Sketchup Fever!

Talk about having a hard week. My weekend was ruined by the bane of group work, meaning what was supposed to be a happy Sunday of leisure was turned into an 11-hour marathon trying to fix other people's glitches (OPG). It wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the fact that I have done this because half of the team was really upset at the report handed in, while the other half seemed oblivious at the very basic, very childish, and very numerous mistakes present in the document (and no, I am not making it up, there were mistakes in every page of the 30-plus page document).

It is kind of an awkward situation, working in groups. I am never particularly good at telling people off, unless I have complete control of a group, and then I am slightly (lie!) megalomaniacal (hence the reason why I shun leadership nowadays, even though some people do need to have someone giving them a good ol' kick in the head!), therefore when people are not working to my standards it does tend to frustrate, vex, irritate, and disappoint me (much like I am sure it does the same to others when I am not up to scratch).

But such is life.

Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and get the ulcer for the sake of the greater good (the greater good!). And sometimes you really should just tell people:

'Your work was below par, and I am dissappointed in this.'

But that is usually done by a supervisor...

Aaanywho, enough whingeing. On to the more amiable side of things:

The chillies are doing swimmingly. The Stromboli has pods, one of the Lemon Drops has pods, one of the Ring of Fires has pods, the Golden Cayenne has pods, and they are all flowering! I moved the fatalii again, this time to share a bit of space with the rest of the plants, so maybe the sight of all them flowers and pods will make it go 'hmmm, I bet I could produce hotter pods than all of them put together!'. See, a little bit of 'capsicum psychology' ;-P

Here's a few pics (apologies. Took them with my phone, and sent them strait to photo bucket, so not re sized):


These are the Golden Cayenne. I'm quite looking forward to these, as I only had a couple of seeds and only one germinated. Well doe little guy! :-)


The stromboli. The pods are less pointed than the one I grew two years ago, but it still grew really tall and slender before giving a cluster of flowers.


One of the windowsils. That one had (until this morning, I have since moved things around) the Goatsweed, two Ring of Fire, and Lemon Drop. The pods from the LD are really nice and big. Looking forward to those as well.


The Strawberry Guava! It is really not climbing much at all in terms of height, and after six months it still looks pretty much the runt of the litter, compared to the chillies, but it looks fantastically healthy. It may take years to reach 'shrub' status, but heck, I can wait...


SURPRISE! This is Anacardium occidentale, the cashew apple. You can probably see the remnants of the cashew nut at the base of the seedling. This is an ultra topical plant that runs away screaming at the first sign of frost, so trying to grow it in THE NORTH! might be a bit of a problem.

But hey, life is all about the challenges.

I will try to get some more detailed photos up as soon as I can (coursework permitting)

So I went to the Land Down Under...

This will probably be the last post for a couple of weeks, as university work once again begins to pile up.

I never thought it would end up being as much work as this, but heck, I guess sometimes it is possible to have too much school work while at the same time having to work in full time employment...

:-(

I can confirm the first pods of the season!

Hazzah!

They are from the Lemon Drop. I am well and truly chuffed. This means the season is ON!

Booyah!, as the people say.

It's Pimms' O'clock and all that jazz!

I moved the Fatalii's somewhere sunny, but I will have to move one of them again, as that room is being turned into a student study room, and the last thing I want is to be blamed for a person of university-level education's lack of common sense in trying to taste a chilli pepper...

...but if there's something I have learned in all my years in the magical realm of 'academia', it's that a university education and common sense can sometimes be akin to oil and water.

I planted the two Cashew Apple seeds (that would be two unopened cashew nuts to everyone else) yesterday. Each seed is larger and heavier than probably all the packs of orange habanero seeds I have combined...

Now it's just a waiting game.

As I had said in the previous post, Almapaprika and I recently traveled to the land Down Under.

I have to admit, it was a wonderful and spectacular place.

But then again, we did travel during the Oz autumn, and were not subjected to the 40C temperatures of summer.

And, of course, while I was there, I could not help myself when I went to one of our gracious hosts' homes and discovered they too loved chillies:

Ah, there is something about growing your chillies outdoors that is so rewarding!

