Sunday 23 October 2016

Chilli pepper update - hybrid is ripened, ripe rocoto and second grow area,

With the season over I am currently trying to find homes for all the peppers I want to overwinter. it was a pretty successful season considering I started so late. 

The stars of the show this year were Aji Lemon, Big Sun Habanero, My own Hybrid (what can I say I'm biased), and some of the small fruited annum varieties.

Aji lemon produced very well and peppers have a unique flavour. I have overwintered three plants, two of which produced well. The third was a very late start so didn't have a chance to fruit. The reason I am keeping this one is it was grown from homegrown seed so there chance it could be another hybrid.

Big Sun Habanero is/was the first chinense  variety that has ever produced well (or at all) outside for me. It produced good numbers of large pods with the typical habanero heat and flavour and the pods are extremely sort after round the kitchen for sauces, jams and Caribbean cuisine. I only had one plant of these which has been brought in over winter, but as it will did so well I will start off some seed from a pod. None of these were isolated pods so there maybe another accidental cross. I am not worried as this is half the fun with home collected seed.
Big Sun Habanero


My own Hybrid produced/ripened only a few peppers but was started very late. It appears to be a cross between Black Hungarian and a Bell Pepper. It seem to produce well for a larger podded variety. More about this pepper in a minute.

Small fruited annum varieties all produce fairly well and seem to be the best types for growing outside in our climate.

The next thing I have been looking forward to all season is my Red Rocoto. Capsicum pubescens varieties take a very long time to mature, but overwinter well. I recently bought the plant indoors in order to help ripen its peppers and have been rewarded with my first very nearly ripe fruit. Any day now I will harvest my first pod, which no doubt will be stuffed. Capsicum pubescens have a different heat profile because of different levels of chemicals to the other species. The peppers are large round and juicy and make great stuffing peppers. I will collect and save the seeds as I didn't grow any other pubescens varieties (I don't think any neighbors grew any), so the seeds should be true to type.
Capsicum pubescens Red Rocoto


Next I have taken a photo of some of plants in my second grow area which is predictably full already. This a strange view of the plants in there because it is difficult to get a photo because the area is inside my aquarium cabinet. I may need to start thinking about where I am going to put the next batch of plants or maybe start giving away some where I have more than one of the same variety.
Cupboard plants (grow area 2)

Lastly I have harvested my first ripe pepper off my own hybrid pepper, that I wrote about in my blog post -  "A tale of two brothers". The plant grew from seed taken from a Hungarian black pepper. The other seeds grew normally, true to phenotype. One plant grew  larger leaves, flowers and peppers. My best guess was that it crossed with a bell pepper.
Homegrown hybrid pepper photographed with unripe Hungarian Black
As can be seen in the above photos, the hybrid pepper has a larger, more boxy appearance than the purebred pepper. The pepper had thick juicy walls very much like a bell pepper. the flavour also reminded me of bell pepper. it was sweet juicy but we some heat. the heat was about as hot as it is pleasent to eat raw. these would be nice in a salad if you like a little heat. they would also make very good stuffing peppers. inside the pepper had a good number of seeds and appeared to have three lobes, again like a bell pepper, even though you could not see the separate lobes from the outside. The pepper ripened to a vibrent red with some black shadowing
Inside of Hybrid pepper with proper camera

Overall I really like this accidental hybrid and have saved the plant for next year. I have also saved the seeds from the ripe pepper and will attempt to grow F2 next year. Due to the large amount of variation in F2 plants I will have to grow a quite a few to see lots of different characteristics. I will be aiming for plants similar to F1. The characteristics I would like to stabilize are, the larger size(still with good yield), lots of sweetness, some heat but not too much and attractive pod colour. At the end of the season I will save seeds from the F2 plant that most follows these characteristics.

That's all folks! lots more posts on the way. Among other projects, I have now received lots more wild capsicum seeds and will get some started soon.

Friday 21 October 2016

Pepper relatives continued, Solanaceae - Part 4 - Non-solanum solanaceae

I have enjoyed writing about my pepper relatives and l look forward even more too starting of the seeds. If you have not read the previous installments of pepper relatives they can be accessed here - 

For the last post on pepper relatives I will list some of the non-solanum solanaceae species I have collected to grow next season. The first of these species is physalis, which I have covered in a previous blog post but I thought I would relist as I have collected more varieties since writing that original post. 

