Grow Your Own Magazine

I know that we've not exactly had the sun for it, but I don't think I am going to have any joy with mine. How are everyone else's doing?

My chilli peppers are about 2 feet tall but not at all bushy, very leggy, should I pinch out the top? Ditto the sweet peppers - there's only the central stem and the leaves off that. And I have one flower on one aubergine plant - they are all about a foot high.

What size pots has everyone got them in? I'm in a mixture of 8" and 14" and the larger pots are doing a bit better on the aubergine front.

Sigh - I was so looking forward to salads entirely from the plot.

I'm not expecting much from our aubergines and chillies. Flowering well, but not setting very well. Bearing in mind they are more suited to Mediterranean conditions, I think (like me) they could do with a lot more sunshine!!

I think 2007 can go down as the gardeners' annus horribilis, with knobs on!!

valmarg

And it all looked so promising with such a hot and sunny spring! In all fairness my peppers and chillis are setting but I'm sure they're normally ahead of this. Toms are doing OK and cucumbers are now that they've started getting going but I don't hold out any hope for the aubergines. I never do very well with them but am determined that one day I'll get a sensible crop, I fear that that is not to be this year!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

When did you plant them Queen of the Cobs. Mine are all fruiting well but I planted them in February.
The long chillies are Hungarian Hotwax
The fat green one is Big Jim
The red ones - variety unknown, seeds saved from last year
The Aubergine is Baby Belle. I'm very pleased with it as I.ve never had success with aubergine before.
Nothing is in very big pots.
If you were late planting yours there's still plenty of time for them to come. I'm sure they will.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Alison, what kind of aubergines are you growing ? I never had any success with them before. This year I decided to try one of the smaller varieties - Baby Belle. I planted early, february, on the windowsill. The aubs are now hanging in little bunches (in the greenhouse) and I'm hopeful of getting some kind of a crop. You might want to give them a try next year.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

I have lots of lush green pepper plants but not a hint of flowers or fruits! They're in a mix of pots, ranging from 6ins to 12ins.

I have several aubergine flowers and a couple of set fruits but nothing to write home about just yet, really. They're in about 14ins pots.

Claire

This year I'm growing Black Beauty and Ichiban. The Black Beauty's are actually quite healthy plants and one of them has flower buds appearing. The Ichiban is very weedy and I'm tempted to give up on it as I'm a bit short of space for everything else in the greenhouse. Funnily enough the only time I've managed to get a decent crop of aubergines was the year I grew minature ones (Rosanna I think). They were pretty good but I'm quite keen to get a bigger fruit to work, other people seem to manage it in similar climatic conditions so it's one of my challenges!

Strangely, I did plant some up early and they didn't survive well and so the ones I'm using are the second sowing which I think (without checking in my diary) was late March.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

We've 11 plants of 11 varieties of chilli, 6 plants of 2 varieties of pepper and 4 plants of 2 varieties of aubergine in our unheated greenhouse, and so far all seems well with them!

We've been eating peppers for about 3 weeks, harvested another 4 tonight, aubergines have lots of flowers and have set fruit, just need to let them grow, and all of the chillies have fruit on them, some of the Naga Jolokias are turning red, so getting near to ripeness!

Mind you, they are in the greenhouse border and not in pots, some of the other chilli plants we've got in pots are only just fruiting now, so I'd not worry yet, there's still plenty of time for them to come good!

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 26th November2008 - more new piccies!

What varieties of pepper are you growing Mrs D? Mine are doing OK but I'm a way of harvesting yet but then again I know I sowed a fair bit later than you. I'm being lazy really, you're close enough to me for me to nick your trials for future reference!!!!!!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Pepper Gourmet seems to be the best performer so far, closely followed by PW's sweet pointy peppers and we've another variety, but I'll have to look that one up!

They've that many peppers on them that you'd be welcome to a couple or three, just give us a holler and come on over!

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 26th November2008 - more new piccies!

Thanks for the offer, may well take you up on that as it would be nice to see your plot too after hearing so much about it. Not grown the Gourmet ones but have just googled them and they recommend them for a good early crop. My new variety this year is Gypsy, they're doing OK but two of them got hit quite badly with a particularly bad white fly infestation which knocked them back a bit. Will have to see what they're like when they fruit although they'll be a bit behind my Bell Boy which should be ready in a week or two.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Lots of growth on peppers and Aubergines, the odd flower but thats about it...very poor on the whole! and they are all in my greenhouse!

Everthing seems as normal for me so far -

Apache chillis flowering and setting.
De Bresse chilli - bigger chillis but fewer of them
Black Beauty aubergine - enormous fruits swelling as we speak - quite terrifying!

Fingers' crossed from now on.

We have some aubergine plants, planted out a month ago and haven't grown since.

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You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

blog: http://allyheebiejeebie.blogspot.com/ and my (basic!) page: http://www.allythegardener.co.uk/