They also had a lemon tree and some passion fruit vines!

It was heavenly, even though the Oz Magpies are large (twice as large as the British ones) and rather fearsome looking with their red eyes.

Oh, and here's a treat:

Couldn't really go to Oz without taking a photo of a 'Roo.

Well, with any luck the next post will include photos of the pods back in the UK.

:-)

Green houses/Invernaderos

I finally got annoyed enough by our balcony to go out and buy a mini-greenhouse.

I have gotten sick and tired of watching plant after plant simply keel over and die out side of our flat in what can only be described as the sort of place where only Scottish Heather or wind resistant grasses from the Hebrides can grow. Living less than 200 metres from the waters of the Mersey in what effectively is a wind tunnel is frustrating. Nothing you grow seems to be able to settle in. Add to that the fact that thanks to the Hilton brand of hotels and their Hamptons by Hilton we no longer get sun in the mornings, and only a few hours of direct sunlight in the afternoons, and you can have a sort of feeling why I get so miserable when I look at what would ideally be a beautiful wood-decked balcony.

But no more. I just simply couldn't let the nice white climbing Rose wither and die, or watch the Hibiscus try for the fourth year running to have more than just some crappy little leaves.

No sir.

I have just seen my three blueberry bushes wither and die thanks to the new balcony and it vexes me.

So, in comes the new greenhouse.

It is nearly six feet tall, and has four shelves, though I am only using three since the Rose and the Hibiscus are fairly tall twigs.

Looking at them now, the wind is causing considerably less stress on the plants. I even feel confident enough to move the very healthy Mint plant I had in the window outside. I've placed the Lilies Almapaprika bought inside, along with the ones I bought a few months back, and watered everything in the greenhouse.

I might buy some cheap digital thermometers to keep track of whether or not it also makes it more bearable for the plants temperature wise.

I've not been able to update the blog as often as I would like because I've been a little busy at the moment.

I am slowly re-potting all the plants into their final, 8-inch pots. I still have to re-pot the two Fataliis, the two Black Nagas, the two Jamaican Red Hots and one Royal Gold Habanero.

I think I may be seeing the first of the Cayenne Ring of Fire pods next week, as the plant has started to flower now.

I treated all of the overwintered pots to some Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), which is helpful in replenishing magnesium in plants. Apparently peppers plants are deemed to be 'Magnesium hungry'. I'm hoping this will help the Rocoto Rojo, which has been great at growing, but exceedingly poor at producing pods.

The Royal Gold (the already re-potted one) is doing quite well, and may produce flowers in the next fortnight. The Madame Jeannette, on the other hand, is already weeks ahead of every other plant of this season. The first node of flowers numbers a cluster of 9, which is prolific. No buds have opened yet. Should be doing so next week. The Thai Dragon has split brilliantly into three even main branches, all growing straight and up. Lovely growth, but no flowers yet.

The two Red Squash...grumble grumble...are anything BUT Chinenses. They have started to flower, and are following the traditional Annuum growth pattern of one flower per node, as well as showing all the physical characteristics of an Annuum. If it was my mistake, then the only other possible pepper that could have been mistaken in the labelling were the peppers next to them, Almapaprika peppers (not my wife ;-P). I only had four Annuums growing this season: Cayenne Ring of Fire, Regular Cayenne, Almapaprika, and Thai Dragon.

I only hope it wasn't the seed company's problem, because they are generally a good seed company.

But I will only find out once the first pods set in.

I was planning to make some pie today for dinner, but I've gotten a bit lazy... :-(

This Chilli's aquaphonic, it's stereophonic, it's HYDROPONIC!

Finally got around to making my 'homegrown' Frankensteins Monster of a hydroponics kit at the weekend.

Mr. Arboc, if you're reading this...

...it pretty much takes me out of the 'El cheapo smackdown'...might explain why I've not re-visited the thread in the forum...

:-(

As an exercise in 'build your own', or DIY as the Brits call it, it was loads of fun, though.

Even Almapaprika was left agape!

She was amazed at my craft, though what she saw was a mess of air hoses and valves feeding into a bucket with a lot of little plastic soda pop bottles filled with LECA (Light Expanded Clay Aggregate) and with a little sponge in the middle.