Physalis

Tomatillo


Physalis ixocapa ( philadelphica) Verde - Green tomatillo. These have been cultivated in mexico and Guatemala for a long time. This means there are multiple varieties. I have "verde" so far but may try to find one of the really big varieties. I have grown these before and they were very nice and very productive. The fruits are large and burst through the husk. they have a savory flavour similar to but different from a tomato. Used for making salsa verde. Also nice in sauces.

Physalis ixocapa ( philadelphicaPurple - As above but with smaller purple fruit. I only have one variety just called purple so far. I may pick another in due course.
Physalis ixocapa  ( philadelphicaYellow - I haven't yet got seed for this one. as above but ripening yellow.

Physalis ixocapa  ( philadelphicaAmarylla - Large abundant yellow fruits. A polish heirloom variety. This species originates in central America was developed in poland, I bought it from america where it was grown and will grow it in the UK, so a truely international plant. Being a Polish developed variety it should also like the conditions here better than some of the varieties developed in Mexico or Guatemala. 
Tomatillo Amarylla seed packet



Cape gooseberry


Physalis peruviana - I haven't yet got seed for this one, but will do just haven't picked a cultivator. Originally from Peru as the name suggests. It has been cultivated in UK and South Africa for a long time so there are few different varieties. Fruits are smaller than tomatillos but sweeter. They used as a fruit, apparently with a pineapple like flavour.


Ground cherry
the rest of the species I can find are ground cherries of varying wildness

Physalis pruinosa - The seeds I ordered from the states have now arrived.they looked like home collected seed in a hand written packet. The variety is called "Old molly's". Physalis pruinosa appear to be like a smaller cape gooseberry. ripening yellow or red.
Physalis pubscens - As above. Hairy leaves as name suggests. a wilder species. I have bought a chinese packet of seeds that says its physalis pubscens. on the website it was listed as cape goosberry, on the packet it says melon, so I am not sure what they will turn out to be. I hope they are pubscens and should be able to tell from the hairy leaves or lack there of.
Physalis crassifolia - Small and wild and probably not edible. I saw the seeds while flicking through physalis on ebay, they were cheap and  not a species I had so I bought some.
Physalis pubscens - I hope!

Chinese lantern

Physalis alkekengi - Chinese lanterns are ornamental plants grown for their red husks. The plant is much more cold tolerant than the other species. Because of this, I thought I would grow some to try and use as root-stocks - grafting other physalis to its roots. There is much conflicting information about if this plant is edible. It appears that it is edible when fully ripe but not particularly pleasant. The confusion seems to come from seed companies and plant labels being too lazy to explain. It has developed for colour not flavour and could be toxic if eaten unripe(so can a tomato). This certainly seems to happen with ornamental peppers.
Physalis alkekengi - Chinese lanterns

Jaltomata

Meant to be the sister genus to Solanum. The fruits of jaltomata procumbens (the cultivated variety I see available) are similar in use and look to Solonum nigrum except that have a larger calyx like a physalis, However unlike the physalis the calyx does not extend around the fruit as protection.  Plants look similar to pepper plants and are meant to be productive, producing good amounts of pea sized fruit. There are many species within the genus originating in North, Central and South America. the common cultivated species seems to be jaltomata procumbens, but the seed packet I have collected just list as jaltomata sp.
Jaltomata sp.

Tamarillo
There is again some argument around the classification of these, again... they could be a solanum sp. rather than in there own genus 

Solanum/Cyphomandra betaceum - The Tamarillo or tree tomato is a small tree or large shrub native to the andes. its fruit are said to taste like a cross between a tomato and a passion fruit. I have not collected seed for these as i have tried unsucessfully in the past. the plant is not frost tolerant and gets large.

Solanum/Cyphomandra abutiloides - Known as the Dwarf tomatillo as it simillar if smaller to its above reletive. Like its relative it grows very quickly into a large plant with fragrant leaves. fruits are edible but can be unpredictable as not been domesticated for flavour. I have seeds for these in the hope that the smaller sixe of the fruit and plant should give me more of a chance at getting ripe fruit.
Dwarf tomatillo

That is all my pepper relatives for now I may do a round up and add some more pictures when I have more seeds delivered or seedlings to show off. Also I am always finding new species and varieties that I cant resist on collecting. Like just now for instance while researching fruits for this page I found another plant in the solonum nigrum group which I will have to obtain seeds for - Solanum opacum greenberry.

