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 - 

1. Pepper relatives - Tomato, Potato and Aubergine
2. Pepper relatives - Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum
3. Pepper relatives - Other Solanum sp.
4. Pepper relatives - Non-solanum Solonaceae

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.

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 - 

1. Pepper relatives - Tomato, Potato and Aubergine
2. Pepper relatives - Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum
3. Pepper relatives - Other Solanum sp.
4. Pepper relatives - Non-solanum Solonaceae

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.

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 - 

1. Pepper relatives - Tomato, Potato and Aubergine
2. Pepper relatives - Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum
3. Pepper relatives - Other Solanum sp.
4. Pepper relatives - Non-solanum Solonaceae

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...

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.

Preserving peppers

Today I picked my pair of purple pepper plants and processed the peppers into pretty pickled purple peppers...

As the season comes to an end I am always looking for ways to preserve my excess peppers. I have already mad a couple of different sauces and salsas which have worked well. As I cut back a lot of pepper plants today I had a bit of a glut.

Pepper glut

The first method I chose to try was pickling. I had a lot of green unripe and purple chunky pods which would be well suited to pickling. I cut these into rings and placed in a colander so I could wash away the worst of the seeds. I then put these in a large jar. I also added a few yellow and red peppers for a bit bit of contrasting colour. I then heated in a saucepan equal parts water and vinegar, I added a generous amount of salt and black pepper, then brought this too the boil, before turning down to a simmer. After five minutes I turned this off and poured it over the peppers. I filled the jar to the brim and place a rolled up ball of cling film on top. this was to hold the peppers under the brine/vinegar mixture, once the jar is then sealed shut.

Pickled peppers

Next I decide to try make some chilli jam. for this I cheated. I used some shop bought apricot jam as a base. In a blender, I added three nectarines and some big sun Habanero pepper pods. I then transferred this too a saucepan, added more sugar and brought to the boil. I then turned this down to a simmer until it reduced to the desired consistency. I filled up 2 small jars with this jam and they have both set nicely. this jam is ready to use strait away and is nice with meat and cheese.

Finished jam

Of the peppers I had left, all the thin walled (thus easy to dry) varieties were threaded on to a ristra. these varieties will dry in the kitchen window and will be made into powder later.

Ristra

The remaining peppers were dried using my dehydrator. this is useful when drying thick walled peppers that otherwise might mold if left to dry naturally. This is the first time I have dried green peppers but as i had lots I thought I would give it a go. I also added some of my tomatoes to see if they would dry.

Dehydrator

There are many other ways to preserve peppers and I will try others as I harvest the last of my pepper plants but After all that lot it will be while before I feel like venturing back into the kitchen.

Planting a Foreground

first some background. My main planted aquarium has been running for two years and has gone through many changes over that time. Initially the tank had a hair-grass, microsword and Sagittaria foreground but over time this has disappeared leaving the front of the aquarium bare sand.

full tank shot with old light and no foreground

There are a few reasons I lost my foreground plants, one was lighting. The aquarium was lit by two 30watt LED security lights. This worked OK until one of the lights started to flash, so was removed. With only one light the foreground plants struggled as there was only enough light in the centre and many of the crypts in this area started to shade other plants.

Another reason my old foreground plants disappeared was the presence of three stiphodon gobbies. These were great fun to watch and ate a lot of algae. The problem was there burrowing under the substrate. They did this a lot which dug up most of the foreground plants on a regular basis. This constant digging-up stopped the plants flourishing.

Recently upon seeing an old picture of my aquarium I decided I would like to grow a foreground carpet once again. Firstly to solve the lighting problem, I have installed a purpose made aquarium LED fixture over the aquarium. This not only increases the overall brightness but also gives a much more evenly distributed light.

Next I removed the stiphodon, fun to watch as they were, there constant digging was annoying. I also removed many of the other fish as I fancied a change. As well as the aforementioned gobbies I removed galaxy rasbora, redline rasbora (very nice but never came out of hiding no matter what I did), rasbora hengeli, a plakat (short fin) Siamese fighter and various odd fish that I collected over the years. I decided to leave the cherry shrimp, amano shrimp, bristlenose catfish and pygmy corries. I have also added some tiger endler males and various guppy females.

The aquarium was now ready to plant. I chose to use eleocharis (hairgrass), hemianthus callitrichoides and pogostemon helferi. These three varieties have a very different growth habit, leaf shape and overall look. I have had a hairgrass and pogostemon carpet in this aquarium before. The conditons may not be good enough for the Hemianthus but I will give it a try (normally prefers stronger light and additional CO2).

Hairgrass                                                     Hemianthus

As can be seen in the pictures above, when you buy potted aquarium plants they come tightly packed in there pots. From my experience when plants are left like this and planted whole they end up yellowing and dying. The only way I have found to grow these plants into a carpet is to separate these plants into very small pieces and spread them over a larger area. This gives each individual plant enough light and space to establish and spread.

Individual Hairgrass plant.        Hairgrass planted over wide area.

Hemianthus spread out.              Pogostemon spread out.

Overall aquarium shot

Now its just a waiting game to see it fill in. The hairgrass and pogostemon should fill in both ends, and hopefully the hemianthus will carpet the centre.

Chilli pepper update - harvest and grow area

Just a quick update today. As the season winds down my last few varieties which will fruit this year are ripening up. This year is the first year I have successfully grown a  chinense variety outside rather than in a polytunnel or greenhouse. My "big sun habanero" has been outside since I got it. and has produced pretty well, if a bit late. I cant wait to do some cooking with these pods, as they are very hot but delicious. Chinense peppers are my favourite to cook with as have a unique fruity tropical flavour. I'm thinking "peach chilli jam", as I made a small batch of this before and it came out very nice, served with bread and cheese. The sweetness of the jam helps make the heat more bearable and the fruity flavour works brilliantly with peaches.

From left to right

Top row - Cheyenne, ? Unidentified like Apache but chunkier, Apache

Middle row - Gustav purple, Chenzo, Aji lemon, Superchilli F1

Bottom row - Big sun Habanero, not Carolina reaper (that is what they were labeled in the garden centre but clearly they are not), Cayenne

The plants outside are all ripening peppers. At this time of year its always difficult to judge when to cut down my plants and bring them indoors. Too early and I lose the chance to ripen all the remaining green pods. Too late and the frost will hit and kill the plants, preventing me from overwintering. 

Here is my outside Apache, Gustav purple and Hot banana

The first of my overwintering areas is rapidly filling up. I have insulated the window its next to with 3 layers of bubble-wrap. It has some recycled glass cupboard doors and a polystyrene top. it is lit by a small grow-light. its the first time I have used a purpose made LED grow-light bulb rather than a generic white bulb. I may use a 6500k (daylight) LED bulb over the other area (still under construction), to see if it makes much difference.

Here is the grow area

Inside with light on and off

This set up seems to give me the best of both worlds. The peppers get some natural sunlight but supplemented with artificial light. I just hope there is enough insulation on the window.

Just for fun I leave you with a photo I made to act as my Facebook picture as i do not like using a photo of myself