But I shall explain this home made kit when I get a chance tonight (and when I can upload the 'how to' photos.)

It was an amazing and beautiful weekend over here, with not a cloud in the sky, and it has continued thus far today.

Shame Saturday night went down to -6 Celsius.

But other than that, perfect growing conditions!

I re-potted (to the little plastic soda pop bottles) and brought to the office:

2x Jamaican Hot
1x Aji Brazilian Starfish

The only chillies left at home now are one Royal Gold and one Fatalii. These should be moved tomorrow.

There are a couple of other seedlings left, but I have a feeling those will not make it, due to the fact that they have been in the dark (in a cupboard) for too long.

It's a shame, really, but it is down to my own incompetence.

The sunny weekend did marvels for the ones at work!

The Royal Gold there, as well as the Ring of Fire, and the surviving Trinidad Scorpion are all starting to show true leaves.

Heat and sunshine.

The best combination for plants.

:-)

On a separate, but final note:

I can guarantee England won't win the World Cup. This may sound a bit harsh of me (I like the team and all), but here's the reason why.

As I walked past the neighbourhood next to our flat, I had to cross a large group of children (probably a dozen or so between 10-15yrs old) who were playing football. As I passed by, I overheard a couple of them say (and for this, use your thickest Steven Gerrard or Jaime Carragher accents) 'Try and knock his hat off, lad!' Here I thought to myself

'Great. Bludgeoned to death by a bunch of teenage miscreants and their footballs.'

To my surprise (I say surprise because this is the country that invented the sport), three balls were kicked in my direction with my back turned to them (someone has just asked me if I own a pet...do Chillies count?)...

...not a SINGLE one actually achieved what it was intended to do.

The closest one hit my bottom...

...from a poorly placed chip rather than a powerful volley.

And I wasn't running away.

I was simply walking at a normal pace.

The poor kids were left with nothing more to say than

'Could you kick the ball back to us?'

Which I did.

When I finally walked up to it.

Now, from a coach's standpoint (I coached football for a few years), their accuracy was just atrocious, and their ability to put a ball into open space or deliver a good cross non-existent.

Which leads me to this final though:

If a dozen malcontent miscreants who obviously do nothing more than pick on people who wear trilby like hats (why? beats me...or so they tried) and who seem to play football ALL THE TIME can't grasp basic footballing concepts like the ones I mentioned above in order to hit a target, how much hope do their overpaid and equally underdeveloped counterparts going to South Africa have?

If I expect these children to deliver, then moreso their elders!

:-P

Two sides of a coin...or 'cheek to cheek'

How appropriate I finish writing the title of this blog as someone drops a hand full of coins on the floor in front of me.

My flat is a zoo. Well, that would more accurately be the 'the people living in flats in building opposite ours.'

We've been in that flat for nine months now, and I've already been flashed or mooned TWICE.

Sadly this has not been the sort of male, hormone-induced fantasy where the other human being prancing around in the buff is part of the 'Swedish bikini team' (it's a 90's American thing. look it up).

Nope, the 'exposers' were blokes.

Non-too sightly ones at that.

The first such instance occurred one Saturday morning (so traumatizing was it that it has been etched into my memory), when a group of what I can only describe as YOBS (English thing. Look it up), decided to continue whatever alcohol and drug fuelled party they came from in their own flat. At one point, I look out of my living room balcony door to discover one said shaven headed, pasty white gentleman is nearly hanging from the balcony railing while dancing to trance music (if you can call that dancing), with nothing but a can of beer to hide his shame.

This past Saturday, however, it was the person opposite our flat, who opened the blinds to his bedroom, and proceeded to moon us as he put on his underpants. Why someone walks around a house wearing nothing more than a grey sweatshirt (hoodie) is beyond me.

Again, as per usual, Almapaprika missed both 'encounters with the arse kind'.

I went with Almapaprika and some friends of hers to watch 'Swan Lake' recently. It was an all male production (well, all the swans were played by men) much acclaimed in London and other places. I must admit that I am not a Ballet 'Afficionado' per se (I'll attend a showing more for the music than the prancing around), and found myself drifting off at points. But it was entertaining (the 60% or so I was awake for), and dare I say it, quite hilarious at times.