Anyway, enough... signing off

Thursday 20 October 2016

Seaside trip

I have not posted for a while because I have be so busy. This past weekend was the first holiday I have been on in a very long time. I thought it would be nice to do a post about what I saw and did, and show some of the photos I took.

We stayed In a cottage in Wangford in Suffolk. Wangford is a small village near Southwold. Southwold is a picturesque town centered around its lighthouse and brewery. The Adnams brewery was founded in 1872 and is and was the main employer in the town. I used to Visit Southwold on holiday as a child and can remember them delivering casks to the local pubs by horse and cart (they ended this only 2006).

On our first morning we visited RSPB Minsmere. Upon arrival, once we had traveled through the obligotery gift shop, we walked out into a beautiful sunny morning. We walked along paths through the marsh which was made up of areas of open water between tall reeds phragmities sp. and reedmace typha sp. Once we got nearer the coast and walked over a sand dunes I got my first sight of the sea. Along these dunes I spotted lots of sea kale Crambe maritima growing.
The flats at Minsmere

Phone photo over the dunes at Minsmere
Sea kale Crambe maritima

While walking along the shale beach I found a mermaids purse or "shark egg". From the shape and a bit of googling I think it is probably the egg of some variety of Skate Raja sp., So a ray rather than a shark or dogfish.
Mermaids purse
 The beach with better camera

On the way out of Minsmere I was lucky enough to snap a photo of a darter dragonfly resting on a handrail between hunting midges.
Dragonfly

I accomplished another one of the things I wanted to do later that day while at another beach near Covehithe hamlet. I went in the sea, to me a trip to the seaside is not complete without going in at least once, even if it is October. The sea was quite rough and the water pretty cold, but not as bad as I was expecting and I manged to wade out and swim a few strokes.
Getting in!

On the other side of the beach from the sea there was a marsh and this marsh i saw an egret searching food. a beautiful bird, I wish I had taken a photo. I also collected a piece of drift wood with some living algae on on this beach which I brought home and added to my refugium. I know this a risk of adding nasties to my tank but I wanted to do add it anyway. 
Driftwood - floating


On the second day we stopped to take photos at the field of pumpkins near the village.
Pumpkins, all ready for haloween

we then visited southwold pier and i got a photo on my phone of Southwold with the sun breaking through cloud and hitting the lighthouse.
lucky photo
Sunday was pretty windy, and a lot of foam from organics in the water was building up on the shore, like a giant protein skimmer.
Foam

The other place we visited on Sunday was Southwold harbor. The harbor is home to a reduced but still working fishing fleet. There was large amount of what looked like marsh saphire Salicornia europaea. 
Marsh saphire Salicornia europaea.


All in all I had a great time and it was very nice to go somewhere different with lots of new scenery and new species (to me) to study.

Wednesday 12 October 2016

Pepper relatives continued, Solanaceae - Part 3 - Other Solanum sp.

I have enjoyed writing about my pepper relatives and l look forward even more too starting of the seeds. If you have not read the previous installments of pepper relatives they can be accessed here - 
Other Solanum sp.
Here I will list the other species of solanum I have collected together.


Cannibals tomato Solanum uporo - Originating from the south pacific, where Fijian cannibals supposedly used it to make the perfect accompaniment to human flesh. Its fruit are probably more similar to a red eggplant than a tomato. With the plants themselves looking somewhere between a tomato and an eggplant. its a plant I am looking forward to growing as it looks like it shares quite a few similarity's with peppers. I already have seeds which I will start a couple off soon and leave the rest till the spring. The variety I have says "black stem".

Cocona Solanum sessiliflorum/topiro - A variety I bought without researching properly, it may turn out to need warmer conditions than I can give. Similar to another plant I have not yet listed or collected, the "naranja" Solanum quitoense. Fruits of this plant can be yellow to red depending on the variety. The seeds I have have a red fruit on the picture. the plant is meant to be an eggplant like evergreen shrub. The fruits are meant to taste like a cross between a tomato and a lemon.

Pepino Solanum muricatum - A cultivated species also called a melon pear. fruits are small and egg-shaped. They are green to yellow with striking darker striping. The plants appear potato like. The flowers are also potato like with purple and white petals.
Pepino seeds


Tzimbalo Solanum caripense - A smaller green fruited species similar to the above pepino. Many consider it the original wild plant the pepino was domesticated from. The fruit is smaller but meant to have a more distinct flavour. plants like warm sunny conditions but are meant to take the cold better than pepino.

