Friday, February 22, 2008

Cheating

I have a thing going with jalepenos. 4 gardening seasons ago, I bought a jalepeno plant from the farmer's market. It did really well in my wee garden on Mission Hill so I saved the seeds. The next spring, I planted the seeds and the plants did amazingly well in my garden here at this old house. I had more jalepenos than I ever had. Last summer, I planted seeds from those plants and I ended up with jalepeno plants up to my waist and ripening jalepenos and setting blossoms right until the first hard frost. At Mary Sue's encouraging, I dug up two of the plants and put them in a big planter and situated them in front of Kaetlyn's huge, southfacing window. And the blossoms that were setting just before the frost grew tiny little jalepenos (Kaetlyn has eaten them all so I can't verify their taste although she says they were not very hot - which is what she was hoping for). With the lengthening days and increased sunlight, my plants are full of blossoms. And look at this ripe, red jalepeno! I'm going to try to pollinate those blossoms myself with a cu tip as soon as they open all the way. What will happen next? (and yes, I saved LOTS of seeds from last year's biggest and best jalepenos, so if you want some, e-mail me with your address and I'll send some off!)

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