My man flu continues to besiege me (probably why I fell asleep at the Ballet), now filling me with so much phlegm I am a mere day away from speaking fluent Dutch (Nee, Mario! Nee!).

I have brought to the office today the following seedlings:

1x Fatalii
2x red squash

The sun and the radiators are working wonders with the plants. The Rocoto Rojo has grown two new branches that are already a good 4-5 inches long. The Naga Morich, Chocolate Habanero and Datil all also show a lot of progress in new growth, though I am worried the Orange Habanero and the Caribbean Red Habanero may end up not making it.

I am half tempted to buy some Blossom Set spray to help the plants produce pods though the temperatures might not be ideal, though I feel it's a bit like cheating (but then again, so are heated beds...), if only because I'm still reminded of the near hundred flowers both Fataliis gave last year and the ONE pod that came from all that...

The Voldemort Chilli

I must admit I never thought the Maize Morado could grow at the staggering rate it has been. I brought two of the four plants to work today, and they are pushing six inches in height.



All this after a mere 10 days of being sown on the ground (as it were)! The office is a trade-off, mind you.



At home the temperature is nice and constant, but they get very little light. In the office they will be getting maximum light exposure, but with recent radiator problems (a building that cost an unimaginable amount of money to renovate, and they didn't pay enough attention to the heating...seriously now!), it means that it will be considerably colder than at home.



I'm hoping light wins the battle.



The Roselle seedlings are doing quite well, all first leaves are fully open and taking in the little light available.



Capsicum wise, moving the incubators to the boiler room has worked the charm, as little seedlings are sprouting left and right. So far I've got 'en route':



Mustard Habanero X 1

Jamaican Hot X 2

Fatalii X 2

Thai Dragon X 1

Royal Gold X 2

Brazilian Starfish X 2

Hot Apple X 1

Red Squash X 2



Granted, it's not much yet, but I'm happy with the output so far, specially since there are once again, two Fataliis out of the blocks.



I came across what I consider to be a hilarious thread in http://www.thehotpepper.com/ yesterday which dealt with what can only be described as a seriously touchy subject with experienced growers:



New Strains.



Or in the case of this thread, a possible mutation, or crossbreed, or genetic anomaly, or chilli with an identity issue.



No one really knows for sure, but it did cause quite a stir.



It was to do with the nigh-mythical 'Chilli that must not be named' Yellow Bhut Jolokia...



...or Lemon Bhut Jolokia.



Reading the thread you'd swear blood would be spilt.



It was, however, quite entertaining (Chilli Gods forgive me) to watch two grown men (We presume. You never know in online forums where people have crazy sounding names like...Aji Chombo..ahem!) so adamant about the veracity of the strain origin and what was perceived as an act of fraudulent intentions on the part of one of them.



It was 'Get Medieval' stuff online!



In the midst's of it all, another grower (based here in the UK, but I won't say more) took the time to remind everyone that his super secret product was indeed real and the hottest one in existence (said to kill Male Buffalo if downwind of the plants, able to knock down incoming attack missiles if a slight mist is sprayed on your roof, can cure cancer by just looking at it, and other mighty boasts I just made up), and conveniently changed the website content of his site to reflect that the Yellow/Lemon Bhut he has (which he bought from one of the growers in the fisticuffs in the forum), was a fantastic experiment he hoped everyone enjoyed...



...while charging every customer a healthy amount for the unknown seeds.

And here I thought experiment participants usually 'participated' for free or by being paid.

Silly me, I must be on a different planet.



You seriously cannot make stuff up like this!

It's better than a Mexican TV Soap (telenovela!)



:-)

Let the feast of 1,000 hams BEGIN!

I sowed 44 seedlings yesterday evening to signal the start of the 2010 growing season!

Hazzah!

