Monday, November 17, 2008

Perth Garden update

Well, after a week in Perth hanging out with my plants (and my family), I didn't manage to get even one picture of them that was good enough to put up here on the site. Shocking I know. Hopefully I can get some pics taken by my wife, as I wont be back to see them for over a month at this stage, I'm going to get withdrawal for sure.
So of the plants in Perth, the cherry tomatoes are looking good, there are some sporadic fruits there, but its going to be a while before I get some really good crops from them. I repotted some plants, mainly because the plants were 3 feet high, but were living in a 15cm pot. Not the best. I did some research on plant nutrients, and realised that I was feeding them high nitrogen foliage booster, not exactly what I wanted. So instead, I have now changed over to using a tomato specific liquid fertiliser. I mixed in some slow release npk when I potted the plants, but I'm figuring that the liquid stuff is what I need. Im going to post more about what I have learnt with regards to fertiliser in another post.
My Roma plant is looking pretty good these days, it has a couple of fruit hanging off of it, but the foliage on that one is amazing. It is much more bushy that I had expected. I put a stake in the pot just in case, but it doesn't seem to be necessary at all, very impressed!
The Grosse Lisse's are a little behind the others, but they were two weeks later into the ground, so no big surprise there. The size of some of these ones, though, is pretty amazing, some of them are now over 4 feet and looking very good. I did have the intention of knocking off the lateral shoots, like I was told to do, but when I was looking at the plants, I realised I didn't actually know which ones they were. Needless to say, in the interests of not killing my plants, the shoots are still there. I am open to help on this one though, any takers?
The chillies are doing pretty well, the chili inferno plant has 3 fruit on it (Yay!), and a whole heap of flowers. I decided to try and manually pollinate some of them while I was there, I figured even if I destroy those flowers, there should be enough season left to grow another round.
The mild chili plant isn't showing any signs of reproduction yet, it barely even had any pods on it, hopefully its just a late starter. I hadn't realised how much these two had grown until I saw them next to the habaneros, which are only 2 weeks old, the first two must be 2 feet tall by now.
The habaneros are looking alright, but definitely not amazing. The leaves have curled up along the leaf, forming a U-shape, not sure why that is going on. I fed them with tomato feed, (I am feeding all my chillies with a mixture of Epsom salts and tomato food now, hopefully it makes them grow more fruit), I can only guess it is a nitrogen deficiency, they came from a dodgy nursery so will be interesting to see what happens to them.
The basil all looks pretty good, it seems to be winning its war with the slugs, plus the beer trap is doing its job pretty well. My wife refuses to touch the trap now, she says she doesn't care how many slugs are in it, that's my job and mine alone. Anyway, the plan of growing enough basil to use ifor bottling the tomatoes is working, except I seem to be growing 3 times too much basil. Guess what my friewnds are getting for presents later!
The slugs seem to be winning in the patch of green veggies though, they successfully destroyed one of my pumpkin seedlings, but another one appeared right next to it so should work out al right. The cucumber looks like it has taken a pounding, but should pull through, The peas and beans are growing at an amazing rate, I think they tripled in the size I was there! My mom was surprised that I was growing them now, she doesnt think they will work due to the summer heat. I have no idea what will happen, Im just happy green things are appearing!
I tried a bit of my chocolate mint the other day, it would have to be one of the most amazing plants I have ever smelt. It is exactly like smelling a high quality mint chocolate, I dont think it will have many leaves on it very soon!
I went to the local nursery for a bag of coir mulch for the pots, instead came away with a bag of composting mulch and a Hoa Lat chilli plant. I dont seem to be able to find it on the Chileman's site though, not sure what it really is, or if I have something very new. It is meant to be a hot little sucker, bearing lots of fruit. Either way, my better half has threatened certain parts of my anatomy with certain kitchen knives if any more plants come home, I may have to concede that 12 plants is all I get this year. I am already working on building a list of seeds for next year, although planting time is still 9-10 months away!

1 comment:

Nutty Gnome said...

Nice blog - and I too love chillies! Have you tried them deep fried in batter?
I grow my plants in the greenhouse alongside the tomatoes - if you plant one in the same pot as a tomato plant you get ready chillied tomatoes!!
They get watered and the odd slosh of tomatoe feed and seem to thrive best on semi neglect!