At Last - An Un-named Variety Ripens

Here's some Peppers from seven tiny seedlings I had given to me after Xmas last year. They are very mild on the end, but can get hot towards the seed end and come in the oddest array of shapes and sizes. I haven't been able to name them yet.

Edit** - I've been asked to explain the ribbons on some of the above fruit. The ribbon denotes a flower blossom that was bagged for seed saving purposes giving fruit with 'pure' seeds.

What's Growing?

I have over 100 Chilli/Pepper plants in the hothouse which I'm hoping will survive through our Winter and will give me advanced seedlings when Spring arrives and some warmer weather. That's my goal at this stage and the plants are still growing well.

I took a few outside to get a photo, but it didn't work too well, but here is the result. I managed a few of the smaller plants, but too many varieties to get them all. Plants like Joe E Parker, Aji Lima, Beaver Dam are starting to get some size to them and I'll need to rethink how I'll stop them from getting spindly being so cramped. Maybe the smaller plants will need to go into the cold frame now so I can spread things out a bit.

A few more photos, some of these are from my friends in the Northern Hemisphere.

Hot or Not?

These Chillies are available in Supermarkets, this one is just listed as 'Yellow Chilli - Hot', but when Jan taste tested them, she though they were fairly mild (3/10), or maybe got a cool one.

So why are they listed as hot - Do you know them?

Taken on camera in Mobile phone.

Vittoria Eggplant (Aubergine)

I decided to save some seeds today, so I sacrificed a ripe eggplant and set to work.


Then about 30 'slow' minutes later, I ended up with these.

What's In The Hothouse

You wouldn't think we're heading into our Winter here if you saw what I have growing in my hothouse at the present time. There are over 130 Chilli plants, with about 32 varieties, plus 6 Tomato plants and they'll be joined soon by a couple of mature plants that will be potted and will 'over-winter' with the others. Some think I'm mad, but my strategy is simply to come out of Winter with mature plants, some of which will be sold, some given away to friends, some will be kept as stock plants. Well that's the plan anyway.

Here are some of the plants:-

Anaheim Chilli

Beaver Dam Chilli

A Volunteer than came up in a pot in the hothouse.

Siletz

What's about for seed you ask.

Here's a recent purchase, an un-named variety of a long Cayenne type from a Fruit & Veg Shop near where we ate lunch in Black Rock and I'm hoping to recoup my 20 cents with a lot of seeds.

Our friend wants us to rate these chillies, but they aren't going near my mouth. Extracting seeds from these is bad enough as the fumes coming from the seeds when wet make my throat burn.

These are 'Red Romanian'.



I seeded my long Cayenne chilli, so it would seem it was a worthwhile venture for the 20 cents it cost.

These will warm up the cockles of your heart, but don't touch your eyes after washing seed as they burn badly. I got these as 'Thai Silk', but it's a name I cannot find anything on.

On the sweet side - Turkish Cappia Peppers on the left and Corno di Toro on the right.

Ready, Set, Go.

I've decided to start sowing a portion of my Chilli/Pepper seedlings now (late February) instead of June/July when I'd normally start. The reason is that I want to try and get some sizable plants by the time Spring rolls around, giving me a head start with my stock plants that I'll use for seed saving purposes. I think I have about 30+ varieties sown and currently have about half germinated as sowing has been staggered.

Here's something that always amuses people, "Tricots", or seedlings with 3 seed leaves or cotyledons. Of the 7 seedlings in the photo, 3 are tricots.

What's Being Picked This Week.

As the Tomato season winds down here there isn't a great deal to be picked in the garden at present. Here's what came in over the weekend and tonight.

Some Gogosari Peppers from Romania



Some Red Robin tomatoes


Or maybe some Father Tom tomatoes

Here's a half a bucket of Cherries just picked, which comprise Ida Gold, Totem & Tiny Tim with a couple of my latest cross. Given good growing conditions, you'll be well rewarded with any of these. Black Cherry are in a league of their own as far as taste goes and are good producers as well.

Here are a couple of Takanotsume Chillies



Not forgetting the 'Vittoria' Eggplant.

