Some of my plants that live at my parents house 28th March 2020

Here I show you around the garden at my parents house, including some of my own plants that currently live there, including the dahlias and lavenders grown from seed which aren't looking very happy after being exposed to some unusually dry air, a camellia seed that was originally harvested from one of my parents camellia plants which has germinated, chilli seedlings (Chocolate Cherry and Aji Lemon/Yellow Cayenne) - harvested seeds from plants I grew last year, more than one Kea Plum tree, Kiwi fruit, tulips, gooseberry, Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae), an apple tree, a pear tree, Dicksonia antarctica tree fern, and various Camellia.

Chilli plant breeding

If there are any readers of this blog, apologies for not writing anything about my plants for a while. The tayberries were a success, and I had 2 and a bit jars of jam made which has almost all gone now unfortunately. If I get time I will write a bit about the stem cuttings I have made at some point.

Meanwhile my chilli plants have grown, and now some of them have been upgraded to larger pots.

I'll show three of my plants in more detail, these were all from seeds I collected from plants I grew last year, which came from a mixed pack of chilli seeds I bought in Mallets (also supplier of the Perak planters above which were on special offer).

In the mixed seed pack, I had four varieties but wasn't sure exactly what they were. As far as I can tell they were:

• Some kind of habenero, the fruits I harvested last year had no seeds in, but I did overwinter some of these successfully and they seem to be fruiting better this year.
• A jalapeno that ripened to dark green, which I didn't plant any seeds from, and none of which survived the winter.
• A chilli plant that was quite large that produced fruits similar to the one in the middle above, green and eventually ripening to red. These plants all died over winter, but I had seeds from them, including the plant in the middle here. It looks similar to Anaheim.
• A plant that had smaller green pods that ripened to yellow. I think this was probably either Golden Cayenne or Aji Limon. I overwintered one of these plants, and also collected seeds from some of them, although I only have 2 plants (including the one on the right) that were from seeds that didn't get mixed with the larger red chillis.

This plant, 18119 is an offspring of 1701, which has similar looking leaves, and fruits that start green and turn yellow.

This plant, 18187 is from seeds  from 1708 (similar to 1701) and 1715 (the large red Anaheim? chillis) which got mixed together before planting. The appearance of the plant is more like 1715.

This is 18157, which has long thin leaves quite reminiscent of 1701, but fruits that ripen to red. However they first turn yellow, which the Anaheim-type one didn't, they went straight from green to red.

 It is interesting that 18157 seems to show a mixture of characteristics of the yellow and the red chillis, so I wonder if this is cross-pollinated between the yellow and red chillis.

Tayberry in flower and progress of other plants

Since the last post, my tayberry plant has continued to grow well, and has now started to flower, so hopefully there'll be plenty of berries in a while.

Tayberry flowers are visible top-left.

The tayberry plant with two flowering shoots.

A Toscana strawberry plant in flower

Close-up of Toscana strawberry flowers.

some of the chilli seedlings in my mini-greenhouse

Dwarf sunflowers at the front. I've also just planted some coriander in some of the trays.

Some more of the chilli seedlings in the mini-greenhouse

Tayberry producing plenty of spring growth, as well as the chillis and peppers

The weather has at last warmed up a bit, and my plants outside are showing some spring growth.

My tayberry plant in particular is now producing plenty of leaves, and there are some flower buds already, so I'm looking forward to some fruit later in the year.

My chilli and pepper seedlings have grown further as well.

These daffodils remain in flower, the smaller ones in the other troughs are now largely finished.

This hanging basket previously contained geraniums which died, this year I am putting some annuals in includig California poppy (Eschscholzia), and dwarf sunflower.

The tayberry in the metal olive tin, showing plenty of spring growth on the 2 long shoots that appeared last year.

In the round black pot, there is a Oregon thornless blackberry, a gooseberry next to it, and various plants in the mini-greenhouse.

The hanging basket contains mint, oregano, parsley, and alpine strawberry.

Various chilli and pepper plants on the middle shelf. Some of these became waterlogged, I overwatered them I think. I'll open the front a bit during warmer conditions to allow them to get a bit more ventilation.

The top shelf is mostly occupied by cherry tomatoes.

Sunflowers, and dwarf runner bean seedlings.