The hopefuls for this season are (by seedling incubator):

Incubator One
2X Red Strawberry Guava (Supposed to be a frost hardy type of Guava)
2X Barrackpore 7Pot (a Chinense courtesy of Trinycoolieboy, one of the forum members from The Hot Pepper...from Trinidad)
2X Peppermo Pepper (an unknown Chinense from another forum member, Peppermo)
2X Antillais Hot (a Chinense courtesy of Vincent, another forum member)
2X Royal Gold (another Chinense from Vincent)
2X Aji Limo Rojo (Chinense)
2X Brazilian Starfish (Baccatum)
2X Hot Apple (Annuum...otherwise known as Almapaprika!)
2X Red Squash (Chinense)
2X Ring of Fire (Annuum...technically three, but I only used two coir pots for the three seeds)
2X Maize Morado (Purple Corn!)

Incubator Two
2X Safi (Chinense. Really looking forward to this one)
2X Peach Habanero (Chinense)
2X Mustard Habanero (Chinense)
2X Scotch Bonnet Mixed (Chinense)
2X Jamaican Hot (Chinense)
2X Maize Morado (More Purple Corn!)
2X Fatalii (Chinense. Because last year two gorgeous looking plants only produced ONE pod!!!)
2X Cayenne (Annuum. Not Ring of Fire. Just for kicks)
2X Thai dragon (Annuum. Again, just for kicks)
2X Barrackpore 7Pot (might as well plant some more super hots)
2X Roselle (Hibiscus Sabdarifa. Flor de Jamaica for you Mexicans, Saril if you're from Aji Chombo Land)

This is, of course, not counting the Datil at home, the one Naga Morich still remaining at work, as well as the Chocolate Habanero, Orange Habanero, Rocoto Rojo, and Caribbean Red Habanero.

There is one Cuban Black that is still alive. I gave it to one of my co-workers, and it looks FANTASTIC. She's kept it alive through winter, and it looks so lush and exotic in her office.

Greener thumbs than I, definitely.

I will hopefully set up the hydroponics tonight with the Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) to see how that little kit works!

Ah, the joys of the start of the growing season...

And in good, consummate, Chilli Head Fashion, I've decided to post my growing list on The Chile Man's website. I also decided to enter their Rocoto Challenge, although I'm not hopeful of much, since I only managed to get two pods out of the Rocoto Rojo...and they only happened AFTER the growing season... But who knows. I might get a surprise or two this season (like TWO Fatalii pods).

With any luck, I might have some pods for the 'union of the pods' between myself and OUCH! sorry about that. Just got a static shock from the electric radiator, so a shock AND a burn...anywho, as I was saying before, I might have some pods ready for Almapaprika and I's big 'joining in the fields of capsicum.'

Blinkin' emergency door alarm at work just went off (the bell is right next to me), and the usual security override code isn't registering. AAAAAARGH!!!

Too many surveys...

I have been erstwhile distracted from the blog by the bane of postgraduate studies:

The dissertation project.

I am running an online survey on my project, which I need to have since my interviewing skills are rubbish.

I should have known this from ages ago, since my Role Playing skills are equally inept. This is a warning to all of you: If you RP and can't for the sake of you get information from the Gnome Pineapple salesman being played by your friend who knows you are awful at the game and is giving you all the help possible to help you find the +2 Enchanted Suppository of Regularity, you haven't got a prayer for getting accurate information regarding a complex regeneration scheme from Government Officials...

So ask the public what they think. You'll be surprised how refreshing and helpful they will be.

As for the chillies, well what can I say? So far so good. I've taken more photos which I've uploaded to my photobucket account:

http://s611.photobucket.com/albums/tt197/ajichombo/

The Nagas should be changing colour soon. I can feel it. The Chocolate Habs are doing great, as are the Orange Habs (they are just AMAZING). Pretty much the only plants disappointing me are the Fatalii twins. A lot of growth, a lot of growth, a LOT of growth.

But not pods....

Grrrrrrrrrr!

The White Habanero is doing splendid, as is the Caribbean Red Hab (finally). Even the Red Savina has a pod growing!

I have FINALLY moved the Jamaican Hot and the second Paper Lantern from the glass jars to terracotta 15cm pots. I feel really bad about it, but I have decided these two shall be overwintered to provide the spearhead of the 2010 growing season.

