Propagation box

It's still winter, but now is the time to start the first seeds. I am keen to have some biggish seedlings when it is finally time to start planting. Chillis, capsicums and eggplants seem to need longer to grow to a decent size. What to do?

Make your own propagation box!

Take some styrofoam boxes.

Add heat mats (in this case they are actually reptile mats).

Put your trays on that. (The seedling punnets will go in there.)

Cover with an old window.

Get yourself a thermometer with a probe, so that you can measure the temperature of the tray.

Start sowing! :)

As you may be able to see in the picture, the temperature inside the box climbed to 24C within a few minutes.

Frost and chillies

These two plants survived last winter. This was a very pleasant surprise as we experienced quite a few severe frosts a few days in a row then. Now we had the first frosty morning (their second winter) and they are still looking good. There are still a few chillies ripening up on the plants and the Orange Rocoto (Manzano Amarillo) is flowering profusely.

The plant on the left is a Bishop's Crown and you can see why when you look at its fruit. They are bright red when fully ripe. They are not very hot and only give you a little kick. They are particularly nice stuffed with good feta.

The fruit of the Orange Rocoto is small and oval-shaped, orange in colour when ripe, thick walled, has black seeds and a fruity taste. I ate some that didn't have any heat at all but you can also get the odd one that will blow off your head.

Orange Rocoto

Flower of the Orange Rocoto