Indoor Pepper

I grew my first sweet pepper from seed: indoors and under lights.  It wasn't the most successful project, because the plants got too tall and started to grow into the fluorescent lights.  Oh well. This tiny sweet red pepper tasted great, something like sweet green grapes.  The variety was "Top Girl".  I have no idea why I picked this pepper in particular.  If there were really short versions of pepper plants, I'd have chosen those.  

"Top Girl" sweet red pepper

Outside of the basement, the phalaenopsis orchid is re-blooming nicely.  There are many buds yet to open.  

I notice that my paphiopedilum is also going to bloom again.  My own blog reminds me of its last bloom in March, 2007.  Several types of orchids seem to prefer to bloom in winter.  Their blooms, and occasionally their scents, are a nice contrast to the cold white winter outside.  Mine grow just inside my living room window, with no special care other than the usual watering and occasional orchid fertilizer.  I take some care to prevent them getting direct sun and sunburns, though.    

Spiral Pepper Plants

I am growing "Heat wave" chili peppers in the basement for kitchen use, because we can't find any in town. They have been growing successfully, which is my problem. I grow my plants on shelves under grow lights, but the plants have grown too tall for the shelves! This is my first attempt at making them shorter by wiring them into having spiral stems. I am using bonsai wire and bending the stems a little each day, since pepper stems are quite brittle.

Check out this pepper plant:

I have 3 plants that I am artificially deforming to fit under my lights. All have buds and flowers on them. Hopefully, I'll get some peppers from them! I am also growing "Top Girl" yellow peppers for some variety.

Thai Garden Update

I really like Thai food...those crisp fresh veggies with sweet and hot sauces, rice noodles, grilled skewers of herbed lime-marinated chicken, peanut sauces, searing hot soups with prawn and lemongrass...yummmm! Now, if I could find a way to grow mangos here, that would be ideal. But aside from that, I am in the process of growing some of the ingredients for my own Thai cooking. Growing them in the indoor light garden, that is.

Lemongrass, started a few weeks ago. So far, it has been easy to grow. Looks like grass!

"Heat Wave" Chili peppers. I'm not sure if you can pinch off the tops of peppers to promote bushier growth? I obviously can't have them growing really tall or they'll hit my shop lights. I put worm compost in the bottom half of the containers, which are deeper than my usual perennial containers, since peppers apparently need deep containers.

Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, potatoes and peppers have extensive root systems and need larger and deeper pots than other container-grown plants. I'm not sure if I'll need to transplant these peppers into bigger pots. This is the first time I've really tried growing peppers indoors!