August temperatures in Liverpool are predicted to be 14.5C on the average (yes, global warming...I can see it making a difference) AFTER the meteorology office in the UK gave a long range forecast of a heat wave for August. This is why weather forecasting is a great job. You MAKE THINGS UP! and you get paid a handsome fee to boot! I will definitely apply to be one. Stick my head out the window, or better still, my bionic leg, and say 'Hmmmm...leg is tingling. I predict rain!' and bingo-bango! Money!

I am sorely tempted to use the heat lamps from the reception to keep the plants fooled into producing more...

Pigeons and wings...

I am going to start a petition to send to whatever 'higher authority' was in charge of giving city pigeons wings to have them taken from them.

Silly things just will not move when you walk towards them.

I know they see life in such a manner that their brain analyses our movement as we would the slow crawl of a snail, but I have had enough.

I want some other animal to get the wings if the pigeons are just going to waffle about not using them.

I want monkeys to have them.

And don't say 'Oh, come on!'

You know you want that too.

Not the higher order apes.

Nah.

No...flying orang-utans. No winged Chimpanzees.

The 'lesser apes'

Flying Squirrel Monkeys!

Dive Bombing Tamarinds!

Horrah!

I am 'chuffed', as the locals say, with the progress of the plants. There are now 14 Chocolate Habanero pods on the plant, as well as three White Habanero pods! Weeeeeeee! There are also flowers on the Paper Lantern and Red Savina. The Chocolate Sweet Pepper is now producing more flowers, so a second harvest is under way!

I have started harvesting the Esplendors as well as the Piri-Piris, but loaded with plenty of little pods.

The Orange Habanero is packed! I know there could be more pods if I did a few more things, but I'll settle for 20 pods from it.

Heck, even the Caribbean Red Habanero, now in separate accommodation (after I liberally sprayed it to control the aphids) is carrying a pod!

:-)

Now, if only I could get the Fataliis to actually set a pod, I'd be the happiest pepper on the Internet!

Uprooted Peppers

We have been in the services apartment for four days now, and you simply don't know the comforts of home well until you do something so simple as to say to your other half:

'can you pass me the pepper?'

and realise you don't have any because you left it in the flat you can't go to.

The meeting with the City council was reduced to a shouting match as people realised that the City of Liverpool just simply wasn't prepared to deal with this crisis.

The good news is that this is a dry run in case heaven forbid something worse were to happen. At least in this emergency neither scores of ambulances nor the coroners office needed to be contacted (though there may be dead plants soon, but I'm not sure if there is a gardening coroner's office in the city).

I have taken more photos (of the plants. The crane ones I've already posted on other mediums and I will not use the blog to show people any more of that than I have already shown through the bbc reports), but they are all uploaded into my photobucket account, but I will share a couple with you:

The Nagas


An Orange Habanero pod (getting more pods now. Hazzah!)


The Fatalii twins, now all grown up


A black Cuban Flower (have one solitary pod growing now)


Esplendor (left), the Naga X plant (centre) and the Chocolate Habanero (right). Choc Hab has produce loads of flowers, but no pods...


Well that's all for now. I need to get some shopping done. We have no cling film or little takeaway trays, and Almapaprika is working nights this weekend.

Not the Naga

Hmmmm... it seems life has thrown me a slight curve ball...


...or three.

The Naga Morich chilli seeds I bought online have produced a great plant and some interesting pods...

...but they aren't Nagas.

It seems Naga pods are supposed to grow pendant (hanging), whereas these pods are growing erect (standing up). Mind you, having looked at them yesterday afternoon, the look fairly 'Naga Evil'.

But they are growing upright.

I will see whether or not this is a condition of the plant in the first floor only or a condition of both the Nagas, since the one in the top floor has had some flowers open, and hopefully will germinate. If the pods grow downwards, all is gravy. If they grow upwards, I will see something is wrong.

The high temperatures this week were fantastic, because they meant more of the flowers released their pollen. The Esplendor is awash in little purple pods. The Piri Piri is also loaded with little pods.

I FINALLY GOT ORANGE HABANERO PODS! That is a relief. I was starting to think I was going to have the prettiest plant to not give and pods...

