Progress

With couple of really warm days behind us and general weather type taking a shift to more sunny weather the chillies have taken a nice growth spurt. After replanting them into their final pots I've cut the top off from all 3 Aji Fantasy and 1 Pimenta Bodé plant so they would spread out more. The 2 Peito De Moca's on the other hand seem to be the type that spreads out themselves quite low which suits my growing space nicely. Here is a picture of the same Peito De Moca plant taken 16 days apart.

Slow & steady

Regardless of the never ending line up of dark, grey and misty days we've been having the chillies are making steady progress. All but one Peito De Moca seed germinated and currently are in the middle of growing their 3rd pair of leaves. I've already moved a couple of the bigger sprouts like the Pimenta Bodé in the picture to their final pots. Mostly to prevent them from falling down when they reach for the limited supply of light shining though my window. The soil I've been using is the same peat based "seed and sprout mix" I used in planting some of my chillies last year.

Season 2014

Fatalii Gourmet Aji Fantasy (C. baccatum): Crossbreed between Lemon Drop and PI 441551 is the first-ever chili pepper developed and even plant-patented in Finland by Fatalii. Grows somewhat bell shaped pods that turn yellow when ripe.
Seeds planted January 2nd, first sprout visible January 9th.

Peito De Moca (C. chinense):  Fruit flavored variation from Brazil with medium hot to hot pods that turn red when ripe and have a pointy tip. The plant tends to stay quite low.
Seeds planted January 2nd, first sprout visible January 8th.

Pimenta Bodé (C. chinense): Habanero-relative with a nice kick. Grows small round pods that turn yellow when ripe. The plants shape is compact and it's easy to keep pruned down.
Seeds planted January 2nd, first sprout visible January 10th.

November

Short & dark days mean everything is quiet on the chillie front. I've mostly been following other people wrapping up their season 2013 on their blogs and doing little preliminary planning on my following season. The couple Bolivian Rainbows I saved are growing ever so slowly on the window sill without the help of any additional lighting. It's a bit funny how they are trying to flower even if the grow has practically halted. The drying project seems to have turned out nice so I'm looking for a spice mix recipe to ground them into.

Cold nights

After getting rid of the aphids it was time to move my two Bolivian Rainbows indoors to the now roomy window sill. Now a week later I realise my timing was spot on since we've had a couple of 0°C nights this week with more to come. My Prairie Fire is still producing new pods while ripening the others and Chichen Itza currently has one orange pod & the other is about to change color soon. I'll get rid of the plant as soon as it does. My second Bonchi experiment is taking it's first steps with the other stem getting nice and bushy.

Here comes the fall

Early September has been reasonably warm but the weather type has clearly made a turn for Autumn with foggy mornings and high humidity. The two Bolivian Rainbows on the balcony have been cut down and sprayed twice with Spruzit RTU to take care of the aphids before bringing the plants indoors to act as a base for my 2nd Bonchi experiment.

The other two plants from my window sill joined the Trinidad Scorpion that I threw away earlier since it never produced any pods and stopped flowering. The remaining branches with yellow & orange pods now sit in a glass of water to make them ripe. Chichen Itza managed to barely avoid the same fate by secretly growing two pods amongst the foliage so it now shares the window with the Prairie Fire.

Prairie pods

 

We've had a couple of clearly colder nights now with the temperature dropping to 7°C. I've cut all the excess branches from the plants I have on the balcony and the ones that have pods have been cut right after the last decent sized pod to hurry the ripening process.

Indoors the Prairie Fire has it's first red fruit. The plant got a little too much water when I was going away for a week and decided to give it some extra water since the week was supposed to be really hot but halfway through the week it turned to rain and high humidity. It's not affecting the pods but pretty much stopped the flowering dead on.