Chilies and tomatoes were planted out in the greenhouse today – a very wam May 8th. A bit earlier than other years, but the plants were ready and it looks like the warm weather will last.
2 x Tumbler (bush tomatoes planted in pots, to be placed outside)
Chilies
1 Cayenne Long Slim
1 Friars’ Hat
1 Jalapeno
1 Lemon Drop
All planted on top of capillary trays.
That leaves us with 4 slots free to use for additional plants, e.g. a cucumber and some special varieties of chili and tomato.
Following some good results with herbs last year, I also put some between the tomatoes: A parsley that survived the winter in the greenhouse; and some mint and chive that I salvaged from a herb bed that needs major maintenance.
Update May 6: Chilies and tomatoes ready for the greenhouse.
It is still February but the days have already grown much longer and there is daylight when I go to work and when I come home. That means it is also time to start thinking about what is going to happen in the garden this year and in particular what goes into the greenhouse, because now is the time to sow anything you want to sow yourself.
One good thing about writing this up systematically is that it helps capture thoughts and decisions about what to sow. We usually have some good ideas for new things to try when we order the seeds, but forget them once we have sown and so we end up with a result like last year and the year before that and… Now, this year we will write down objectives for ourselves so that we remember (occupational hazard). Also, while we usually take some time every fall to think about what went well and what didn’t, those lessons learned have not been captured. Until now, that is (occupation hazard, again).
Objectives:
Try out some milder chili sorts, e.g., Habanero Dulce, Trinidad Perfume or Vicente’s Sweet Habanero (will buy plants since we don’t have seeds already) 1
Try some of Gartneri Toftegaard‘s own tomato cultivars (every year we note down the best at the every year at the tasting day, and this time we will use them 2
Successfully preserve chilies (we didn’t succeed the last couple of years)
Lessons Learned:
Capillary boxes worked really well – we are doing that again
We had trouble with lice on the chilies last year, probably because the plants were standing too close to each other and there was insufficient air circulation
Chilies may have been sown too late, the tomatoes too early
Chilies should be dried in a warm place like a sunny windowsill and not on the top of a cupboard (but we just weren’t ready to place chilies within easy reach of a toddler)
Last year we tried capillary boxes for the first time and were very pleased with the result: Reduced maintenance and improved growth, which also means that there will not be room for as many different plants as we used to have.
Also, we will sow chilies early and tomatoes later. Looking in our records, I see we have done this before:
2015: Mar 19
2014: Mar 2
2012: Mar 17 and Apr 1
2010: Feb 28 (Chilies), Mar 21 (Tomatoes & Chilies)
Time will tell if this gives us a better result this year than last, and we can record the outcome in new lessons and revisit the year’s objectives.
Here is what was sown:
Chilies 2016
Because we use capillary boxes we only expect to have seven chili plants this year. Since we will buy the milder chili plants, we only sow five different sorts this year.
Habanero
Habanero
Lemon Drop
Lemon Drop
Jalapeno
Jalapeno
Friars Hat
Friars Hat
Friars Hat
Cayenne Long Slim
Cayenne Long Slim
Cayenne Long Slim
Chilies sown on Feb 22, all seeds from 2015
Tomatoes 2016
Goal is to have 12 plants in green house and maybe some outdoor bush tomatoes, so depending on the outcome we may use 2 of each plant, or maybe buy some other sorts from a nursery.
Rosadel
Rosadel
Tangidel
Tangidel
Sungold
Black Cherry
Black Cherry
Bloody Butcher
Bloody Butcher
Gardeners Delight
First in the Field (bush)
Tumbler (bush)
Tomatoes sown on Mar 27, all seeds from 2015
Mar 2
Checked under the canopy today – several seeds have already sprouted, with seedlings more than 2 cm long. Cayenne Long Slim has come the farthest, Lemon Drop is just about to break though and Habanero isn’t there yet.
Mar 6
The canopy comes off
Mar 14
The longest sprouts or about 7 centimeters long. The Lemon Drops are still small, but may turn out all right, whereas I have no hope for the Habaneros.
Mar 27
Time to move the best chili sprouts into pots and sow tomatoes.
Outcome of the different chili seeds were:
(#seeds/#sprouts/#re-potted)
Habanero: 10/0/0
Lemon Drop: 10/4/3 (two of them significantly weaker)
Jalapeno: 10/6/4
Friar’s Hat: 15/10/5
Cayenne Long Slim: 15/8/3
Also bought potatoes to to lay in our own little patch. one very early sort (Frieslander) and an early sort (Hansa). We are avoiding later sorts to avoid sickness later in the season.
Apr 2
Canopy comes off the tomatoes – sproutlings are alredy 5 cm long.
Apr 10
Some of the tomato sprouts are already more than 10 centimeters long, so time to move the best sprouts into their own pots.
Outcome of the different tomato seeds were:
(#seeds/#sprouts/#re-potted)
Rosadel: 10/7/3
Tangidel: 10/4/3
Sungold: 5/5/3
Black Cherry: 10/6/5
Bloody Butcher: 10/2/2
Gardeners Delight: 5/3/2
First in the Field (bush): 5/0/0
Tumbler (bush): 5/4/2
Looking at the plants after repotting, I wonder if I was out to early – time will tell.
Also: The first chili flowers are showing.
May 6
The plants are ready for the greenhouse – just need to clean it.
May 7
Laid the potatoes out and prepared the greenhouse.
May 8
Chilies and tomatoes planted in the greenhouse.
It is still early to draw conclusions, but I suspect one lesson learned this year will be that the tomatoes could easily have been sowed a week later, but let’s see how it play out in the greenhouse.
As the picture shows, the plants sown and planted this year are certainly flourishing in the greenhouse.
The cucumber was an early, nice surprise, with 6-7 big ones in the end of June, and there is another batch coming. Also, for the first time we have a basil plant – no, bush! – that gives us all the basil leaves we can use.
On the disappointing side, there are still neither tomatoes nor chilies to be harvested. There are lots of plant growth, but little fruit. Maybe it is because I fertilize differently this year, maybe the weather is colder or maybe it is because the plants were sown later than usual. Probably a combination of all three.
Our earliest harvest ever was a Bloody Butcher on Jun 5 and last year (2014) we had Sungold on Jun 22. This year I am tracking things more rigorously than before, so there will be a baseline going forward.
Here is what the greenhouse 2015 looks like so far:
Real harvest start in late August and last until mid-October. On Oct 18 I cut down most remaining plants, leaving only a few chilies that may still ripen. This late, post-season is cut short by early frost.