The Black Cuban is also producing some pods, which is good, and the Fataliis are also starting to produce flowers! yay!

Even the White Hab and the Paper Lantern are starting to produce little flower buds.

I need to take some more pics.

Stilton and Orange Juice: Not a Good Mix!

Just came out of a party for some co-workers who are leaving, and discovered something new today (what life should be about, really. Discovery!):

You don't put a large wedge of Stilton, or any other 'Blue Cheese' for that matter, and then glug some Orange Juice.

The taste and smell is akin to...well, regurgitating something after having eaten it some six hours earlier...

Absolutely vile. If it was used as torture on war criminals it would definitely be in violation of their human rights!

Eating some delightful carrot cake now to was away the horrible aftertaste of that mix...

Oh, and I was 'blessed' by a seagull yesterday afternoon...

Nearly six years in this lovely city, and I'd managed to avoid getting dive bombed. But I guess it's a rite of passage. I'll do the customary 'purchasing of lotto ticket' tonight and see what happens.

On the chilli front all I can say is I wish all days were like this!

Sunshine to the MAX! Good temperature.

The Esplendor is awash with beautiful purple flowers.

The Naga Morich has had most of its flowers open today (and I just measured some of the monster leaves at well over a foot in size!!).The other Naga Morich is now in full speed flower budding.

The Piri Piri is heavy with pods.

The Chocolate Habanero is having some of the flowers open.

Another of the Chocolate Sweet Peppers is ripe on the plant.

The Fatalii Twins are growing, growing, growing!

Oh, and Almapaprika ate the first of the ripe Chocolate Sweet Peppers!

She loved it. Said it was very sweet and had a good texture to it. She stuffed it with some cous-cous...and the stuffed in inside a green bell pepper:



This carrot cake is REALLY good...

Have presentation...will travel!

I have a presentation to finish for my studies, so I shall have to be brief in today's entry (which means I won't be able to expand on my 'Ugg Boots' dilemma, or enthrall you with the philosophical waxings on 'how WAGS are bringing back the old lady styles of...well old, and how they think it's brilliantly cool while it's actually pretty silly', and Almapaprika took a great photo at the weekend of three 'WAGS-in-training' but I digress...)

Very quick update (and I seriously need to upload the photos I've been taking):

1-One of the Ring of Fire Cayenne has finally ripened! Yahoo! Altavista! Ask Jeeves! It's all nice and red and shiny. Will make for good eating soon.

2-The second of the Chocolate Sweet Peppers is also ripening. That one goes to one of my co-workers who has been eyeing it for a while now.

3-The Piri Piri is loaded with little peppers and flowers. Not bad for a 1 foot by 1 foot plant.

4-The Esplendor now has a brilliant upright purple chilli growing from it!

5-The Chocolate Habanero had one flower open, but it dropped :-(

6-One of the Naga flowers has opened! But it too, will probably drop. Temperatures have not been high enough for pollen release for the super hots.

7-The Etna has its first chilli pod growing! The Stromboli might as well in a day or two.

8-Black Cuban and Fataliis are budding! Grooviness!

9-The second Naga (the one that was at home but was transferred to the office) is budding ferociously now)

and...

10-The flippin' aphids are now on the Caribbean Red Habanero. FILTHY SUCROSE COWS!

The Sexy Fatalii Twins

Much to my chagrin, I have recently discovered (another wonderful thing about THP forum) that posting photos of your chilli peppers online, with their flowers exposed constitutes 'pepper porn'. In that respect, I would like to apologize to any and all capsicums that may be in within view of a computer screen when their respective owner reads this blog (or any of my entries in THP) and sees images of my piri piri flowers.

I can assure you these images are purely for artistic aesthetics.


This is an image of the Fataliis I'm growing. I have decided to call the bigger one 'Fatal-a', and the smaller one 'Fatal-e', because I'm just having a silly moment... I just re-potted them into 20cm pots, because the 3cm pots they were previously in were just waaaaaaay too small (they are in a previous pic). Now I hope the leaves grow big and green, and they start producing pods. I planted them in some compost with John Innes Numero 3, which means I'll give them a week or two (or three) before using Chilli Focus, since that compost should be loaded with tasty nutrients.

