[CH] All dead now ;-(
Shaun aRe (shaun_are@zenlunatics.co.uk)
Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:11:57 -0000
My chile plants, that is! Well, all but one, anyway.
We had planned on hot-bedding the plants in the polytunnel, and covering
them with agri-fleece, to see if we could keep them alive over winter so
they would have a good start next season, but towards the end of last week,
we saw some quite sudden heavy frosts, and couldn't really organise anything
because of work etc. Well, by the time I got to the allotment on Saturday,
the temps inside the /tunnel had dropped to minus five degrees C (minus 8 C
outside!), leaving all the chile fruits frozen solid, leaves only still on
the plants because of the ice - plant disaster! (not to mention the huge
popsicles my two 24+ inch tall Tricocereus panchoi cactus ended up like, or
the poor aloe vera ;-( )
We got the fleece together, and heaps of horse shit, but too late! I picked
what chiles there were (we'd only collected a hand full to date), about half
a pound, from 25 plants (choc habs, orange habs, Jamaica red hots, fatali,
jalapeno, hot lemon, Bolivian rainbow) - we got several pounds from just 2
plants the year before! Not a good season for the chiles at all.
We had taken one large chocolate hab plant that was covered in flowers, to
my mother and father in-laws house, and put it into their warm conservatory
to see if we could achieve anything. Well, didn't do any more good than just
keep it alive, with just the one fruit on it - the flowers still just bud
then drop - guess there's not enough light. Should be good next year though!
Oh well, not much chile sauce making this year then! Wish us better luck
next year please, or I might get suicidal LOL!
',;~}~
Hope the rest of you hot-shots had a better season.
Be well!
Shaun aRe (just felt like having a moan, heheheheh...)