Permaculture in Pots by Juliet Kemp

Author:Juliet Kemp [Kemp, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permanent Publications
Published: 2013-10-07T23:00:00+00:00

If you’re going to grow the plants outside, don’t move them out until the seedlings are a decent size, and definitely not until well past any danger of frost is past. It’s also important to make sure that you harden them off. Put them outside for only a couple of hours in the middle of the day at first, then bring them back in. Gradually extend the time they stay out over the next few days, until you leave them outside overnight for the first time, after which they can stay outside.

The good news is that once your plants are established, in the right conditions, both sweet peppers and chilli peppers are in theory perennials. In cold UK conditions, they will usually die over the winter, but if you protect them or bring them inside then they ought to survive. I have once managed to overwinter a couple of sweet pepper plants outside, which meant that they started producing fruit much earlier in the season in the second year, and I got a fairly respectable crop of smallish peppers. Unfortunately the next winter was just a little too cold for them.

I’ve only tried growing an aubergine once, and the single tiny fruit I got didn’t encourage me to have another go. Other people have been more successful, and it is possible to get a few aubergines from a plant in the UK (if you’re in the far north, this is likely to be harder, as they really do need warm conditions). Your success rate is likely to be related even more than usual to the weather conditions (a cold or a hot summer), so it’s very hit and miss unless you have a mini-greenhouse, which will make a crop much more likely. If growing outside (even in a warm microclimate) expect one fruit from a large-fruited variety, and maybe three from a small-fruited variety. If you can grow them inside a mini-greenhouse you may be able to double this.

Sowing and planting out

Sowing any of these plants inside is exactly the same as for tomatoes. Sow either one seed to a compost plug, or a couple of seeds to a small pot, and then plant them up into bigger pots as required. You’ll probably want to move the plants to 7.5cm pots in April, and then into 20 or 23cm pots once they reach the four leaf stage, when they’re a few cm tall.

Starting the seeds off in an airing cupboard can also help them, especially for chilli peppers (I’ve grown a chilli pepper which required a temperature over 24ºC to germinate). Once germinated, they’ll be fine on a sunny windowsill. Aubergines may germinate better if you soak the seeds in warm water and leave them for 24 hours before sowing.

Make sure you harden the seedlings off, as discussed above, before you finally move them outside, and feed them once the first fruit has set. (If your potting compost is a bit weak, you may want to feed when you first pot them out, as well.

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