Well as London has been basking for days 30 degree heat our south-facing sunny windowsill has been taking a battering! So long as they get their water twice a day the chillies and the tomatoes are loving the heat and we've now got five growing chillies and I've counted six tomatoes although it's tricky to see them so there may be more. In exciting news on the chilli front I was surfing around the other day and discovered that the kind people at Wahaca had linked through to my blog update on the chillies from their Facebook page. Rather a shock to see my blog in amongst all their other news but a pleasant suprise none-the-less!
Unfortunately the salad leaves are not enjoying the full sunshine so much and are completley frazzled, with just a couple of the rocket plants still fighting on. I guess full sunlight for the whole day is just too much for salad leaves and equally the nasturtiums seem to be shrivelling up a bit as well. As for the sunflowers, they died a good few weeks back now and I still haven't got around to doing anything with them so parts of the windowsill are looking a little sorry for themselves at the moment.
Back inside the flat, our two troughs with tomato plants, sweet peppers and chillies that we've had in the fireplace are starting to take over the floor. Unlike the ones on the windowsill the plants have gone much more straggly in a bid to grow towards the light, the tomato plants in particular just aren't producing any flowers and despite my best efforts at cross-pollination on the sweet pepper and chilli I don't seem to be having any luck. So because of this, and because the salad isn't working and the sunflowers are now long gone I think we're going to have a switch around and get the troughs in the fireplace outside. A job for tomorrow!
mmm, yes, you have been getting the full whack of sunshine over in the east, over here in the west it has been a little more gentle...great photo of the tomato...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Yes it was lovely and sunny and thankfully the sun seems to have come back again today. It has been a bit touch and go in the week with the heavy winds...
ReplyDeleteI tried to post a comment on this entry a couple of times just after it went up. After they failed I lost the will to type it all up again. Here's a brief version.
ReplyDeleteFor the salads, you might want to try making some sort of cage or supports to go over the trough and hold up a square/rectangle of something like horticultural fleece to let light through but shade the plants from the full heat of the sun. Just need to be mindful of wind forecasts so it doesn't go sailing away with your plants in a strong blow.
A bit of white card or maybe card with some tinfoil wrapped around it and dropped between the tomatoes and the fireplace behind them might help get a bit more light on the leaves. That is unless they are outside for good now.