The Ryno Pen

Last post, I mentioned the seedless hybrid chilli I’ve developed over many years of painstaking research grown by accident in the Pepper Jungle. They’re a nice 7-out-of-10 heat and fruity flavour, with a blobby little red fruit that usually bears a characteristic tail. I’ve named in Farinelli in honour of the singer, who was regarded as a bit of a hottie in his day, but was also rather seedless.

Not having to get the seeds out is a good thing for me when I have my chef’s hat on: my horticultural persona is a little less happy about the deal, especially when a cold winter is predicted. The Jungle is a reasonable defence against frosts, but I lose a few plants every winter.

I’ve been seedsaving madly to preserve a few of my new varieties:

Squiggy Gnome

and Butter Bullet

for example, but what to do in the case of Farinelli?

Cloning was the answer. I had obtained a phial of the Evil Purple Goop from $Hardware_Store_Never_To_Be_Revisited,

and made ready Ye Pots.

Cutting is a serious business (or so $Shrink_I_No_Longer_See has told me):

Big, old branches are best to choose from, but there’s got to be new growth on the section being planted.

A 45 or 60 degree cut across the stem is suggested, and the trimming of a few of the leaf nodes (where leaves or small branches join the main stem).

After cutting, get the Goop and potting done as soon as possible, so the cut end is not dried or infected.

Here’s a close-up of a plate of Farinellis, showing the single developed seed present in a whole plate of fruit.

I’m just not verbal enough for funny stuff or a decent rant, so I guess that will have to do for tonight. G’night, Both My Readers™!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Domestic, Food, chilli plants, cloning, cuttings, gardening, handy hints, hybrid, peppers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.