So it seems after a couple of false starts spring is well and truly with us. While the nights are still quite chilly the days are getting noticeably longer and we’ve had a nice sunny bank holiday weekend. Combined with the warmer temperatures this glorious sunshine is really kicking the plants on.
Now is the perfect time to be hardening off any pepper plants that are destined to live outside. Every morning before work I’m moving most of the plants out of the greenhouse and standing them in a nice sunny spot. I make sure they’re all back inside overnight to avoid any frost damage. Once the nights start warming up a bit more I’ll gradually start leaving some outdoors 24/7 – mainly the pubescens such as the overwintered Rocoto below as they tend to tolerate the cool temperatures better.
Last week I planted up a few plants into my homemade self watering (details of how to make them here). I saw last year how much of a difference self watering pots can make after being given a Quadgrow setup. The constant supply of moisture and nutrients (I’ll be using regular tomato feed watered down slightly) make a huge difference so I’m pretty confident these plants will do very well.
In fact you can see in the photo above how much larger the plants are that have been in the self watering pots already, even after only about 10 days.
Meanwhile back indoors I’ve got another batch of plants under the grow lights in my grow cupboard. As you can see temps are holding a steady 20 degrees in there so I’m expecting some good growth over the next couple of weeks. These are mainly Annum varieties such as Super Chili F1, Apache, Demon Red and Cayennes. They will soon catch up the other plants as they all grow fairly quickly.
So all in all progress is pretty good this season. I’ve yet to face a disasters such as pests or disease and all the plants are looking really healthy. Hopefully now the weather will continue to improve and a nice summer awaits.
