Branching out

It's now been 8 days since I cut my bonchi -project tree into a "stump" and it looks to be taking it really well judging from all those new branches showing up from the base of the existing leaves. I haven't tried anything fancy with the roots since this is only a trial plant. Trimming the roots and exposing the top ones only make sense if I was planning to move it to a shallow bonzai pot. I read that placing round stones under the roots would be a good way to grow some really good looking roots on your bonchi. So far so good

So it begins

There it is, my first bonchi prototype cut short today. The stem is a bit thinner than I'd like it to be but it'll do it's purpose on finding out how the plant survives through winter just fine. I decided to keep some leaves on it to make the shock of being cut down a bit lower if possible. The other plant is still growing strong on the bigger pot despite the clearly shorter daytime.

Autumn preparations

A week ago I turned my freely grown plant into compost after getting the last pods from it. The cut one currently has 12 red pods, 2 orange ones and 4 green ones that are showing tiny signs of color change. After the final harvest I plan to cut down the plant drastically and see if the stem survives the winter. This and the stem of the plant which currently grows in the bigger pot will be my first try to grow my chilis into Bonchi (Bonsai Chili).

Seeds!

I got the chili seeds in the mail today with a nice surprise. Fataliiseeds had put in the envelope a variety of other things in addition to my order. Either I managed to completely miss that while placing the order or they did it as a surprise. A really nice gesture and some quality customer service on their part.

The package:

• the actual seeds neatly packed in a small minigrip bag with 5-7 seeds/bag.
•  mustard plant seeds and "surprise chili mix" as extra content
• 3 large stickers and 2 smaller ones
• a chunk of Naga Morich - taffy
• simple grow quide and small introduction to chilis
• letter from the owner telling to contact him in case you have any questions

The surprise chili mix has only the title and a questionmark on it so the only way to know what you got is to grow them. It's a clever idea and made me smile.