planned than last year but I am hopefully going to get a new patio built. This will be a dark colour, which will hopefully catch more heat and allow me to grow things a bit faster or grow some things that I wouldn't normally get away with in Northern Ireland.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Sowing the seeds of grub
Yesterday I managed to engage both of my kids in a bit of seed sowing by ignoring them.
My eldest helped me to sow some beetroot, radish, spring onion (called Scallions in NI) and spinach in a planter I made last year from a left over pallet. I wasn't going to ask him to help, but he saw me going outside with gloves on and asked if he could join in. It seems that they pay more interest if you don't try and engage their enthusiasm as when my daughter saw us we both got shouted at for not involving her in the process. Fortunately I had some bush tomato seeds to sow indoors, and she loves tomatoes more than pretty much anything so I got back in her good books by letting her sow them.
This year I have chosen to grow bush tomatoes because the cordon plants we tried last year grew well and produced a lot of fruit, but mostly didn't ripen before the bad weather set in. We eventually had a lot of green tomatoes sitting on the window sill (however the missus did make some lovely home made tomato soup from them eventually). I am hoping with the bush tomatoes we will start to get fruit earlier and hope for a constant stream for my daughter to enjoy a running buffet.
My eldest helped me to sow some beetroot, radish, spring onion (called Scallions in NI) and spinach in a planter I made last year from a left over pallet. I wasn't going to ask him to help, but he saw me going outside with gloves on and asked if he could join in. It seems that they pay more interest if you don't try and engage their enthusiasm as when my daughter saw us we both got shouted at for not involving her in the process. Fortunately I had some bush tomato seeds to sow indoors, and she loves tomatoes more than pretty much anything so I got back in her good books by letting her sow them.
This year I have chosen to grow bush tomatoes because the cordon plants we tried last year grew well and produced a lot of fruit, but mostly didn't ripen before the bad weather set in. We eventually had a lot of green tomatoes sitting on the window sill (however the missus did make some lovely home made tomato soup from them eventually). I am hoping with the bush tomatoes we will start to get fruit earlier and hope for a constant stream for my daughter to enjoy a running buffet.
Seed germination in a plastic bag!
I have been reading some of the excellent articles on http://www.thechilliking.com and surprised by the technique of germinating chilli seeds in a wet paper towel in this article.
It seems all you need to do to germinate chilli seeds is get a damp paper towel, put the seeds on it, put another damp paper towel on top, seal it into a small plastic food bag and put it in a warm place.
My Birdseye chilli seeds planted on Sunday 27th February have yet to show their selves above the compost on the kitchen window sill (probably slowed down by the cold temperature at night). I know it is early days to expect to see any seedlings but it is disappointing when the Jalapeños came up so fast. So I tried this today seeing as I had a load of seeds that I extracted from the Birdseye chillies I used for my Chilli scrambled eggs on toast this morning (if you haven't tried this, I can highly recommend it). I have placed the bag in the airing cupboard (called the "hot press" in Northern Ireland) as it is likely to be significantly warmer in there than the rest of the house.
I am considering buying a heated propagator, I have been looking around and found one at B&Q for less than a tenner, so I may give that a punt.
It seems all you need to do to germinate chilli seeds is get a damp paper towel, put the seeds on it, put another damp paper towel on top, seal it into a small plastic food bag and put it in a warm place.
My Birdseye chilli seeds planted on Sunday 27th February have yet to show their selves above the compost on the kitchen window sill (probably slowed down by the cold temperature at night). I know it is early days to expect to see any seedlings but it is disappointing when the Jalapeños came up so fast. So I tried this today seeing as I had a load of seeds that I extracted from the Birdseye chillies I used for my Chilli scrambled eggs on toast this morning (if you haven't tried this, I can highly recommend it). I have placed the bag in the airing cupboard (called the "hot press" in Northern Ireland) as it is likely to be significantly warmer in there than the rest of the house.
I am considering buying a heated propagator, I have been looking around and found one at B&Q for less than a tenner, so I may give that a punt.
Thursday 3 March 2011
Chilli seed starter kit
Sunday 13th Feb:
The beginning of this years gardening for me began when I opened the small Jalapeño seed starter kit that the missus brought me back in January (Asda clearance shelf for 50p :). This is a smart move from her as we are getting through more and more shop brought chillies these days.
Following the instructions on the packet I put the supplied soil into the tray (strangely there seemed to be lots of human hair in the compost mix), added 8 seeds, watered and covered with the propagator lid. 12 days later there were seedlings starting to show.
Sunday 27th Feb:
At 2 weeks I had 7 seedlings happily growing in the tray. Doing more reading up I found that I should be potting up the Jalapeño plants when they have 4 true leaves and my seedlings still only had the first 2 seed leaves.
We don't normally get through to many Jalapeño chillies in our kitchen, but we have been eating a lot of Birds Eye Chillies. So I took a chilli from the fridge, cut it open and put the seeds in to a piece of kitchen paper towel. Got a seed tray and filled it with compost, whacked 10 seeds into it, watered it and put it in the kitchen window with the Jalapeño seedlings.
I had no idea if this would work, one of my concerns is that the seeds my need to endure some dormant period before they would germinate. So I then did a bit of surfing and found that it is possible to do grow birds eye chilli plants this way.
The beginning of this years gardening for me began when I opened the small Jalapeño seed starter kit that the missus brought me back in January (Asda clearance shelf for 50p :). This is a smart move from her as we are getting through more and more shop brought chillies these days.
Following the instructions on the packet I put the supplied soil into the tray (strangely there seemed to be lots of human hair in the compost mix), added 8 seeds, watered and covered with the propagator lid. 12 days later there were seedlings starting to show.
Sunday 27th Feb:
At 2 weeks I had 7 seedlings happily growing in the tray. Doing more reading up I found that I should be potting up the Jalapeño plants when they have 4 true leaves and my seedlings still only had the first 2 seed leaves.
We don't normally get through to many Jalapeño chillies in our kitchen, but we have been eating a lot of Birds Eye Chillies. So I took a chilli from the fridge, cut it open and put the seeds in to a piece of kitchen paper towel. Got a seed tray and filled it with compost, whacked 10 seeds into it, watered it and put it in the kitchen window with the Jalapeño seedlings.
I had no idea if this would work, one of my concerns is that the seeds my need to endure some dormant period before they would germinate. So I then did a bit of surfing and found that it is possible to do grow birds eye chilli plants this way.
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