Chilli Harvest 2009

Today we harvested our chillies. These have all been grown in a greenhouse in the garden, rather than on LottiePlotFour.

We grew a range of varieties.

The 'Ring 'o' Fire' was very successful as always and produced a reliable crop. 'Peach Habanero' were much slower to mature and I have harvested many of the fruits green. Perhaps these need more sun that Manchester can offer, but time will tell on their heat levels. 'Black Pearl' was a very pretty plant. We only grew 1 plant and it was productive harvesting over 30 fruits. These fruits are dark purple in colour, but do ripen to red. They are also very hot! We grew 'Pepperdew' which are the same variety as that well known mild chillies you can buy in a sweet syrup at the supermarket. These were large plants, but didn't seem to produce that many chillies per plant. Again, perhaps they need a hotter climate. We do have enough to make one jar though so once they are ripe I will set to try and preserve our own. 'F1 Joe's Long' were a very heavy cropper, but they are very mild. They do live up to their name though as most were approaching 20cm long. 'Praire Fire' was, once again, a reliable favourite. These little bushy plants produce hundreds of very small, but extremely hot chillies. They ripen through yellow, orange and red and are very decorative. 'Pepper Pepper' the 'penis-shaped' chilli was entertaining as always. They have a real kick and are a good talking point.

The final variety we attempted are the world famous 'Bhut Jolokia'. These are the chillies listed as the hottest variety in the 'Gunniess Book of Records'. These chillies are rated to have a heat of over a million scoville units. For comparison; tabasco red pepper sauce rates at 2,500-5,000. Again these needed a longer season, but we have got a few ripe fruits.

I have brought in 2 praire fire and 2 Bhut Jolokia plants and will attempt to overwinter these for an earlier start next year.


Praire Fire



Pepperdew



F1 Joe's Long



Ring 'o' Fire



Peter Pepper



Peach Habanero



Black Pearl



Bhut Jolokia (still on plant)



The full Harvest

A video update at the beginning of October

We have been cropping like mad, but most things are now coming to an end. During September we started clearing an area of the plot in preparation for planting overwintering onions and garlic. These are going in where this years spuds were planted and we have decided to add some 10x4ft beds for this purpose.

Some crops are at their best during autumn including our autumn raspberries. We also have lots of chinese greens for stir fry.

With the frosts fast approaching we decided to harvest the squash, but have left in the 2 large Atlantic giant pumpkins (on our other plot). These are too big to move and we will hollow these out at the end of the month and decorate them for halloween.

This weekend was the allotment AGM. We were awarded a prize for achieving the overall highest points and first place in the home produce section of our annual show, which took place in August.

In addition, LottiePlotFour was awarded a shield for the 'most improved plot'.

A video update in August

Garlic Braids 2009

After giving the garlic a few weeks to dry out I have braided it for storage. This year we are also planning to keep the bigger bulbs to replant next year.

June 2009 update

Following the first garlic harvest, we have now removed all the japanese onions, shallots and a further 2 beds of garlic. This year the Solent Wight garlic has been a bit of a let down as the bulbs are rather small. The japanese onions have produced an impressive crop with some real whoppers amoungst the harvest. With the first bed of onions we made a large batch of onion and balsamic vinegar chutney. The second bed are drying in the greenhouse.



In addition, the greenhouse and garden are coming along nicely.

Chillies



Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Sweet Peppers



More Chillies!



Various flower borders









Koi Pond

First garlic lifted

Today we lifted the first bed of garlic. These are a variety called 'purple wight'. They crop early, but are not noted to have the best storing capacity. Saying this, ours stored fine up to March last year! The total is about 80 bulbs. There is the odd small one, but the majority are a reasonable size so we are pleased. The plants did develop a little rust, but this was just over the last week and it doesn't seem to have affected the crop.



Here you can see that we leave the soil on the plants.



We give the plants a good shake, but don't wash them. They will be left to dry in the greenhouse. After a couple of weeks the bulbs are not so easily damaged and the mud comes off by removing the most outer layer around the bulbs. We can then braid them for storage.

The first early potatoes (arran pilot) were also dug out today. After reading about replanting early spud plants, if they still have pea sized tubers on, we have decided to give this a go. The theory is that you can get a second crop. Once we had removed the edible-sized potatoes we re-planted the plant and watered in well. Time will tell if we have success with this method.