Alpine St'berry, Cape G'seberry, Micro-Tom, MiniBonnet, Basil

[davelaneward]

Thought i would share how my first attempt at growing since radishes as a kid.
These were all sown at the same time. They were propagated indoors and the last few days have sat outside from 9am-7pm in a cold frame.

Lots of pics so its going to take 3 posts...

Basil Lime:

Basil Chen:

[davelaneward]

Ali Baba Alpine Strawberry (half full pots because theyve been sitting outside during nights, so i give them protection from wind):

Micro Tom Tomatoes (overly rich soil stunting the smaller ones?):

[davelaneward]

'Mini Bonnet' Chilli:

Cape Gooseberry:

Bonus points for anyone who can tell me what is causing the slight blackening on this leaf? (i know what caused the burn.....)


Hope you enjoyed the little gallery!

[davelaneward]

Time for an update?

Micro Tom. Apparently they dont set fruit unless in a ~10cm pot, so they are all kinds of warped. They are in a tray because otherwise they would blow away! Still, quite impressed they set fruit at all. I started some other, proper, cherry tomatoes but don't know if they will make it in time.



Dwarf Cape Gooseberry. I have 6, growing really strong in 17lt bags. Those are blueberry plants to the right.



Basil Lime. Been growing strong in the elements for over a month now. Makes great tea. I use alot every day. Very sensitive to fertilizing though.



Mini Bonnet Chilli. I don't know if they should be growing faster. This one has been mauled somehow and the other picture came out blurry. I topped them and now they're producing alot of sideways growth.

[davelaneward]

Basil Chen. Same as lime in its growing habits, sensitive to fertilizer. Very strong aniseed flavour.

Strawberries! Growing strong now in a 60lt grow bag. Those little ones are a white kind which were started later.

[Raybon]

Very impressed with basil, have always found that hard to germinate. Have resorted to splitting up supermarket plant and growing on.
I dropped my seed tray of cape gooseberries and the soil went everywhere, could not see the seeds as they are so tiny, but they are coming through at last. Hope they will have time to fruit, yours look well away!

[davelaneward]

Very impressed with basil, have always found that hard to germinate. Have resorted to splitting up supermarket plant and growing on.
I dropped my seed tray of cape gooseberries and the soil went everywhere, could not see the seeds as they are so tiny, but they are coming through at last. Hope they will have time to fruit, yours look well away!

Are you growing the cape gooseberry in pots? If so, be prepared to water every day because they just grow into monsters and eat up all root space and you can give them.
Their growth rate is incredible compared to the other plants.

Here is one compared to the pot it was started in

Bumble bees absolutely adore the capegooseberry. Any time of day there is atleast 2 bumblebees doing the rounds on them.

Some Basil for good measure. I gave up trying to stop the Chen flowering. Now it is just for the bumble bees. It was really easy to germinate, in a £2 propagator that i just left ontop of a always-on PC tower.