Greetings, Earthlings! Everything is coming along nicely here at the chilli house and the sun has been making a daily appearance for the last week. The daytime temperatures in the porch have been hitting 80C for a few hours each day and the baby chilli plants have been soaking up some much deserved sun. All except two of the varieties I sowed on the 29th January germinated quite quickly and the germination rates were excellent for all. It won't be long now until this year's chilli plant tribe will be looming over us like triffids.
The first batch of Chocolate Habanero and Red Mayan Habanero seeds I sowed on the 29th January were from old stock. Given how I started the seeds off a little earlier than normal this year it gave me more time to play with, so as an experiment I thought it would be a good idea to sow five old seeds for both varieties just to see how viable they still were. After three weeks there were no signs of life from either variety, and the other seedlings had developed their first set of true leaves and were in need of pricking-out, so I scrapped my first attempt at sowing old seeds and started a new one a few days later.
I've only got one heated propagator and it's not large enough to hold propagation trays plus plant pots. One option would have been to cut out the individual cells containing the Chocolate Habanero seeds and Red Mayan Habanero seeds and then put them back in the heated propagator like that, but doing so would have rendered the propagation trays useless. As you can see in this next photo, by the time I'd pricked out the rest of the seedlings there wasn't enough room for the propagation trays too.
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Chilli Plants in the Porch - 3rd March 2022
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I sowed another batch of
Chocolate Habanero seeds and
Red Mayan Habanero seeds on the 13th February, both of which were from newer stock. The Chocolate Habanero seeds germinated after 10 days and I've kept one seedling, but as of writing this there's still no signs of life from the Red Mayan Habanero seeds, and it's been three weeks today. I've known this variety to take over four weeks to germinate in the past, so we'll see. I sowed two more batches of Red Mayan Habanero seeds on the 1st March, one from newer seed stock and the other from old seed stock. As an experiment, on the same day I also sowed the remainder of the old Chocolate Habanero seeds from 2017. The seeds for both varieties were scarified and are now in compost at a temperature of approximately 25C, which is perfect.
I also sowed some
Fatalii seeds on the 5th February and they took 12 days to germinate. I decided to scrap Caribbean Red Habanero for this year and I've sown some
Mako Akokosrade seeds in its place. They were sown on the 1st March and have been in for five days today. I'm now contemplating on whether or not to sow some
Antillais Caribbean seeds in place of the Red Mayan Habanero seeds, just in case they end up being a no-show. I don't fancy waiting for a couple of weeks to see if the Red Mayan Habanero seeds germinate before sowing something else in their place. That would mean waiting another two weeks for the seeds to germinate, by which time it will be April. I'll most likely put them in today or tomorrow.
As usual, I won't be posting any individual photos of the new varieties until later in the season, when I know for sure that they're all true to type. All are looking nice and healthy so far, but in the meantime, I'll just post the occasional group shot of the new varieties for anyone who's interested in seeing it. Here are some photos that were taken a few days ago showing the individual tribe members you've met before, plus one group shot showing all of the newcomers.
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Aji Largo - 4th March 2022
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Aji Lemon - 3rd March 2022
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Chocolate Habanero - 3rd March 2022
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Dorset Naga - 3rd March 2022
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Fatalii - 3rd March 2022
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Jalapeño M - 3rd March 2022
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Malawi Bird's Eye - 3rd March 2022
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Orange Habanero - 3rd March 2022
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Peruvian White Habanero - 3rd March 2022
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Ring of Fire - 3rd March 2022
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New Chilli Varieties - 3rd March 2022
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So, apart from one variety that's being a bit stubborn, everything else is coming along nicely. Two weeks today and it will officially be spring! I can't wait. Let's hope the weather this summer is nicer than last year. All hail the Chilli Gods! 😁
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