First sight of Birdseye Chillis and other things

So a brief update today, just focused on some progress I spotted which inspired me to take photographs of various green growing things.

I'll get straight into it...

Leading off with the most exciting of the progress, the thing which inspired this whole post. This is the first Birdseye Chilli seedling which appeared literally over night (as they do) and is already 15mm tall. Now I am going to be checking every day for sight of the other seedling.

This is one of the Carrot seedlings I transplanted thinking it was dead. As you can see I was wrong. The white stain is the ring caused by the toilet roll which is now fully buried and rotting away.

The Parsnips are still in their toilet rolls and are growing well; think these will be a transplant job for the weekend.

The two Ghost Chilli seedlings are looking well established and are showing second growth now; from memory this presages a bit of a growth spurt so maybe soon I will have to put these into a larger container too.

The Globe Artichoke seedling which appeared so quickly has continued it's super fast growth and is now almost too big for the heated propagator tray. It's mate still hasn't put in an appearance though.

I'm still waiting for some advice about the Foxglove seedlings, which it seems to me have looked pretty much like this for weeks now. Should I be moving these into a bigger space? Or wait a little longer....?

The Moneymaker Tomato seedling still only with primary leaves but looking strong. The Gardeners Choice have not yet put in an appearance, but the seedling I threw on the floor (not pictured) is actually still alive and well.

The large Geranium seedling which is growing again and slowly shedding the dirt I scattered on it by accident. The smaller seedling is still only in early stages and does not show the leaf style of a Geranium yet.

Last but by no means least this is one of the Crossley Special Chillis. These are now really starting to look strong and healthy and I have a lot of hope for a good crop this year. You can see that it is really starting to put leaves on now and these, as commented earlier, really help to turbo-charge the growth of the plant.

So that is it for now; just a quick update around a few of the seedlings.

I will do a full update at the weekend if I get time.

Keep planting and growing.

*** EDIT ****

I almost forgot, I have a little update on the shop bought Coriander and Chives. If you remember I brought them in because of the snow and they were looking very unwell indeed.

While not looking incredibly healthy I think I can comfortably say the Coriander has survived.

While the Chives are not looking quite as good I think they may survive also.

Thanks to everyone who said encouraging things to me about these plants, including but not limited to my Uncle Alan.

They made it!

Repotting the Crossley Specials and replacing them in the Heated Propagator

As the Crossley Special chillis have made such outstanding progress I have decided to re-pot them out into bigger pots, making space for some other seeds to be started off in the heated propagator.

The three heated propagator trays with Crossley Special chillis in them.

The larger pots ready for compost putting in them.

A larger pot filled with compost prior to creating the hole.

All the pots with compost in them. An issue (ignored due to impatience) is the compost is very cold having been stored outside, and the seedlings are currently in lovely warm compost having been on the heated propagator.

Look closely and you will see that I have dug a depression into this compost ready to accept the new seedling.

Two seedlings ready for re-potting.

Very carefully moving a seedling by pushing my hand right underneath and avoiding disturbing the root system.

One Crossley Special seedling safely transferred and (fingers firmly crossed) happy in it's new home.

Having freed up these three trays I am now going to plant three more different seeds.

First of all a couple of Birdseye chilli seeds nestling in the palm of my hand.

The Birdseye chilis in the compost before they are covered over.

The Kerela seeds in the compost; I have no idea what will happen with these but hey, I may as well give it a go...

Two Globe Artichoke seeds prior to planting.

The Globe Artichoke seeds in the compost.

I have brought these large pots into the front room which is the warmest room in the house and now I have to hope that they take to their new homes. I am writing this about three hours after planting and sadly I can report right now that they are ALL looking very limp and unhappy. I think this could be because I have not warmed the compost prior to repotting.

I will keep you informed about what happens; Seriously hope I haven't killed them!

Keep planting :)

Edit **** Edit **** Edit **** Edit

I am updating this on the Sunday morning. It looks like the seedlings are going to make it!

This is a sad looking seedling struggling with the change in environment, specifically the heat in the soil.

However, I have come down this morning and...

This Crossley Special has recovered to be upright, though you can see evidence of stress in the tips of the leaves as they are still slightly curled up.

This one, on the other hand, looks completely happy and there is no evidence that it ever drooped or suffered any stress at all in the process.

I am carefully watering these in; I went to sleep last night worrying about them hah :) Fingers crossed they continue this path of surviving and are happy in the next pots.

Cheers

Progress and getting seeds from the birdseyes

This is a multi-purpose update for you today.

First of all, some progress:

I have now got two Ghost Chilli seedlings!! How awesome is that! The second one appeared a couple of days ago and has done the usual of bursting upwards and then pausing slightly.

There is still only one Geranium seedling, however this one is growing really really well, with second growth showing now. From my experience last year, now we have second growth this will probably start shooting up again once the second leaves open up.

So, that is the brief update. The other plants are doing well still, just there was nothing specific to update you all on.

Secondly for this update I have been given a couple of dried chillis by a mate and today I got round to harvesting the seeds.

The two Birsdeye chillis that I was given, expertly dried (I shall have to find out how this was done; Jon if you would care to comment on this post with your tips?)

I broke apart the chilli using the sharp tip of the Stanley knife and the seeds literally burst out.

This now nicely segues into the final section of this post; the TicTac tip. This is all the seeds I got from the Birdseye chilis and I am storing them in empty tic tac boxes.

I have also transferred the remaining Crossley Special seeds into a tic tac box.

Finally four seeds which I am very excited about; the Kerela seeds. I eat a LOT of "rice and three" curries and my favourite curry house does a dish called "Keema and Bitter" which is the best of the lot; the Kerela vegetable is that which gives this meal it's amazing bitter kick and I am going to be trying to grow this. I am waiting until I have moved some of the seedlings out of the heated propagator so I can put these in.

Anyway, that's the update. Thanks for reading.