Greenfly, peppers and expensive failures

The sweet peppers and chillies have been moved into the green house to join the other seedlings and seeds. As usual they managed to attract greenfly while they were in the conservatory. So maddening. I sprayed them with liquid derris and I’ll have to keep a close eye on them. It’s a pity that derris is being phased out this year as it’s the only spray I use, albeit sparingly. Typically, it’s not that derris is unsafe it’s because the producers can’t afford the money to have it tested and formally certified for use. Look at the poor pepper being sucked to death, no wonder it looks droopy.

As if greenfly wasn’t irritating enough I realised my ‘Silor F1′ cucumber seeds had failed. I really love the short (12cm) all female cucumbers. The taste is superb and they are such a handy size. I swear the smaller size improves the taste. The downside is that these seeds are expensive and you only get five of them. This year they haven’t germinated despite being indoors in a heated propagator. That’s two seeds wasted so I’ll have to try again. Honestly it’s like handling precious stones! Luckily the ‘Marketmore’ cucumbers have germinated ok. They may not taste as good but they are far more reliable.

Here are the peppers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, courgettes and cucumber plants in the greenhouse. It looks very tidy doesn’t it?. That’s because most of my my tender plants are now outside. As we are having some work done on the house they can’t come up near there as usual. Instead they are scattered about in various spare corners of the garden or huddled on a table next to the greenhouse. Fingers crossed for no more frost.