Tequila Sunrise (~38 Days)

This 'Tequila Sunrise' (Capsicum annuum) chilli is the second largest of all the plants so far.

Hot Purple Prince (~ 38 Days)

This is the largest of the Hot Purple Princes (Salvia lyrata?), and the darkest of all the chilli plants so far.

Money Spider on Orange Thai Chilli Plant

This little money spider has made its home on one of my Orange Thai chilli seedlings in the bathroom. No harm, it can stay!

Tequila Sunrise (~ 30 days)

This is the 'Tequila Sunrise' chilli (Capsicum Annuum) at about 30 days after germination.



Been repotting a few more plants each couple of days when they sprout about 3 or 4 leaves.

Paper Lantern (~ 27 Days)

Quite a slow developer this, the Paper Lantern chilli. Note the yellow-hued leaves - the most yellow of all of the chillis.

Hot Purple Prince (~26 Days)

Detail of the Hot Purple Prince seedling.

Black Hungarian (~ 26 Days)

Detail of the Black Hungarian seedling.

Repotting at about 25 days

Transfer into larger pots from the mini-trays. Fill the pot and make a hole large enough (and deep enough) to push the knocked-out seedling and soil into. If you do it quickly you should be able transfer it all without the soil all falling off and finding yourself grasping at slim stem and delicate roots in your big banana-like fingers.



Once potted, water and leave to settle in.

All seedlings at about 22 days

Some of these started growing after others of course.

Bugs?

I just found one of these guys crawling beside one of my seedlings and picked it up and threw it out of the window before I thought to take a picture.

The image below is taken from [here] (I'm sure they won't mind) It looks as if it's a 'carpet beetle', and not a threat...



So, my stair carpet may be in danger, but at least the chillis are fine...

Rocoto Canarios (21 days)

Another picture of the Rocotos - it is the biggest of all of the seedlings now. It is finally putting out some new leaves!



All seedlings are out of the propagator now.

It seems that I don't have any Goat Horn after all - I was misreading my labels! All others have sprouted at least one though.

Late developers

Finally, I have a sprouting Goat Horn, Jamaican Yellow, Szentesi and Indian Jwala.

All going well so far. Other, more developed seedlings have started to push out the first real leaves to replace the starter sets.

Hairy Rocoto Canarios Seedling

This Rocoto Canarios seedling is one of the hairiest yet!

Seed tray view

I have now removed all the sprouted seedlings and moved them to a sunny windowsill. The still dormant or very young have been left in the propagator.

Leaf detail and muse

This chilli looks pretty healthy.

We've reached the stage now where half of the plants probably need to be taken out of the propagator and left in as much sunlight as possible. I think I'll have to cut up my seed trays to do this and leave the unsprouted chillis in there.

Also, I have some Fatali seeds beginning to sprout today. Still no Goat Horn though.

Little guys

You might have to enlarge this one to see them, but I just noticed all these little plants growing in my seed tray. no idea what they are, but they're quite cute anyway.

Water drops on stem

I just liked this image.

News: Chillis will make me thin too?

"Chilli extract may stop fat cell growth" (see link above)

Capsaicin, the compound that gives red pepper its heat, could inhibit the growth of fat cells, says a new laboratory study.

Oh good...

Hot Purple Prince (~4 days)

Another shot of the Hot Purple Prince. Apologies for the bad quality of this one - I was half awake and feeling a bit groggy this morning after a few beers last night!

I'll try and take some better images this weekend. I'd say about 50% of the seeds are now sprouted.

Stuck seed casing

This is a pretty common problem - the seed casing isn't pushed off by the growing starter leaves and remains stuck. If left the chilli will often recover or burst it off later, but I've had a few that just die. You can, very carefully, pull it off:

Grasp the chilli seedling with finger and thumb gently. With other finger and thumb grip the seed casing and gently pull, slowly. The casing should slide off with just a little resistance. If it won't budge, don't force it, but leave it another day or two and try again.

Um, we have a problem...

Yikes, what happened here? This 'Chinese' chilli is growing, but it's furry root system seems to be mostly out of the ground. It has also failed to release it's seed head.