Chilli season dos

I think gardening would be a lot more popular if people did it Gemma and Elliot style - planting seeds on a Saturday night whilst drinking and watching MTV (preferably Karaoke Club, but a top 400 countdown also works well).

No garden sheds, no dirty hands, rather wine and beer and TLC (Elliot and I identified a tad differently with the songs in the top 400 songs from the 90's countdown - I obviously was cool, Elliot liked Korn).

While the chilli plants don't go outside until about Labour weekend, we sowed the super hot varieties this weekend as it is quite the process to get them ready to go outside (and last year they took a bit longer to germinate than the non super hot varieties).

The seeds will take a few weeks to germinate; once germinated they will go into the light box and once they get to about 10 centimetres tall they will be separated out and potted up to bigger pots. They will be kept inside (apparently at this time we will no longer require half of our already very small lounge) until big and strong enough so that they can be hardened off (slowly introducing them to the outdoors by putting them outside for hours at a time, slowly increasing to whole days and then nights) when weather allows, and then they finally make the move outside.

A couple of weeks ago we decided what we were going to grow this year. We had a fair few seeds leftover from last season so had to decide what we wanted to grow again from those and what new varieties we wanted to try. This is no easy task - if you take a quick look on the net you will soon see how many varieties there are out there and the many different varieties the psychotic growers in America and England come up with each year - with the aim being to create the next hottest chilli in the world (this formidable title seems to change fairly often).

We are also limited space-wise due to still wanting to be able to walk on our deck, and not having planter beds any longer means we don't want huge plants (like the capsicums and marconis we grew last year) as they need to be amenable to growing in pots. Fortunately Elliot's Dad, Phil, has been a legend in nabbing some 15 litre buckets from work so we don't have to buy 20 more pots this season.

These have been washed well and will have holes drilled in them for drainage

So after the seed variety decision discussion was had, it was decided this year we will grow:

• Bhut Jolokia*
• Orange Habanero*
• Jalapeno
• Carolina Reaper*
• Jamaican Hot Chocolate* (not as sweet and delish as it sounds)
• NuMex Twilight
• Trinidad Yellow Scotch Bonnet*
• Brain Strain*
• Trinidad Scorpion Butch T*
• Black Pearl
• Takanotsume

*the super hot varieties (scientifically known as Capsicum chinense varieties - so named because the Dutch botanist who named them in the 18th century erroneously thought they originated in China).

We are sowing five seeds of each of the 11 varieties, but only really want about 20 plants. We had quite a good germination rate last year (approximately 70%) but are being super cautious this year and sowing many more than needed, but if necessary we will give any surplus plants away.

For the seeds we had to buy, we got them from The Hippy Seed Company in Australia - they have a fantastic range of crazy hot chillies (although their name prompted one friend to ask "are you sure they are chilli seeds?"). You can check them out at http://www.thehippyseedcompany.com/

Ordering was a breeze and the seeds arrived within days.

There are a few different ways to germinate seeds; we went with the following method:

Put a hole in the bottom of a plastic cup (Elliot did them with his soldering iron).

Write the name of the chilli on the side of the cup.

In a bowl moisten the seed raising mix with some water.

Fill each cup three quarters full with the seed raising mix.

Place the soil-filled cup inside another plastic cup with no hole.

Make five shallow holes in the soil.

Place one seed in each hole and gently cover with the soil.

Place a piece of Gladwrap over the cup and secure with a rubber band (this is to keep the moisture in - kind of a mini hot house - so that you don't have to keep watering them).

Place in a seed propagator with the lid on, plug it in and cover with a towel. This will keep the seeds warm at about 45°C.

Hopefully we will start to see results in a couple of weeks.

There are some mentally hot varieties this year which I will undoubtedly (and probably regrettably) try and incorporate into recipes. Stay tuned for the growing progress and spicy food to come.

Oh, and of course the highlight of my weekend was the Sunday morning trip to the storage unit trying not to make eye contact with anyone whilst walking out with a box lined with tinfoil, fluorescent lights, timers and plant pots.