Litchi Tomato Solanum sisymbriifolium - Also called Morelle de Balbis, this unusual plant is covered in spines. The fruit ripens red with a spiky enlarged calyx that protects the unripe fruit. The fruit is meant to taste like a cross between a sour cherry and a tomato. I have seeds on order for these and look forward to starting some although many people dislike this plant because of its spines.

There are lots more species of solanum I have not listed yet, but I have not yet found seeds for. I will add more varieties as and when I find seeds. stay tuned for another pepper relatives installment. next one will be about the non solanum solanaceae.

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Pepper relatives continued, Solanaceae - Part 2 - Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum

I have enjoyed writing about my pepper relatives and l look forward even more too starting of the seeds. If you have not read the previous installments of pepper relatives they can be accessed here - 
Black Nightshade Solanum nigrum

The next species of pepper relative I have collected is Solanum nigrum. Black nightshade, a native of Eurasia, is thought off by most as a poisonous plant. Some of this lies down to the confusion between it and deadly nightshade Atropa Belladonna, a more poisonous distant relative member of the Solanaceae family not belonging to solanum. The uncooked leaves and unripe fruit of solanum nigrum are poisonous, However the cooked leaves and ripe fruits are eaten in many cultures. Cultivated forms have less of the toxins and ripe fruit from these are can be eaten by most people. There are also cultivators listed under different names like solanum melanocerasum (Garden huckleberry) which most people class either as a cultivated form of solanum nigrum or at least a very close relatives belonging to the same group.

Solanum nigrum? self collected - On a recent trip to my dads new house I collected several plants which I think are solonum nigrum. They could be self seeded plants from a previous gardeners cultivated plants or perhaps more likely seeds dropped by birds. I collected several plants which definitely look like all the photos I have seen of wild solonum nigrum. The plants look similar to capsicum if a bit more "weedy". The flowers are small and white with bright yellow anthers. The flowers are similar to Solanum pseudocapsicum (another plant I have and will cover later). The fruits are very small and green at the moment, although I saw some ripe purple berries on plants in the same flower bed. The fruits look like tiny berries although they do bare a resemblance to tiny chilli peppers.
Solanum nigrum? self collected



Garden huckleberry solanum melanocerasum - An old variety that seems to be a larger fruited cultivated form of solanum nigrum. The ripe purple fruits are often used to make jams.  I have got seeds for these and will start a couple of plants off in the spring.

Blackberries (Schwartzenbeeren) Solanum nigrum - A variety I found on the american seed site - www.rareseeds.com. It is said to be an old German variety introduced to America by German immigrants in about 1875.

Chichiquelite huckleberry Solanum nigrum - Another variety I got from the same site. I have also read of other people on gardening forums growing. Another selected cultivator with purple berries originating from Chichiquelite, Mexico.

Otricoli Orange berry Solanum nigrum - It was this variety that lead me to the above site. Having read about it elsewhere, I was searching for reliable seeds. This variety has the same growth habit and flowers as other nigrum varieties but with bright orange berries. It was found Italy in the ancient roman site of Ocriculum, growing along a river bank among the ordinary purple berried variety.

Wonderberry/Sunberry Solanum burbankii - This variety, developed by Luther Burbank to be a sweeter, larger fruited garden huckleberry. Thought to be a hybrid of the standard garden huckleberry with one of the species or varieties within the nigrum group.

That is all for now but keep a look out for another pepper relatives installment I still have lots more species/varieties to cover, Who knows where I am going to put them all next year.

Saturday 8 October 2016

Pepper relatives, Solanaceae - Part 1 - Tomato, potato, Aubergine

Last night I ordered MORE chilli pepper seeds, including a few wild species which no doubt will be a subject for a post in the near future.
Reading about the wild pepper species got me thinking about other (edible) species closely related to peppers. Plant classifications are far from set in stone for instance many do not class Capsicum rhomboideum as a part of the capsicum family. It has yellow flowers, its fruit have no heat and the overall plant look quite different from other capsicums. I would like to see the similarities and differences of other plants related to capsicum  I have always liked how peppers grow with multiple harvests, manageable growth, and high yield (usually!). It would be nice to find some other plants with similar characteristics. It also appeals to the mad collector in me, who just has to have and try, one of every plant I read about.

