[CH] My chile plants this year!

Shaun aRe (shaun_are@zenlunatics.co.uk)
Fri, 29 Jul 2005 10:25:41 +0100 

 Hey folks - haven't posted much lately, since I'm either busy with work,
 have nothing to say, or am too busy saying it on various and sundry Usenet
 news groups, but I thought I'd tell you about my chile plants this year!

 Well, I got plenty of seeds thhis year of several kinds, but for some
 reason, germination rates this year were atrocious, and not only for me -
 others in the area struggled with theirs, and not just chiles either?!?

 What I got in the end were about 20 seedlings out of like, over 100 seeds.
I
 have 2 chocolate Habs - I planted 3 up in the new polytunnel, but one of
 them died after it's stem got broken (heavy handed watering by someone
 else!...), have several orange habs, some Jamaica Red Hots, Fatalis, Red
 Scocth Bonnets, A single Hot Lemon, some (5?) Bolivian Rainbow, one mystery
 plant (found sprouting in the pot I have my Tricocereus panchoi cactus
 growing in?!?), and a Chiltepin I overwintered from last year, that a
firend
 sent me from Texas.

 Now all have been very slow growing this year, despite the great weather
 we've had, and I was starting to worry they'd not flower in time to give
 much of a harvest, but I just noticed a couple of days ago, that at least
 half have started to set flower finally - YAY! The plants are only about 6"
 high on average (last time I planted from seed, they were well over 1' high
 by this time of the year), but they've started to speed up growing, TF!

 This is by far the most chile plants I've ever grown, and, I can't WAIT to
 check out the results! Plan on planting even more next year, again likely
 predominently chinensis - plan on getting some white Habs I've just found
 (www.readytogrow.co.uk - local, Northern English place), some other Habs
 that have been specially bred to be about a 2 on a 1 to 10 heat scale IIRC
 (from www.chileseeds.co.uk I think), but fully hab flavoured (so I can make
 delicious Hab hot sauces, but keep the heat down and flavour up, for the
 mild bunch).

 Since we got the polytunnel (18x22' IIRC), we've kinda gone mad with the
 whole plot - there's 40 frantic tomato plants in there too, another ~20
 outside, a hunnerd red beets, 15 pea plants, 6 pmpkin plants that have
taken
 over an area of about 20 square feet already, and keep trying to reach even
 further, 6 courgette/marrow, cucumber, melon, heaps of onion including
loads
 of slad onion, egg plant, 2 herb beds full of all sorts, 3 pots of basil,
 celeriac, cellery leaf and heck knows what I've forgotten LOL!

 I think *The Plan* is to... oh hells I dunno! but I'm sure as hell gonna
 make lots of different hotsauces outa the chiles, some of the tomatoes,
 herbs, onion etc. and I think my wife is thinking about making some tomato
 and herb pasta sauces too.

 I'm a *little* concerened with the amount of tomates we're gonna have
 (Heh!), but a lot of folk have already put their orders in, so I guess
we'll
 just export what's left to Italy ',;~}~

 (What's Italian for 'glut'?!?)

 If things work out well this year, we're going to look more towards making
a
 business out of this - it's just too much fun to pass up if we see/make the
 opportunity!

 I hope you all are having good success with all your green babies this year
 too!



 Cheers, and be well ',;~}~



Shaun aRe

 "Life is the dream you wake up to."