My two Chilean guava (Ugni Molinae) plants.

A Biquinho Red, Peppadew and one from my own seeds I collected last year, recently moved from multi-cell trays to their own pots.

Many more chilli and sweet pepper seedlings in the multi-cell trays

cactus seedlings

Spinach

Chilli and pepper seedlings continuing to grow

My chilli and pepper seedlings are continuing to grow well. Some of them are out in my mini-greenhouse, however some are also still inside filling up my dining table.

Two trays full of Biquinho Red sweet peppers. 

A tray of Trinidad Perfume peppers on the right, with 2 trays of Peppadew behind it, with some seedlings from seeds from my own plants as well.

In total I have 210 seedlings at present.

Tomatoes and chillis in mini-greenhouse outside

The weather was getting warmer this time last week so I put my mini greenhouse outdoors and the tomato plants into it, along with some of my chilli seedlings. Thus far they have done OK, although it looks like frost again tonight with possibility of snow.

The primrose plant flowering in a hanging basket containing some strawberry plants as well

Daffodils on the left, with a blueberry plant along with some strawberry plants that I grew from runners last year. The spruce in the pot isn't looking too healthy, with most of the needles turned brown.

Some new growth is evident on the transplanted strawberry plants.

Dwarf daffodils, and some crocuses that have been beaten down by recent rain. Some sweet pea plants that I grew from an autumn sowing have recently been planted, although I have kept the better seedlings in my parents greenhouse to wait until the daffodils finish before transplanting them.

The mini greenhouse, showing tomato plants and chilli seedlings.

A temperature sensor is located in between the two trays, one of which contains chilli seedlings from my own plants from last year, and the other seeds ordered from Greece.

the two plants on the right are Chilean guava (Ugni molinae).

The temperature sensor display, showing the external sensor with a temperature of 4.5°C at this time. I have put a tandorri pot, filled with hot water from the kettle, in an effort to keep the greenhouse temperature above freezing. I first did this around 9pm but didn't add any insulation to the greenhouse, and then did so again from 12:30am the original water being cool by then, and added a flanel shirt and fleece jacket to the greenhouse.

a fleece covering the top of the greenhouse

The tandoori pot filled with hot water

The temperature was at just over 2°C before the hot water was put in, and rose to 4°C a few minutes after the picture was taken.

Temperature monitoring of heated propagator tray

I was curious about what the temperature in my heated propagator trays where my chilli and pepper seedlings are.

I am using a Garland 7 windowsill propagator, which is heated but not thermostatically controlled.

This was on a cold winter's day with the temperature only a few degrees above freezing outside, but next to a south facing window, with the window closed. The room heating is only on for an hour in the morning before the recording started, and a few hours in the evening, and radiator is on the other side of the room from this window.

I used a Temper1 USB temperature probe.

The probe itself was on the side of the tray facing the window, buried in the compost. During the day, the temperature reached 32°C inside the tray, though this was at the side directly having sunlight shining on it.

The output of the temper1 sensor can be redirected to a .csv file, which I here plot using Python+matplotlib.

It may be better to place the probe further from the side of the tray where direct sunlight shines on it, to get a more representative signal.

Update 

The temperature on 6th February, when I placed the probe in the side of the tray, rather than the end facing the window. There was snow this morning, and not really any direct sunlight unlike the previous day.

The first stage of potting the chilli seedlings on from the propagator trays. Most of them have been placed 2 to each cell, with some in an individual cell.

Update on chilli and tomato seedlings

As of now, 12 out of the 15 cherry tomato seeds have germinated.

Since there are maximum three tomato seedlings in each tray, they can stay in the propagator trays for a while.

The chillis, both those that came from the seeds I saved from my plants sown in 2016 and 2017, and the mainly sweet pepper varieties I ordered from someone in Greece on eBay, are germinating well too:

1602 is a habenero, not sure of exact variety

1701 could be Yellow Cayenne or Aji Lemon. I quite like these usually medium to hot heat but not as hot as the habeneros

Some of the Greek sweet pepper seeds.

Many of the plants from the previous years are still going strong including the parent plants of some of the seeds above:

1701 is on the left, 1602 on the right.

It remains to be seen how many of the ones that are overwintering in my parents greenhouse will survive and grow back.