syklops wrote: » This turned into more like a blog post than a comment.. Sorry for the wall of text. At least its punctuated. I then got the notion to grow some bonsai trees. I'd always been fascinated with Bonsai trees and I don't need to do too much research. All I needed was some peat compost, some seeds and some pots. I also had a desire to grow a bonsai chilli tree, which produced fruit because I use chillis in everything and I love the idea of going to get them not from Tesco but from my chilli tree. So with almost zero knowledge I started germinating seeds. I started with a mixture of orange, lemon and chilli seeds and the chillis are the only ones which sprouted thus far. I germinated them in moist kitchen paper in ziplock bags in the airing cupboard. Some took a week, some sprouted in 3-4 days. I now have approximately 20 plants. Some still in the egg box, some in pots. They are just shoots with 3 to 4 leaves each, so a long way to go, but its surprising how quickly they grow. I am now obsessed with my collection of plants and love getting home from work so I can look at how they are doing. Stuff I've learnt along the way: - Cinnamon is a natural anti-fungal agent. A few of my plants were getting this whiteish mould on the soil, possibly due to me over watering them. Sprinkling cinnamon over the top of the soil kills the mould and adds a pretty contrast for the plant. - Germination is recommended but not required, not with chilis anyway. I planted 18 seeds in another eggbox nursery, put it in the airing cupboard and 5 days later I had about 11 plants, so high they were hitting the top of the eggbox. Chillis, at least, seem to be very easy to grow. I've had zero luck with lemon, orange and Kumquat germinating, but the chillis are flying - almost to the point that Im running out of space. I have a crop of Jalapenos germinating at the minute. I'll report back with the results. - Garden centres are expensive! This is why we had no money when I was growing up. It wasnt my dad spending it on coke and hookers it was him going mad in Atlantic Care and Woodies. I went into Woodies on Sunday, and all I bought was a watering bottle, some general purpose fertiliser, and 20 pots and drip trays. 45 euros. Now this is the only money Ive spent on my new hobby, as I was given peat compost, but it was still a surprise. Stuff Im thinking about. Going on holiday for a week the end of June. As I said Im a technical guy, and Im thinking of building an automated watering system using a raspberry Pi and an arduino. Then my ideas went into overdrive and I considered buying moisture sensors for each plant so they only get watered when they "need it", and a webcam, so I can log in remotely and look at them, as well as read out the moisture to a webpage. Then I thought if I do that I should be able to water them manually if I feel fit, and now we are talking a lot of testing and quite a few lines of code to write and I am getting away from the relaxing impact my chili farm was having on me. tl;dr version of the above paragraph, what do other people do when they go on holiday? Next thing I plant to grow are christmas trees but miniatures. A bonsai Christmas tree would be a nice decoration for a desk or a coffee table and any bonsai tree is a nice gift. I'll check this thread regularly now.
cronin_j wrote: » If I do manage to get plenty of chillis from my Ed's Carolina Reapers does anyone want some of the seeds? I can keep em when i am cutting the chillis up.
Technophobe wrote: » I would love some and could swap something.... Presumably you know you woudl have to grow them in isolation so that they are true seed?
cronin_j wrote: » Oh yeah the reapers are grown on the kitchen windowsill and my red habeneros are in the sitting room
captainshamroc wrote: » If anyone started late or wants to try chillies without growing from seed, B&Q have a lot of chillie plants in stock. They have both seedlings and plants a couple of months old. They're handy as an easier option to see how you do. I'd recommend the Cayenne's. They're fairly easy to look after and you can get a decent crop followed by addiction and an urge to fill the house with chillies next year.
Gloomtastic! wrote: » No flowers yet but plants flourishing.....
cronin_j wrote: » man you must be using a serious amount of Fertilizer! Thats alot of green!
Gloomtastic! wrote: » cronin_j wrote: » man you must be using a serious amount of Fertilizer! Thats alot of green! My secret, apart from planting in large pots, water from the fish tank - full of nitrogen (or something).
Springwell wrote: » I've Jalpenos and Habaneros and "Prairie Fire" flowering away...but my plants grown from seed are only 18" tall but have easily 20+ flowers each. Any ideas why they stayed so small and bushy??
Technophobe wrote: » You need to stop the nitrogen fertilizer soon though..they should be flowering by now...
Gloomtastic! wrote: » I've switched over to adding Tomato Feed to fresh water so hopefully will see some flowers in the few weeks.
