'D-Day' 28 July

Tuesday 28 July is the date I sow my tomato seeds each season, in an effort to have salable size plants for sale in the first week in October. The varieties are changing this year and rather grow 20+ varieties for sale, the figure will only be 8-10 varieties as it's too hard to explain the characteristics of the plant to so many people who buy the plants, that we'll only go with a few.

In my own garden at home, I will be trying a few new ones so I can collect seed and maybe offer them next season. Three of the newer ones are Cornue des Andes, Konig Humbert and 'Collioure Plum' tomato, which I hope are as good as they say and that I can manage seeds from them.

More to come later when I sort some seeds. :-)

Early Start

I have a small heart shaped tomato that I've been 'growing out' for the past 2 seasons, last year I achieved two filial generations in the one season with it and got to F3. So, once again I am attempting to grow this tomato, then from a ripe fruit, extract seeds and grow and other generation in the same season, well that's the plan anyway. I put some seeds in to germinate last week and have now a few seedlings to select from for this task.

The tomatoes are aptly called "Little Heart" from the shape in their beginning and which still bear a similarity in the later generations.

Here's my babies today.

A Few Late Seeds

I was given some Chillies last week for seed so I could grow them myself this year, so now I have a bit more variety in my plant list.

Here's what I got:

Chilli 'Explosion'

Chilli 'Thai Silk'

Chilli 'Orange Habanero'

Chilli - unknown variety.

Some of the washed seed

Round #1 - Hit and Miss

My first sowing of Chillies and Capsicums has proven to be a bit hit and miss, with only small numbers of a few varieties emerging. It seems to be seed older than one year that is giving me the problem, but even without any further seed being sown, I will manage with the seedlings I have so far, which would be over the 150 mark. I have been given a couple of Hungarian Paprika family varieties, which the first couple of seeds have germinated and are showing (photo).

Yesterday I sowed a few seeds of each of, White Habanero, Gold Bullet Habanero and some Tahitian Goat Chillies, which I'll grow mainly for seed. Also added since I made up the list were Balassa Paprika, Purple Beauty Capsicum, plus a resow of a couple of varieties from Slovakia.

Another week and I will be pricking out the bigger seedlings of Thai Birdseye, Cappia Peppers and Corno di Toro Pepper, then we'll see how we're going for room to grow them until they get hardened off.

Here's some of the Csipos Almapaprika seedlings emerging. (Blurry)

And some seedling Cappia Peppers.

Starting all over again for 2010.

As the Cappia's are all pulled out in the previous post, it's now time to start all over again and plant the seeds for this seasons crop. I've put down most of the Chillies and Peppers I intend to grow and they are showing signs of new life. Here's a list of what I have down so far, all 14 varieties.

Seed sown to date:-

Cappia Pepper
Peter Pepper
Corno di Toro Pepper
PCR Pepper
Granka Pepper
Jimmy Nardello Pepper

Tam Hybrid Chilli
Firecracker Chilli
Sweet Temptation Chilli
Barkol Chilli
Serrano Chilli
Bhut Jolokia Chilli
Thai Birdseye Chilli
Red Romanian Chilli


Using a 4 tray Heat'n'Grow heat pad this season will make the task easier than the 2 tray from previous seasons.

Here's some of the Thai Birdseye chillies that were first to germinate (1 week).