I have enjoyed writing about my pepper relatives and l look forward even more too starting of the seeds. If you have not read the previous installments of pepper relatives they can be accessed here - 

Solanaceae (the nightshade family)

The family capsicum belongs to is Solanaceae (the nightshade family). The family contains many interesting species ranging from the extremely poisonous to important agricultural crops.  The most obvious of these are the tomato, aubergine (eggplant) and potato, but there are many others.
I have collected seeds for many (probably too many!) different species to try. I hope I can grow at least one or two plants of each but we will see how space goes in the coming year

Tomato Solanum lycopersicum
First a bit of a explanation about the classification of the tomato, so skip forward a paragraph, unless like me you find plant classification interesting. There is some difficulty with the scientific naming of the tomato, because of this you will see several different versions around. From what I understand tomatoes were originally in the solanum genus. They were then separated into there own genus - lycopersicon. They have since been returned to the solanum genus due to modern genetic evidence. That being said all the tomato species within solanum are very similar to each other but are distinctly different from other solanum species, so are said to be in the lycopersicon group within solanum. So yes technically I should call all tomato species solanum ___ but to differentiate between them and other solanum I will carry on using lycopersicon.

This year I grew many cultivated varieties of tomato lycopersicon lycopersicum, but next year I would like to try some wild species. I have started looking for these seeds and ordered my first along with my peppers from  https://www.semillas.de/. My first wild species of tomato is the "Galapagos island tomato" lycopersicon cheesmanii. These are a sprawling hairy plants with very small yellow fruits. One of the reasons this tomato is of interest is it has a good resistance to salt and drought and can pass these traits on when hybridized with other more common species/varieties. There are other species I have not got yet, but will probably try to collect including the "Current tomato" lycopersicon pimpinenellifolium.


Potato solanum tuberosum
As with the tomato, there are many species of potato. the species all the cultivated varieties are is solanum tuberosum. However there are many other species that have been used for breeding-in various wanted traits. I have not seen any wild species seed anywhere but will keep an eye out.
I did not grow any cultivated varieties of potato this year as space was an issue. I will probably try growing one or two varieties in large pots next year, mostly to have another solanum species in my collection to compare to.

Aubergine, Eggplant, Solanum melongena

There are many cultivated varieties of aubergine although I have not grown many. I have always struggled with these as they seem to need warmer and sunnier conditions than I can provide. The best I have done was one year in the poly-tunnel I produced three fruits on two plants. Next year I will grow one or two small podded cultivated varieties, in the hope this makes them quicker to mature.
The only aubergine seeds I have so far
The other cultivated species off eggplant commonly seen is the African eggplant solanum aethiopicum. fruits of these are usually round and red making the plant look like a cross between an aubergine and a tomato, i have not yet got seeds for any of these but will probably get at least one too try.

The pea eggplant solanum torvum is another close relative, with small green fruit. I will grow at least one to see its own fruit but mostly will grow it as a good root-stock, for grafting cultivated aubergine species. It grows a large root system and if protected from frost, the plant can grow as a perennial if on torvum root-stock.

As this post is turning into another huge list I will split it up and publish it in parts.

To be continued...

Saturday 1 October 2016

Chilli pepper update - Indoor growing areas filling up

As the season draws to close my indoor grow areas are filling up. In fact the first grow area I have shown on this blog before, is full. I managed to squeeze in thirty pepper plants.
No more room!

Some of these are plants that produced peppers this year and i would like to keep for next year. They have been cut back in order to fit in as many plants as possible. The others were seeds started too late for peppers this year but should give me a head start on next year. In the last update I did on these plants they had been recently topped. All the topped plants have now got new shoots and leaves appearing at each leaf node. This will help keep the plants more compact as each plant now has multiple growing tips.
Topped peppers

I have also recently potted on the next round of seedlings. I have not yet set up the other area I am going to keep them overwinter, so these are on my windowsill while the temperature is not too cold.
Windowsill plants - Excuse the darkness I forgot take photo this morning and it was dark when I got home from work this evening

That's it for today but there will be further updates soon as I am in the process of trying to collect together some more seeds of wild capsicum varieties. I also have some other species (mostly different solonum sp.) I have collected that are related to peppers and tomatoes. I am not sure how long a season these will need, so I will start some seeds and write up a blog post on them soon. I have lots of seed so if these grow too fast I can always start some again in the spring.