>>2479 Christ, somehow managed to post the picture without text. As indicated, these are tomatoes (left to right: 5 Moneymaker, 2 Gardener's Delight and 6 Alicante) which I started early to stay indoors until it warms up a bit more. They were started in a propagator in peat free jiffies with just a tiny hint of seedling feed for good luck and are now living in a light peaty soil/perlite mix.
I'm torn between finishing them in tomato bags or trying out some of the more fancy air-pruning pots. Have any of you got any experience with the latter?
>>2481 What's an air-pruning pot? I just put mine in big normal pots - saves more transplanting later on and you can get all the sticks and shit in early to stop them falling over as they get big.
>>2482 I came across them in a video (see below) while looking for ways to avoid the plants becoming root bound. The idea seems to be to use pots with as much air permeability as possible by either drilling a lot of holes on the container or using cloth instead of plastic/terracotta which makes roots divert properly instead of constricting themselves.
Lads, none of you ever make the mistake of moving into a flat with no garden and East/West facing windows. I've only got the space for 3 chilli plants and a handful of salad leaves/herbs, even then they don't get enough light to thrive as well as they could.
Anyway, I've thrown out my old chilli plants and I'm just waiting for a heated propagator to arrive next week so I can get them off to an early start. You get much bigger crops for a chilli in its second year, in the future when I've got more space I might experiment with keeping them into their third year.
I don't even eat that many chillies, one plant is more than enough for me, I just enjoy growing them.
On the subject of air pots, they are bloody fantastic. There are a lot of pots sold which use the principle, but these are the probably the best for most purposes. The idea is that when a tap route pokes through a hole, it dries out and the tip dies, new smaller roots then branch out from the side. The main benifit is to create a strong rootball which will reestablish very quickly when the plant moved into a bigger pot or the ground. Some people do keep plants in an airpot indefinitely, but I disagree with this as once a plant has reached it's full size, then assuming you have a sufficiently large pot with decent drainage an airpot will make little to no difference.
My poor chili plant took an absolute kicking from snails last year when it was outside. Now it's indoors, it's got bloody whitefly (or some other sticky bastards).
As I understand it, snails can be fended off with copper tape round the pot (and I've got loads of that). Whitefly - bug spray, or hope they'll die off when it goes outdoors again?
>>2484 > I don't even eat that many chillies, one plant is more than enough for me, I just enjoy growing them.
Same for me and tomatoes really. I've grown 25 plants in the past and as much as I like them once the glut comes in there are too many to eat myself, but the joy of growing them more than makes up for it. It's a reasonably forgiving project that lets me sink as much or (almost) as little time as I want into it. I give the overflow to neighbours and friends for free, which is usually appreciated so that's an added bonus.
get a pyrethrin based insecticide, most DIY stores and garden centres sell them, and spray the plants thoroughly, including the underneath of the leaves. perhaps give it a second spray a day or two later just to make sure.
I think it helps to cut off any buds and open flowers before you spray it too.
A more extreme way to get rid of aphids is to completely strip all the leaves off, cut it right back to the stem. All the whitefly will die by the time new leaves grow.
Chillis are pretty resilient towards whitefly and such, I find they're more likely to be infested when the plant is weak from being under-watered or potbound.
pyrethrins are completely safe for use on food, just the normal warnings about washing before you eat.
>>2488 Ta. Plant was weak from snail attack (the bastards ate about 80% of the leaves in two days. I don't particularly begrudge them their tasty leaves, but they did rather overdo it), so I'll give it a go with something pyrethrin and give it some outside time again - the windowsill it's on doesn't really get good sun, so it's just been holding on over winter, rather than growing like the weed it is.
>>2484 I didn't realise they were made from a sheet rather than being "solid" which would make repotting awesomely easy. The price is a bit spicy, but I'll give them a shot I think for some of the tomatoes and then compare and contrast.
>>2507 Indeed. Back on topic: attached is a picture highlighting the difference between good conditions and terrible conditions.
Top: seedling kept on a window sill getting plenty of light in a warm (~21C) room. Nearly 4" tall and good leaf development.
Bottom: No more space near a window, so much less light and in a room hovering around 14C-16C to boot.
I'm torn between getting a couple of fluorescent fittings and giving all of them enough light and holding on for hopefully not more than a month, maybe rotating them in and out of the sunlight, until it stops being colder than 10C outside at night.
>>2508 I spotted a couple of these buggers over the last few days so I put out some sticky traps. It would appear my tomatoes have become infested with fungus gnats. Wikipedia says they're a possibly a sign of overwatering which I don't think I did but I'll make sure to give it an extra day or so. Have any of you had any trouble with them?
>>2510 I fucking loathe the things, but they're less of a danger to plants than a lot of other pests.
They're not always a sign of overwatering, sometimes it's just one of those things. You can get rid of them by letting the plant dry out, and risk killing it the plant too, but they'll often be back again when you start watering again.
I repotted my serranos and scotch bonnets last weekend and stuck them outside, but I think I may have jumped the gun.
Is it normal for torrential rain to leave holes in the leaves of some of my chili plants? Does it damage the plants? Also, this morning I found one or two little lumps of what appeared to be ice on top of the soil. Should I be worried about that? The temperature hasn't dropped below 7-8 C since I put my peppers outside, so it's weird to see.
Should I just put my peppers back inside until the weather gets consistently hotter? They're too big to put back on a windowsill, so it'll be warmer for them but they wouldn't be getting that much light.
>>2512 >Also, this morning I found one or two little lumps of what appeared to be ice on top of the soil.
Probably just nitrates from the soil being left on the surface as water evaporates.
I only know this from reading dodgy old IRA manuals about how to make explosives, the white stuff you get on top of soil (especially gravesoil) is one of the ingredients.
>Is it normal for torrential rain to leave holes in the leaves of some of my chili plants
Oh God yes...Sorry to say it lad, but at the moment, in my experience, the best thing you can do is cut the stem before the leaves start and cross your fingers.
Curious to know, but my butternut squash is growing at an alarming rate from my pots. It tends to sag and grow along the ground, is there a way I can prop up the leaves?