Oh, and the Piri Piri is flowering even more! There is one fully grown pod on the plant, and two more starting.

:)

Fatalii Twins

Fatalii

Piri Piri and Fatalii

TGIF? Not if your chillies are at work...

I dread weekends.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of goofing off for hours on end, just like the next pepper.

But all my plants are at work now. So that means I need to water them well enough Friday afternoon, and hope we don't get a mystery heatwave over the weekend (though in this neck of the woods that's about as likely to happen as Elvis riding the Loch Ness monster down the street in hot pursuit of Bigfoot).

I almost forgot to do a mouseketeer roll call for the chillies being grown at work:

1-Naga Morich x 2
2-Orange Habanero x 2
3-Fatalii x 2
4-Black Cuban x 2
5-White Habanero x 2
6- Esplendor x 2
7-Chocolate Habanero x 1
8-Caribbean Reb Habanero x 1
9-Rocoto Rojo x 1
10-Red Savina x 1
11-Paper Lantern x 1
12-Stromboli x 1
13-Ring of Fire Cayenne x 1
14-Etna x 1
15-Chocolate Sweet Pepper x 1

And, of course, the two butternut squash.

Fingers crossed for another weekend of them fending for themselves.

I might have some photos to upload soon! Took them today, but need access to the computer at home.

Pressure Cooker

Photo taken this morning of the office plants. There's a little Sweet Chocolate Pepper growing on the plant nearest. Both the Sweet Chocolate Pepper and the Ring of Fire Cayenne have flowers on them. Yahoo! (not the website) Can't wait for them to grow grow GROW!

I took the two Fataliis and one of the Black Cubans to the office as well. The chineneses at the office are huge! This will do the Fataliis a world of good.

Learned a valuable lesson this growing season. While glass jars are a good place to put your seedlings in to help them grow, it is not a good idea to seal the lid tightly.

Almost all of the plants have had problems with the change in pressure when I've transplanted them to larger pots. Seems as soon as I put them outside on a regular pot, all the leaves wilt and shrivel.

But if I put them under a plastic bottle (makeshift greenhouse), they seem to recuperate.

I have found the whole thing quite fascinating, though at the same time quite frustrating.

The stems seem to have problems coping with the weight of the plants (again due to the pressurised growing conditions), which means seedlings of three-four inches in length are having to be propped up with stakes already.

Also, the seedlings seem to grow roots in mid stem (has happened to two of them), no doubt because of the high humidity/pressure. Also, some of the leaves seem to have transparent patches. I don't know if this is to do with the change in pressure, which affects the plants ability to draw water from the roots up to the leaves, creating the 'blank' patches, or if it might be an infection as a result of the change in pressure. I've taken those leaves out as a precaution.

Some Chilli Photos

Well, I had promised I'd post some of the photos of the chillies I'm growing, so here they arrrrrr! (the spicy pirate in me).

The top photo is of the ones growing at work. From top to bottom: Cherry Chilli, Chocolate Sweet Pepper X2, and Cayenne Ring of Fire. They are doing absolutely wonderful. They have a nice source of heat next to them in the form of the radiators, a nice glass window on the other side, and plenty of sunlight (south-ish facing window). You can Tell they love it!

The second photo is of the ones at home. They did germinate a few days later than the top ones, so they are a little smaller, but still, the look really nice. From left to right: Rocoto Rojo (worry not. The little pencil stick is just to make sure it grows in the right direction. It's doing wonderful), Esplendor (the tiny one, I think), Stromboli, Etna, and Belpicen. A bit less sunshine than at work, but I might move some of them over to the office as spring progresses.

You can just make out the little glass jars next to the pots. I've got the Habaneros and Nagas in them.

Today I finished off some Lemon Curd, and guess what I did with the jar?

Yep.

Got one of the Fataliis into it.

Watching Saturday Kitchen now. The 'Wine Experts' are such weirdos... gotta love 'em, though.

But they are decidedly weird...

Gotta go finish some Polish Red Cabbage and Apple sauerkraut for lunch.

I need the jar...