Grow Your Own Magazine

(sorry, that should be chillies OR sweet peppers, obviously)

anyone else?

I', feeling like it's too late to sow some more anyway - and all my other plants (aubergines, tomatoes etc) are only a couple of inches tall.

It's not like last year, is it?

Everything seems very different to last year.

Overall all my veggies are much much smaller, chillies & peppers are particularly small.

Whatever is done is done though.

Outside veg are going great guns

Maybe they will catch up

Sorry qotc, but my chillis and sweet peppers are going great guns - loads better than last year. 1st purple jalapeno chilli is just growing and lots of flowers are on the plant. We've a couple of aubs with flowers nearly open (without resorting to hydroponics/grow lights crichmond! ). All, except some extra toms started after the 1st batch of 20+ have flowers on them, one has a teeny tom too.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I'm particularly sad about my chillis and peppers also. I had 3 chillis germinate, then promptly managed to kill them by not opening the greenhouse on the first hot day we had. I have decided to take a risk and re-sow, which I did a few days ago, so I'm hoping still to have some come through as I didnt' get a single chilli last year and only a few small peppers.

Whereabouts in Wiltshire are you Waffler? You could always pop down to Simpsons Seeds in Horningsham, Warminster, they sell chilli plants and other stuff like toms/aubs.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

My peppers are only about 2" tall

I couldn't get sweet peppers to germinate this year, despite a couple of trys, so gave in and bought one for 99p.

My chillis are still pretty small and no sign of flowers yet, but they look very healthy. Can I put them outside when it's hot or is it best to leave them in the conservatory where they are?

Thanks

Hmm. Not really worth the petrol; I'm the wrong side of Chippenham. I really don't want to resort to buying plants as I had SO many seeds this year that it makes a mockery of it (and hubby will complain!) but it might come to that yet. If I do buy plants I want ones with proper labels on, not just 'red pepper' or whatever that I've seen in a lot of places (that frankly ought to know better).

Hi Waffler,
I put my chilli seeds on trays in those peat pod things over the back on the top of my freezer, the heat from the motor part seems to get them to germinate promptly. As I don't have a propagator it is a real boon. They all germinated and are going great guns!
Good Luck from chilli gal

Chillis/peppers are really easy to germinate so there must have been something wrong. Do you know whether your seeds were from viable pods? Take seeds from a green immature pepper and your chance of germination is much reduced. Did you plant the seeds too deep? They are really small so don't have much energy to get to the surface. Just finely cover them with a very thin layer of compost. Keep them warm and damp. Airing cupboard is about the best place.

i am having great sucess wi my chillis, i have grown jalepeno,tokyo hot,demon red,lantern,sweet pepper mini mix,cayenne, and all but the lantern have flowered and got peppers on my courgettes are about to flower,the beetroot are getting quite big so are my salsify,and have eaten all my radish and waiting for the next batch.
i am really happy to be doing so well apart from a mouse from hell which i cannot catch!!!!

This is actually the first year I've managed to a) get my chillis and sweet peppers to grow to a size where the needed potting on and b) keep them away from the slugs and snails. Well, most of them anyway.

They don't seem to be as far established as some others and I certainly don't have any sign of any fruits but they seem happy and healthy and are certainly growing so I guess I'll just wait and hope the weather holds.

Everything's doing fab for me too

Aubergines, Sub Arctic Toms and tomatillos particularly, all are now in their final spots and between 1 and 3ft high.

Peppers and chillis are all doing well but desperately need potting on (doing that today). As soon as that's done they should put on a growth spurt with the extra space, and light and warmth from going in the greenhouse. As usual I have FAR too many plants so if anyone can get to Scunthorpe I'd be happy to share some (otherwise they're being freecycled)

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Hi Waffler, if you do decide to buy plants, try whitehall at lacock they have all sorts this year, including sweet peppers and chilli.

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Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.

Hey Sez

I'm down the road from you - have you got tomatoes planted out already? How have you gone on with this week's cold snap?

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Cheers

T-lady

Hey Nice to see someone local.

I planted my first lot of tomatoes outside today... sub arctic plenty ones which should hopefully be a bit more hardy (they were flowering, and getting pretty big, so no choice really!). The aubergines and tomatillos I mentioned are in containers in the plastic greenhouse so protected a bit.

Everything else tender has been in the greenhouse so no problems with the cold. They're about to get a real test though as we're away for 4 days so will have to leave the greenhouse door open a bit.

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Hey sez

Have a great holiday. I'm sure you'll be fine leaving the greenhouse door open, the forecast is on the up, up, up!

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Cheers

T-lady