I’ve mentioned a few times that i’ve recently moved house. In my old place I only had a small yeard, surrounded by tall houses and a large tree which meant that it was shaded for most of the day. As a result the growth rates of my chillies was slow and I relied on gro lights to get my plants started early and up to size early enough in the season to allow me to get fruit by late summer. To help keep the plants warm I used cheap mini greenhouses to maximize their growth.
Luckily I now have a bigger garden before which is south facing so it gets plenty of sun. In addition it has a summerhouse/conservatory which I have been able to take over a section of to house my plants. Needless to say the this has now become known as the chilli house. As it is double glazed it retains much more heat than the cheap greenhouses I used to use. To help avoid over heating I’m opening the windows and leaving the door open during the day and closing everything up at night time.
I’ve been amazed so far at the speed of growth the plants have put on with the extra light and heat they are getting within the chilli house. As a result, the plants are needing much more watering, usually twice a day when the weather is hot. Also the extra space will prove very useful at the end of the summer as I intend to try to over winter all of the plants I have grown this year.
This ‘posh’ mushroom on toast is a great summer lunch, hearty breakfast or simple healthy snack. It is essential for this recipe to use good bread. If you haven’t checked it out before our no knead bread recipe is perfect for this.
Mushroom Bruchetta Ingredients
20 Mushrooms
1 clove of garlics
Handful of fresh thyme
1 red chilli
pinch of salt
handful of cherry tomatos
Method
Finely cut the garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes in a little olive oil. Next add the mushroom (sliced) and fry gently for 5 minutes. Add the chopped chilli and fresh thyme to the pan and saute for a further 3-4 minutes.
Meanwhile roughly cut the cherry tomatoes and toast a couple of slices of bread.
Serve the mushrooms on top of the toast and then add the tomatoes on top., You can finish the dish by adding a drizzle of olive oil.
It’s been a few weeks since I last posed and update on my chillies. After re-potting last time (to 6″ pots) in mid May many of the plants were suffering from drooping leaves. I put this down to a combination of hot daytime temperatures and the shock from re-potting. The Cayenne’s are all now about 14″ in height and are looking a bit leggy (though Cayenne’s tend not to be the bushiest of plants) so I have used bamboo canes to give them a bit of support.
The plants have continued to grow quickly despite the inconsistent weather. The only plants that are lacking a bit in growth are the orange habaneros and bhut jolokia, partly due to me not planting my seeds until the start of April. While the plants look very healthy they are only about 4″ tall. I’ve just re-potted these into 7″ pots and moved them to a more prominent position in the chilli house to maximize the amount of sun they get.
I’ve not grown as many varieties this year as I would have liked. Having recently moved house things have been a bit hectic this spring so I recently added a shop bought Scotch Bonnet (see below) plant to this years crop.
This shop bought scotch bonnet chilli plant looks really healthy after I re-potted it and is now just starting to flower so hopefully i’ll get some fruit to set in the next 2-3 weeks. As most of my chilli plants are living in a conservatory i will pollinate these plants by hand.
