tupinambur (jerusalem artichoke)

uneventful week without weather consistently warming up. a forgotten jerusalem artichoke planted in the winter finally sprouted.

repotting

tough day, repotted 37 chilli peppers and 3 mexican tomatillos. all plants fertilised, staked and moved outside. with temps forecasted above 20C next week, it is time for some serious growth.

more flowers

a few more flowers are sprowting, a mexican tomatillo one and a hang jiao one (from the jiangsu province, kindly donated by wk's brother and his girlfriend). this weekend is going to be the mother of all repotting weekends...

first flower

despite a great season start, weather has gone bonkers for the last four weeks. plenty of rain & cold and little sunlight. the first batch of transplanted seedlings had to go back indoors after just a few days outside and has stayed put since. most plants have developed stunted growth and show symptoms of fungus inflicted damage. on the other hand all plants in the second batch, sown 3 weeks after the first, kept under fluorescent lighting and yet to be transplanted, are looking fit as fiddles. they have owtgrown the ones in the first batch and have now started to flower (earliest bird being the pusa jwala for the second year in a row).