Chilli heads.

These guys are on the local markets and all of their stuff is tasty.

My dorset naga is nearly 2ft tall already.
Going to be a beast! Just repotted into a 10l and still growing strong.
Undecided if I’ll keep this one in a pot on the balcony or plant it out in the tunnel.
I’ve seen some monstrously big nagas on YouTube so guessing it has potential.

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Very nice!
Wish I'd live somewhere where I could have plants like this outside already without them freezing to death 🙂

Date for London chilli heads: 11th May Hot Sauce Society fest at Copeland Park Peckham

👌 thanks for the heads up

Wow, just found this thread, awesome

I tried my first hand at growing last year, had 2 successful F1 Apaches

Attempted to overwinter them, seems to have worked as small leaves starting to form but looks like it's got a bug infestation, any thoughts?

Oh, and picked up these seeds last week, will try in a few weeks when the frost has gone as don't have any propagators

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Hahah I’m in E17.
They’re only outside during the daytime for a couple of hours at most. Just want to toughen them up a bit and get some wind in the leaves.
Night temps in my potting shed are still dipping down to around 0°c but the chillis and sweets in there are surviving ok, not as rapid growth as the ones at home though.

Any ladybugs hiding in your shed/garden?
They’ll take care of those bugs no trouble.
Possibly watered down fairy liquid sprayed over as well but others know better than me about such troubles.

Attempted to overwinter them, seems to have worked as small leaves starting to form but looks like it's got a bug infestation, any thoughts?

Definitely looks like some kind of plant louse..
..you need to get rid of them (soon) if you want the plant to survive - what worked well for me was showering off the plant and brushing the little fuckers off with an old toothbrush (you'll have to do this multiple times).
As @edmundo said ladybugs (or other useful animals) would solve the problem as well, but are hard to find this time of year..

Oh, and picked up these seeds last week, will try in a few weeks when the frost has gone as don't have any propagators

You should start rather soon 🙂
Remember you can use very basic stuff as a "propagator" - just need something that keeps the humidity, that lets light in, and put that in a warm spot -
I had much success with just two sips of water in little plastic trays (former packaging of cheese from the supermarket, filled with a few layers of kitchen roll (to keep the water), topped with a layer of coffee-filter-paper (so the seeds don't grow into the kitchen roll) - putting all this near a radiator or another spot that's well over 20°C all the time (hint: your internet router) and Bob's your uncle 👍

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Neat trick using the filter paper as well.
Def gonna do that next year.

@HeyHey
I used clear sandwich bags of various sizes in the past as propagators, great for the tissue trick but also taped onto pots to make a humidity dome.
Get creative, there’s bound to be something in your home that’ll make a perfectly good job of seed starting.

taped onto pots to make a humidity dome.
This is exactly how I did it last year, I grab a few of those airport liquid bags when I travel for this purpose.

Just finished finely brushing all the blighters, little green aphids I think. Was quite cathartic actually, will check up on them again in a few days. Gave them a spray with fairy water mix too

hint: your internet router

wow, love this, just felt mine and your dead right, will do this straight away

🙂

Hopefully growing a few varieties this year bought a little heated propagator from B&Q.

Thanks to @edmundro for the seeds!

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Still growing nicely, been watering on the plate where the pots sits instead of directly in the soil.
Seems to work very well, and from my understanding should minimise the risk of bugs and other issues.

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I've used two of those Garland propagators for years, great things.

I'm growing Aji Limon and Hot Chocolate Habenero this year.

Lookin' good 👍

Yea, the watering-from-below is what I've had the most success with as well.
It motivates the roots to go down, "seek the water", and keeping the top of the soil dry makes it less attractive for fungus gnats etc. to put their eggs there (though they still can reach the moist soil at the bottom : )

Mine still have a long way to go, wish I had started earlier this year 😅

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Looks like its update day, love seeing all your progressions.

Think I've got rid of my aphid, brushing then light fairy spray looks to have worked, leaves aren't looking super healthy but hopefully they pick up.

No sign of life on the seeds on the router yet though. Really need to go get some compost to try the other 4 seeds in that.

Elsewhere it looks like a seed from last year's chilli is sprouting, wanted a new variety this year but if I do fail with the Jalapeños at least I have something to care for

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The naga is getting ridiculous. Looking forward being able to stick it in the polytunnel and see what it’s capable of.

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I won’t start quite as early next year, I was hoping it would be a bit warmer by now so I’ve got too many plants at home still and starting to pick off a lot of tiny flower buds.
I think we have somewhere in the region of 40 plants at this point. Most will be given to plot neighbours once we’ve worked out our spacing and picked the best specimen of each variety.

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Much less success from my side, the 2 I overwintered are still showing little progress and the seeds from 2 weeks ago are no different. Started again a few days ago but appears to be a dud.

Really regret knocking the pot over from the ones that managed to sprout from some seeds from last year now as got nothing.

Are you in London? If so you’re welcome to a handful of plants if you can’t get anything sorted

I am, yeah, I'm going to persevere to get a sense of accomplishment but when that fails I may very well take you up as I do also very like chillies

I can probably give you at least half a dozen happy and healthy young plants if it comes to it :)

Update:

Couple of seeds managed to sprout and have got to an inch tall but very much stagnated from there. Same happened last year, i repotted them in better compost last year so maybe I'll try that again.

The overwintered ones though have seen a positive uplift, quite a few leaves forming so popped them outside for a few hours to maximise sun and start hardening them off.