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!

Esplendorrrrrific!

What a difference the office makes!

The Esplendor chilli, which at the new place was shedding flower buds fast, has just had it's second really groovy looking purple flower open up (the first one possibly germinating I have to give it another day to see).

Absolutely brilliant!

Who would have thought a place of mind-numbing work could also be used as a fantastic greenhouse! If only we could do this to all places of work, life would be so much more enjoyable...

I have coined a phrase (at least in my mind, since I haven't seen anyone else use it), so I claim it for Aji Chombo Land! (plants imaginary flag on top of idea):

Office Aphids.

We've all worked with one of these before. They are the ones that really contribute nothing useful to the overall workings of the plant, defecate all over it with sickly, sticky-sweet goo that seems to attract the sort of 'large-mandibled', irksome characters that are only interested in one thing (their behinds!), and will become very 'ungentlemanly' (or 'unlady...ly') towards anyone that goes near them or dares point out what an utter waste of space these creatures really are, which in turn means said aphids remain in place no matter how detrimental they are to the overall cohesion of the plant. Furthermore, they create conditions which invite 'Office Spider Mites', 'Fungal infections', and all other manner of miscreants.

Yes, we've all worked with this sort at one point or another.

Which means we should all be thankful for the 'Office Ladybird'...

I have taken more photos, which I shall be uploading soon! Oh, and the Chocolate Sweet Pepper finally ripened, so it has been plucked form the plant and taken home, where it shall be stuffed with some manner of concoction and fed to Almapaprika!

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.

:)

Choices

I seem to have a difficult capsicum choice to make:

Do I keep all the plants at home, or bring them to the office where the sun shines brightly?

This weekend half the flower buds fell off the Belpicens, around twelve in total. It could be a combination of things, but I'm leaning to not enough sunshine. I couldn't put them outside, if the Rocoto Rojo is any proof of what will happen to them. Also, the blueberries were teeming with little leprecha...I mean aphids yesterday (I spent the better part of an hour and a litre of diluted SB plant invigorator trying to spray them off, all the time muttering at them with a horrible 'Brad Pitt does a pikey accent' voice 'Get off me blueberries, ya muckers!') which leads me to believe if I send any chilli plants out they will be swarmed by the little emerald sucrose defecators.

I've also been thoroughly impressed by the way both the Chocolate Habanero and the Naga Morich have been thriving at the office, with the Naga now showing flower buds. The Naga back at home is lagging about a week behind in growth.

This, of course, also has implications for the hydroponics. Do I keep the system at home, even though I know the sunlight requirements are better met at the office? or do I stick to growing them at home and buy a lamp to grow them on, which will add to the expense of growing the chillies?

Sigh!

The good news is that the Orange Habanero has just flowered, as has the Piri-Piri, which means hopefully soon there shall be CHILLIES!!!!

Why is it so difficult for people to follow simple instructions?! I know the answer is 'There is no such thing as simple instructions', but seriously now, if it's written and has arrows pointing in a particular direction, why do it the opposite way?

No more essays?

Wohoo! I think I'm starting to see flower buds on the Orange Habanero! (third photo down, right hand side). It's just bizarre.

Mind you not as bizarre as the fact that, having only been planted about seven weeks ago, the butternut squash is already heavy with flower buds! (photo right above the text). They are growing like MAD!

Seriously, though. It's freaky. I either have a really green set of thumbs, or TESCO is selling irradiated squash, which will turn into vegetable superheroes and fight injustice and overcooked vegetables!

I think my neighbours think I may be growing 'funny' veg. I get strange looks from the ones who can see the butternut squash, as I do from the ones that can see the chineses... ah, well. You can technically get a 'high' from chillies, though it's more the sort of stuff only chilli heads both dream of and dread.

Ah, before I go, the second from bottom photo is that of our blueberries. That particular plant was the one with all the aphid problems. But one generous series of squirts of SB plant invigorator all over the leaves and they seem to have been remarkably under control.

But I shall tell you whether or not the product is gravy later on if it manages to keep the evil gribblies away from my blueberries.

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...