Well, we’re getting to the back end of the season now, if you can call it a season with the way “Summer” has been this year, let’s see how we’re getting on. And by “we” I mean me as it’s my site 😛
First of all apologies for this longer than normal post. This should have been done earlier than it is, but, my Dog got ill and we were told that she only had a matter of days to live the other week. There was a course of antibiotics that we could try that offered a ray of hope, and I’m very pleased to say, it worked!
There she is, all happy and panty a few days after having her treatment. After she got better, well, while she got better – We went on holiday to Anglesey (that picture was taken in front of our cottage) and all of that delayed this update, so, as I said, it’s a bit long, but bear with me 🙂
(And there is lots of pictures)
So, this isn’t the Dog Diaries, it’s the Chilli Diaries – What’s gone on?
Well. It’s been a slow year so far. The British Summer hasn’t failed it’s yearly task of being an utter disappointment and, it’s shown in the plants. For me at least. I’ve got a few plants with a few pods on, but, not really a lot to shout about and nothing like I’d hoped for.
One of my Jamaican Red has a few pods on it, the other one just has the one for now with a few more flowers on it, so, they must be on there way! Quite like how gnarly this one is turning out, can’t wait to find out what it tastes like as I’ve never tried these.
My Golden Cayenne has a couple of pods on it, just this one turning Golden, so far.
The Fresno Supreme plant is doing better in terms of actual pods, but it’s not managed to even start ripening any off yet
I’ve a Jalapeno plant that’s not doing too badly. Again, not many pods and none ripe yet. I know it’s common to pick these green and take them like that but I’ve never actually had a red one so I don’t mind waiting this one out to see how much of a difference it makes.
The smallest Scotch Bonnet plant I’ve got seems to be the most productive, which is great as they’re my favourite Chilli to eat and the ones I use the most.
These are two of my largest plants, both Scotch Bonnets and not a pod in sight, yet. Lots of flowers though, which is good.
My “Paprika” plant has a few pods on it, just this one showing signs of going ripe for now. Still not really sure what this is actually going to be, but I’m expecting something along the lines of a Super Chilli from the shape. No big loss.
I’ve three Purple Cayenne plants growing, two of them are doing well. My only, well, I don’t want to use the word “concern” but, bemusement is that one has chillies growing down.
The other, up :-/
My Masquerade plant that I bought is ripening off some fruit, this really is an amazing plant to grow with some gorgeous colours coming off the pods as they mature. A lot of people don’t seem to rate ornamental chillies as being nice in taste but I quite liked this one last year. Each to their own I guess!
Another one I grew last year, and another one with gorgeous pods, the Chenzo chilli plant. If you’ve not seen these before, yes those pods are black! They’ll stay that way for an absolute age before turning red. They’re quite “earthy” tasting at this stage but once they ripen off they become a lot nicer to taste. Worth waiting for full maturity on this one in my opinion.
My Thai Hot chilli plant has quite a few fruits for me, they’ve all gone Yellow though when I was expecting Red :-/ – I’ve left them on the plant for now to see if it’s just a phase they are going through or if there is something wrong somewhere. I bought this one from a local garden centre so I’d imagine that their seed stock was fine. Unless they got them from eBay 😉
One of my more successful grows this year has been the Bulgarian Carrot, I’m almost bored with picking up a plant with pods and it having Bulgarian Carrot on the label. None of them have matured yet, not even showing signs yet, which is a little surprising.
I’ve a couple of Caloro plants with fruit on as well, all of them this colour now. I believe these ripen off to red but I’ve not seen any signs of it yet though. There are three of these, all quite small and about 4 to 5 pods on each.
Another ornamental plant, the Filius Blue. Again, a gorgeous plant to look at. The pods are only small and I’ve only seen purple ones so far (not counting the green they start out). I’ve two of these and they’re both loaded with pods. I’m hoping that these taste nice but as I mentioned earlier, a lot of people don’t like these kind, fingers crossed I don’t mind them!
Another variety I’ve found to be quite prolific is the Cherry Bomb chilli, I’ve three of these, all with a good number of pods. I’ve just this one ripe so far but others have signs of turning. I believe these are very nice stuffed with cheese and roasted or barbecued, can’t wait to try them!
My Cheyenne plant is offering me an abundance of fruit as well, all good sized pods. None ripe yet, and none even showing signs of changing colour yet. Another one I’ve not had the pleasure of trying out yet, but again, looking forward to it!
The Apache plant I bought from Tesco is also doing well with fruiting. Lots of pods, some small but mostly around this size. This is the only that has started to ripen off but I’ve a few that grew at around the same time so I expect them to follow suit soon!
The stand out show off the year this year, the Purple Jalapeno. I LOVE this plant, the pods are amazing. So purple they’re almost black to start with before ripening off to this purple reddish colour. Think this one will become a yearly event for me.
Stumpy is also doing it’s own thing still. Just the one fruit so far, lots of flower dropping but not as much leaf drop as last year. I’m OK with him doing his own thing to be honest, it amuses that one plant can seemingly have such a big personality.
And, of course, there is always the problem of wee little beasties roaming the garden so you can get back off holiday and find stuff like this waiting for you…
That was a Cayenne, the only one that I had growing. There are words that I could use but I’ll keep it clean. Here at least 😉
I’ve plenty of other plants with flowers on and small outbreaks of pods, so hopefully I’ll be able to post another bunch of pods from them before the season is over. I remember last year there was a lot of action late in the season when I thought it was all over, hoping it’s going to be the same again this year!
As for my other grows…
I’ve harvested my potatoes, I was actually disappointed to only find this amount after they seemed to grow so well top side but I’ve been reassured that this is actually quite a good amount to get. Guess I’ll have to temper my expectations a bit next year! They were actually delicious though, Mrs. Diaries made them into a potato salad which we enjoyed on our holidays.
My Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes are coming along very nicely now, very good they are as well, we had these in a salad on holiday as well. Came home to load more ripe ones as well which was a bonus!
My Beef Tomatoes are a little slower, but, coming along all the same. Lots of them, just mostly still green yet.
My Butternut Squash endeavour is a bit of a disaster if I’m being honest… It’s not even worth talking about the two Bell Pepper plants that are supposedly in there with it.
It’s just taken over the Growhouse completely, it’s making it’s way down the garden actually.
See, I wasn’t even kidding! It might not be so bad but it’s yet to give me one single Squash! It’s flowered, but that’s it.
On a better note, I also planted some Lettuce which is doing quite well. We’ve taken a crop off this as well and it’s grown back nicely. It’s just Baby Leaf lettuce and Lollo Rosso
And that as they say, is that.
Not a great year so far, but not a bad one either. I’m still enjoying it all which is the main thing. I did think perhaps it might get too hard work after the mass propagation of chillies I had, but, no. It’s all good.
I still don’t think I’m going to let myself get too bad next year. I think a lot of my plants would have done better if I could have kept them all in a greenhouse and not outside. But that hasn’t been an option, and, truthfully, the plants that are in the greenhouses aren’t doing a great deal better so perhaps I shouldn’t think like that at all.