I'm in your camp maggie-1, can't wait, but wary of starting things too early.
Plants like chillies, peppers and aubergines, if grown from seed, need an early start, as some varieties need a long growing season to rippen and produce fruit, which can take until October .
You need to take into account plants sown early can't go out till the last forcast frost which for many is April in an unheated GH and possibly May for those in the North. If there's a chill plants stop growing...
Hi Sally. Your chillis will keep going fine. I've got 5 plants of a variety called 'Vampire' that I trialled for Which?Gardening last year. I cut them back to bring them indoors when it got cold and they've spent the winter on my kitchen floor. Not brilliant light but I've got lots of plants indoors and I'm short on space! All 5 are now sprouting healthily and I expect a good crop this year.
It's a very attractive variety with purple-tinged leaves, purple flowers, larger than usual, and the fruits start purple and turn red when ripe. (Can you tell I like purple?) Not one fruit ripened last year and they have no heat when unripe, but with the early start this year I expect the goods! I think they're about 14000 on the Scoville scale. If nothing else, they're very pretty plants. Specially if you like purple.
I thought to myself I wonder if I could grow plants from seeds I have taken out of peppers and chillis I bought in the supermarket. Well, I took the seeds out, I let them dry for a while and then planted them and to my amazement every year I actually get plants that thrive and give a good crop. Haven't bought seeds for years. My garage has a clear roof so I grow them both together with my tomatoes in there.
I sowed 7 different Chilli seed varieties, all of which have produced healthy seed (though they sprang up earlier than expected!). Used a heated propogator, which I got for xmas. Would recommend doing this, as well as just making sure they have enough light and moisture...
... Just got to work out what to do with a load of Chilli seedlings in early Feb!
We are often told that we should use seed that is properly produced and not to bother with seed that you get from supermarket fruit and veg, well kflockhart, you proved that it can work, so good luck, it's brilliant when you get such a good crop. Huntertony, I did that last year but because the weather suddenly got very cold most of my plants, tomatoes and chillis, died, I had nowhere to keep them and ended up with hardly anything, very disappointing, I hope you have better luck. I haven't had the heart to start sowing seeds yet.
I do hope the weather improves. Just bought a 4-tier mini-greenhouse thing to out outside for the Chillie's, but no way am I using it until it's at a bare minimum of 10 oC
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I'm in your camp maggie-1, can't wait, but wary of starting things too early.
Plants like chillies, peppers and aubergines, if grown from seed, need an early start, as some varieties need a long growing season to rippen and produce fruit, which can take until October .
You need to take into account plants sown early can't go out till the last forcast frost which for many is April in an unheated GH and possibly May for those in the North. If there's a chill plants stop growing...
Wait...
Hi Sally. Your chillis will keep going fine. I've got 5 plants of a variety called 'Vampire' that I trialled for Which?Gardening last year. I cut them back to bring them indoors when it got cold and they've spent the winter on my kitchen floor. Not brilliant light but I've got lots of plants indoors and I'm short on space! All 5 are now sprouting healthily and I expect a good crop this year.
It's a very attractive variety with purple-tinged leaves, purple flowers, larger than usual, and the fruits start purple and turn red when ripe. (Can you tell I like purple?) Not one fruit ripened last year and they have no heat when unripe, but with the early start this year I expect the goods! I think they're about 14000 on the Scoville scale. If nothing else, they're very pretty plants. Specially if you like purple.
I thought to myself I wonder if I could grow plants from seeds I have taken out of peppers and chillis I bought in the supermarket. Well, I took the seeds out, I let them dry for a while and then planted them and to my amazement every year I actually get plants that thrive and give a good crop. Haven't bought seeds for years. My garage has a clear roof so I grow them both together with my tomatoes in there.
I sowed 7 different Chilli seed varieties, all of which have produced healthy seed (though they sprang up earlier than expected!). Used a heated propogator, which I got for xmas. Would recommend doing this, as well as just making sure they have enough light and moisture...
... Just got to work out what to do with a load of Chilli seedlings in early Feb!
We are often told that we should use seed that is properly produced and not to bother with seed that you get from supermarket fruit and veg, well kflockhart, you proved that it can work, so good luck, it's brilliant when you get such a good crop. Huntertony, I did that last year but because the weather suddenly got very cold most of my plants, tomatoes and chillis, died, I had nowhere to keep them and ended up with hardly anything, very disappointing, I hope you have better luck. I haven't had the heart to start sowing seeds yet.
I do hope the weather improves. Just bought a 4-tier mini-greenhouse thing to out outside for the Chillie's, but no way am I using it until it's at a bare minimum of 10 oC
I sowed two varieties of chillies yesterday, a week earlier than last year and probably to early but I couldn't wait.
chillies & tomatoes doing well and looking really strong