So, once again my wife has played an ace card in my hobby and very kindly bought me a Propagator after I’d uhhmed and ahhhed about getting one this year. Most of my deliberation had been around if they worked or not, so, I decided to run a little experiment!
A little back story before I continue; I’d originally been after one from Greenhouse Sensation, they’re quite local to me and have a very good web site with loads of useful information on for growing plants and things. Their Facebook page is well manned by knowledgeable folk and they seem to have a true passion for what they do.
When I started sowing my seeds earlier in the year I noticed that other Chilli Growers where doing the same, and, they where mostly using the Vitopod from Greenhouse Sensation :-/
Now, before you start thinking that this is some kind of advert, it’s not. My wife didn’t buy me one of those in the end. Our main problem being the expense, we’re a family with three kids (albeit one being a “grown up”), it’s January… We have no money 🙁
So on a trip to our local garden centre, Birkacre, to see if their Christmas thing had ended (or, as I called it, a living, breathing hell 😉 ) we happened across the beginnings of their “Grow You Own” season. I was really looking for seedling pot type things, which I did find, kind of, but they also had some Propagators our on sale, amongst other things.
Amongst their selection they had a Stewart Garden Electric Propagator, it was relatively cheap at £16.99, after a little more uhming and ahhing…
My Wife either got bored with the uhhhms and the ahhhs or she wanted to help 😉
(I’d like to point out that the order code on my box is 2595005, I didn’t get any pots with my purchase and I couldn’t find a like for like on their web site)
So, I now had a Propagator, and as mentioned I decided to run a little experiment, and as the title of this post suggests – Plant seeds in both the Propagator and as I had done previously, just out like normal in pots like I’d done earlier to see if there was any noticeable difference between the two.
But what more to plant? I’ve still loads of seeds in my seed pot, but, there are other varieties out there I know need more help to grow than others… Now I have a means of providing at least a little help…
As followers of my Facebook page will know, I’m not afraid to order more seeds… And so I did just that 😉
And, so, new seeds arrived…
Now, I’m not going to lie – I didn’t plant all the seeds I ordered, for various reasons, As readers of this Blog will know, I’m wasn’t exactly short of things to plant before this, even more so now 😉
So, what ended up in the Propagator?
Bubblegum 7 Pot, Paprika, Yellow Moruga, Golden Cayenne, Bhut Lah, Fatali, Caloro, Masquerade, Bhut Jolkia, Holiday Cheer, Fish and Satans Kiss, that’s what 🙂
I did what did the last time, 5 seeds to a pot – I know I got a slight panic the last time I did this and ended up with 3 or 4 of most of those but if we get a half decent summer then I’ll be able to leave them out and not just in a greenhouse – I’ve got a lot more confident in leaving them out after seeing how well some of my other plants survived into the winter season.
I ended up with 12 pots in the Propagator, there is room for 15 but I ran out of little pots 🙁
Which brought me to my next problem, how was I to plant more for a comparison grow?
As I’d just potentially given myself another 60 (!!!) plants to look after I decided I didn’t really need to plant another 60 (!!!) so I could compare. So, I just took a larger pot and planted a selection of 10 individual seeds.
And. It was while I was doing this, I noticed something criminal at my plating this year. I hadn’t planted any Scotch Bonnets! They where my only really success last year! The first thing I grew from seed! EVER!
So, I quickly fixed that, I planted three in a row and gave them some company by means of some Chocolate Ghosts and Brazilian Starfish. (I only had one of the Chocolate Ghosts I planted sprout from the initial ones I planted and I really like these, so, try again 🙂 )
And to make sure the conditions are as fair as they could be, I found a plug near my kitchen window and plugged the Propagator in there and then placed the two plant pots next to each other.
Certainly going to be interesting to see how this one turns out! 🙂