Sprouts!

These are my kind of sprouts at Christmas. Not those disgusting green balls of doom that haunt your dinner plate, no, I prefer these:

 

This is one of my Cherry Bomb seeds that I planted in the heated propagator, I only planted two of these so far, you can just see the other seed just poking out on the right hand side of the photo (the white blob!)

Two out of two germinated, only planted on 15/12 and the photo is a day old, so that's 6 days from planting to seedling, you can see now why I like Cherry Bomb so much!

Now just need all the other seeds to sprout, although I am not holding my breath for the bhut jolokia! :o)

Enjoy your Christmases!

Sowing seeds straight from chilli pods

I wondered whether chilli seeds needed drying out or leaving for a while before sowing, in order to ensure that they germinate properly.

So I tried sowing them straight from the pod.

The simple answer is no, they don't need drying out. Yes you can plant them straight from the pod immediately. I had excellent results with almost 100 percent germination rates in my trials.

I would hazard that you could cut a pod in half,  plant it,  and it would still germinate fine,  although I think it might rot and stink,  and of course it's better to space the seeds out in the usual fashion ;-)

Chilli Pepper Review - Cherry Bomb

 

 Cherry bomb growing on a plant, they tend to grow in clusters of two which is probably why they look so much like cherries when ripe. They go from light green to dark green to almost black (right), then within 48 hours the green colouring drains to leave a bright tomato red.

The plants are splendidly short, just over a couple of feet tall and so perfect for windowsills or smaller spaces.  Yield is good for the size, it's my kind of pepper because the yield is staggered and long, I sowed the seeds in June (yes, very late) and have had a slow drip of peppers from August to November and it's still going...

 

 

Excuse the speaker in the photo. For scale, the cherry bomb is pretty small, same kind of size as a cherry tomato and probably very easy to hide in a salad for a hot surprise!   

 The cherry bomb is not very versatile if I'm honest. It's great cut up on a pizza, but it's in a middle ground where it's not that hot if cooked and the skin is quite thick so not that great for stuffing. 

Probably great for pickling. 

It reminds me of the kinds of peppers you get on "posh" pizza, like roquito or peppadew. That's why I chose it, because I really like those peppers. And I wasn't disappointed by Cherry Bomb either.

Taste: HOT and quite fruity, the taste is like a bell pepper but very very hot, I don't recommend you eat one whole unless you know what you're doing!

Time To Grow: Sown in June, Harvest started in August. Will be trying again in 2014 so will update then.

Please comment if you've grown these and found a good use for them. 

Recommended? Yes. A fun easy chilli.

Will I be growing these again? Yes, because the plants are very short and the yield is good, I'm still getting fruits in Mid November (windowsill)

Chilli Pepper Review: Hungarian Wax

Unfortunately the broad mites had their way with this hungarian wax plant this year, so I only got one measly pepper off it. However, what a fantastic pepper! This is a pretty normal size pepper for this type, perhaps slightly on the large side.

They grow pointing upwards at first, but the weight usually causes them to droop down, which also creates the distortion in the shape too, so you often get one or more flat/bent spots on the pepper where gravity got the better of it. 

Corking is present on this pepper, although I believe that could have been caused by the mite infestation. Or, perhaps like jalapenos, these peppers can exhibit corking marks. 

The Hungarian Wax is normally eaten/sold unripe, which is why you normally expect to see them in a greeny yellow colour. However, if you wait until they're ripe and red, the flavour is MUCH better.

Flavour notes: 

Tastes very much like the best bell pepper you've had, but with a nice hot kick. Perfect for a spicy salad! You shouldn't really cook this into a food as it loses all the flavour, so eat raw and enjoy.

Time to grow: 

Difficult to be precise due to the mites really slowing down the ripening, but it was bought as a 6 inch tall seedling in June, and the pepper was just harvested in September, so probably about 5 months from seed to fully ripe fruit. It took an age to ripen, around 2 months, but was worth the wait.

Recommended? 

Yes. Definitely have a go, it's a very underrated variety, and incredibly rewarding to get such tasty peppers of this size.