Zucchini - Saving some seed.

We had this given to us and although a little larger than expected, will still use and try and save some seed along the way. This is a 'Romanesco' Zucchini, so should be a good addition to the garden next season.

Picked This Evening

A few of what else we grow here. These include Jimmy Nardello Peppers, Barkol Chillies, Ariane Hybrid Capsicum, Gogosari Pepper, Balassa F1 Hybrid Paprika.

I'm Not Complaining.

I grew a tomato plant for seed, just based on the name only and bagged lots of trusses early on in the season only to find that the plant is a cross. I'm not complaining as this plant was a heavy producer of golf ball size red fruit which taste pretty good, so I'll use this seed for my sales next season.

These Got Away

These couple of "All Green Bush" Zucchini's that grew too large to really do anything with, so I decided to save some seeds from them. Little did I know at the time, but there were no mature seeds in either of these two fruit. There was a third fruit from the plant which I have now obtained seeds from. This will save buying seeds next season, if we decide to grow them again.

Village Red - Update

This is more the size I'm expecting from this variety, although the shape could be a little better. This is my 'Village Red' tomato which has Casey's Pure Yellow in its parentage. Earlier fruit were more heart shaped as shown in an earlier posting, but this one is more oblate if you can call it that.

Weight here is 472 grams.

Some of The Different Ones this Year

Something different for the home garden and maybe something you're interested in trying, is this great little tomato called Konig Humbert (King Humbert), with supposed resistance to Wilt & Blight.

More to come on this one I think.



Here is a nice little tomato for those who want a good producer with heaps of flavour, this one is 'Le Case di Apulia'.

And for something to cook with, why not try 'Speckled Roman', one of the many paste type tomatoes.



Here's 'Siberian Cherry', one from the Digger Collection which I bought on a whim at the B Store one day. Taste is about 8/10 to be fair and a solid little tomato which will be great in salads etc.

The Paradise Tomato

I grew a Hungarian tomato with the name 'Paradicsom' (translated to Paradise) this year with good results before the hot 44C burnt off a lot of my tomato plants in the yard here. I've managed to obtain enough seed to keep me going next season as I think I'll include them in my plant sales in October. They are a sweet tomato, very meaty and although not really big this year, I do think they'll get to their normal size next season. The good thing with them is that they are a determinate plant, growing about 1 metre high, so what more can you ask for.

Here's what it looks like:-

Something Odd Here

Towards the end of 2008 I received some seed from a friend in the UK, for a tomato called 'Tamina' which I grew one plant late in the season and managed one fruit as the plant succumbed to the excessive heat of our Summer. The plant was a Potato Leaf Indeterminate, which seemed true to form - as you can see here.

This season I grew just one plant and we have been gathering some very sweet, golf ball size fruit from it, not previously noticing something very odd about the plant until I decided to post photos of it on the forum. As you may know, Tamina is a Potato Leaf variety, but the plant I have growing is a Regular Leaf, which has got me thinking that there is something amiss here with this plant.

I suspect there would have been either a cross, or a mix up with seed at my friends garden, so I now have this 'Odd' variety with sweet tasting fruit, that I can't really call Tamina, so looks like they will have to take on a name, so I've come up with something appropriate. I've named these 'Surrey Cross', because the cross most likely occurred in my friend Mark's garden in Surrey, England.
Oh well it was a good name at the time.

A Different Year - A Different Shape

Last season I grew out a self sown tomato which I first called Red Velvet as shown in a previous post, which was a globe shaped fruit as you can see in the photo in that post.
This year the very first fruit showed that it had changed shape and was looking more and more heart shaped in its appearance.

The interesting thing first noticed when looking at the fruit on the three plants I grew this year, was that two plants had oblate fruit, while this one had a mix of oblate and heart shape. For my seed saving efforts this season from this variety, I have selected only seed from the heart shape fruit, maybe not a wise move but as only at F2 I'll see what happens next season.


I still have my work cut out for me with growing this tomato I've called 'Village Red' - but it's all good fun.