Strawberries, slugs and chillies
7 April 2022 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI pulled another half-dozen one-inch slugs (and a couple of fingernail-sized snails) off the young shoots of my strawberry crown this evening, which they are busy stripping bare. They have also paid repeat visits to a mystery seedling which appeared in the middle of the marigold seedlings I'd potted up, and was clearly something quite different -- I thought it might have been some kind of pea (a gift from the squirrels), but we shall never find out now, as first the growing tip and then the remaining seed-leaves have been eaten out. Luckily they don't seem particularly interested in marigolds, but there has clearly been a great hatching or emergence from hibernation.
I bought six 'official' Demon Red chilli seeds from Unwins, specifically because it is billed as a "dwarf compact" variety with multiple small fruits, suitable for container growing -- my home-germinated seeds were surprisingly successful, but having half a dozen large chillies per plant and then having to cut them up and use them a half or a quarter at a time isn't very convenient! Unfortunately the germination requirements are a temperature range of 65-75F, followed by a minimum temperature of 60F for the seedlings (this may be why the tomatoes are slow to germinate...) which I simply can't provide at a time when the normal indoors temperature is 60F -- I don't have a hot-water tank or airing-cupboard to incubate seedlings in. So they may take some while to emerge, i.e. not until the weather warms up a bit. I hope they don't just rot in the soil :-(
I kept back the last two seeds in the packet, and have planted up a fresh section of the tomato towelling and balanced it on the narrow kitchen windowsill, which is probably the warmest place on average -- the bathroom gets quite warm now when the sun is out, but it also gets cold on the tiles at night.
I bought six 'official' Demon Red chilli seeds from Unwins, specifically because it is billed as a "dwarf compact" variety with multiple small fruits, suitable for container growing -- my home-germinated seeds were surprisingly successful, but having half a dozen large chillies per plant and then having to cut them up and use them a half or a quarter at a time isn't very convenient! Unfortunately the germination requirements are a temperature range of 65-75F, followed by a minimum temperature of 60F for the seedlings (this may be why the tomatoes are slow to germinate...) which I simply can't provide at a time when the normal indoors temperature is 60F -- I don't have a hot-water tank or airing-cupboard to incubate seedlings in. So they may take some while to emerge, i.e. not until the weather warms up a bit. I hope they don't just rot in the soil :-(
I kept back the last two seeds in the packet, and have planted up a fresh section of the tomato towelling and balanced it on the narrow kitchen windowsill, which is probably the warmest place on average -- the bathroom gets quite warm now when the sun is out, but it also gets cold on the tiles at night.
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Date: 2022-04-08 11:20 am (UTC)I hope your chillis do come up, we had three tiny little ones come up in pots two years ago and they are pretty as well as edible :)
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Date: 2022-04-08 12:26 pm (UTC)In the wild, plants would not be growing as a monoculture, and plant species would be able to survive the loss of a proportion of their seedlings and young growth to support the slug population. Unfortunately in a small-scale environment such as an isolated container patch, they can effectively destroy a single specimen plant or pot of seedlings in a short time. (I can state from last night's eye-witness experience that the current species of slug I am hosting and the amusingly-named Discus rotundatus do not confine their eating habits to "detritus and fungus" as advertised, but actively consume the growing points of strawberry plants! I also found a small snail busy eating through my garlic shoots at the base...)