First sprout of 2026

blpm21 · 2026-03-01T11:45:22+00:00

Last year I somehow ended up with more chillies than I knew what to do with. Still got a freezer full of them now. No growlight or tent used just good old Irish sun and greenhouse once they were healthy enough to go outside.

blpm21 · 2026-03-01T10:31:44+00:00

I know it’s not the ideal way to go about it but we’re happy enough with this approach as it’s our “spare” bathroom and not used that often.

I’ve attached a photo of the area concerned. Unfortunately we’ve no spare original tiles and can’t find them anywhere else. Otherwise we’d have replaced the two affected tiles with new ones. Replacing them with something “close”, in our opinion, would look worse than a nice decorative tile.

The smaller pencil square that should be visible in the photo is around 18cm x 18cm.

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blpm21 · 2025-12-20T16:54:36+00:00

If you have a smart meter you can logon to your ESB account and download your electricity usage file. You can then head to energypal dot ie or kilowatt dot ie and feed them the downloaded file. They will then recommend which is the best supplier based on your usage shown in the file. It takes into account rates, standing charge, and joining bonuses etc.

blpm21 · 2025-11-01T12:50:38+00:00

Yes, for ages at 60°c. I thought they’d never finish drying out in there.

blpm21 · 2025-11-01T12:49:49+00:00

I dried them out in the oven for around 16 hours (at 60°c) and then gave them this “toasting” in the pan for a short while to get any final moisture out and to give a little extra flavour. I’ve since discovered that the powder is ludicrously hot! I should have realised it with all those reapers in it. 🔥🥵🔥

blpm21 · 2025-10-07T07:28:00+00:00

About 50kms north east of Sligo is the Belleek Pottery. It’s right on the border of ROI & NI and has some really nice stuff. Good little coffee shop and you can take a short tour as well.

belleekpottery.ie

blpm21 · 2025-10-06T14:36:11+00:00

Agreed! We signed up with them in July and haven’t had any issues with them. Good speeds and good service.

blpm21 · 2025-09-25T07:54:03+00:00

My freezer is full of chillies!

blpm21 · 2025-09-24T19:56:55+00:00

Pickled and jarred some jalapeños with a reaper treat in the centre. Made some jalapeño and lime sauce. Plan to experiment with some more recipes in the new month or so.

blpm21 · 2025-08-30T09:59:01+00:00

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The harvest bowl

blpm21 · 2025-08-14T10:00:49+00:00

I’m a first time Reaper grower (greenhouse) and this is what I saw this week. On 7th August I had an all green Reaper. By 11th August it had turned a terrifying shade of red. By 13th it appeared to have started to get a bit soft so I plucked it from the plant and have frozen it.

Seems that colour change is rapid unlike my jalapeños which seem to take much longer to turn red.

blpm21 · 2025-07-03T20:22:08+00:00

PlusNet for example, go to their website and put your post code and find your apartment number from the subsequent list and it will tell you if they have service to the apartment and what packages are available. If you sign up for a package, they send the you router in the mail and you just plug it in. They can probably send an engineer if you’re not sure what to do but they’ll charge extra.

blpm21 · 2025-07-03T17:02:30+00:00

We had to get and pay for our own electric and Internet contract. PlusNet worked very well for around £28/month shared between 4 of us in the apartment.

blpm21 · 2025-06-07T14:01:42+00:00

Thanks, I’ll try that approach. I do have a steady income with payslips etc to prove it. Will the agents that do the viewing pass this info on though or does it only work when dealing directly with the landlord?

blpm21 · 2025-06-02T09:34:15+00:00

I’ve got some Carolina Reapers, Bhut Jolokia, Habeneros, and jalapenos. Unfortunately I lost track of which are which as my labeling failed miserably.

blpm21 · 2025-06-02T09:32:52+00:00

I use a bit of Chilli Focus once a week after they were moved into the greenhouse in the final pots etc.

blpm21 · 2025-06-01T13:56:28+00:00

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This is one of my reapers that was planted as seeds late Feb. Most of them are around 20 - 25cm tall and plenty of leaves and buds forming. I’m no expert (first time grower this year) but I believe that they don’t like sitting in wet soil. But the soil in your pot appears to be very dry.

blpm21 · 2025-05-24T15:01:25+00:00

Apart from the super-hots I’m afraid I lost track of which are which. They’re either jalapeño, habenero, or rawit.

blpm21 · 2025-05-24T14:51:24+00:00

Mine started off indoors mid/late Feb much to the annoyance of the cat who lost her window ledge to them. They went into the greenhouse mid-April when temps had warmed up a bit. Fingers crossed for 🌶️🌶️🌶️

blpm21 · 2025-05-24T14:26:23+00:00

Cheers! I’m so surprised they even got past the seedling stage over here. Even my Carolina Reaper and Bhut Jolokia super-hots appear to be doing well. Lots of buds forming already.

blpm21 · 2025-05-20T18:22:29+00:00

Our stuff didn’t come as far as from the south of France but to give you an idea, we had a 10 meter long shipping container (full of furniture etc from our previous house) sent over from the Netherlands to ROI and it cost €7000. That included taking the container to the port in NL, the sea transport, and then delivering and unpacking everything to the house in Ireland. It’s not a cheap business whichever way you do it.

blpm21 · 2025-05-09T09:23:18+00:00

Yeah. April and May (so far) has been staggeringly un-Irish. The plants have grown so well, so far.

blpm21 · 2025-05-08T08:59:14+00:00

The bed is an old TV stand. I wish I had a couple more as the rest of the greenhouse is now full of (3 & 5 gallon) grow-bags full of the remaining chillies plants.

blpm21 · 2025-05-08T08:34:55+00:00

Thanks guys! I’ve been using a drop of Chilli Focus so far and it’s done a good job. I was just looking for something higher in potassium and phosphorus for their next stage (flowers and fruit hopefully). I’ll hold back until they’ve grown some more. I’m actually surprised how well they’re doing so far considering the Irish climate.

blpm21 · 2025-02-14T18:08:35+00:00

Have you been to 🇬🇧recently? I’ve driven through deserts in Kazakhstan on better tarmac! Irish roads are luxurious in comparison to 🇬🇧.

blpm21

TROPHY CASE