Barely Alive

As a follow-up to the last post, of indoor plants that are doing well right now in my apartment, unfortunately the edible ones are not doing that great at al!

My chili pepper, is on its way out (pictured here left) - I had started it indoors last spring, taken it out on the balcony to flower and fruit last summer (picture below from the same plant outside on the balcony), and brought it in late this fall, at which point the fruits ripened and were delicious.

My favorite way to enjoy a chili that I grew myself is to make a spicy butter Parmesan cheese sauce for pasta -basically just melt some butter in a pan, then add the chopped chili, allowing it to sizzle in the pan for a minute (longer and the yummy flavor is not preserved), then adding some grated Parmesan cheese to it right before pouring over your pasta - you could even add some garlic (either freshly-pressed, slightly fried in the butter, or a little garlic powder) if you want!


Unfortunately at some point I think the heat from the heater underneath the window sill was too much - it seems to have some sort of spider mite and can't seem to get get over its droopy and browning leaves. Not sure how to rescue it! Even if I can't, I will soon be able to start the next generation indoors!

I also have another potted experiment which was...well, at least an experiment for now! I had gotten some mini eggplant seeds last spring, and wanted to keep an eggplant on my window sill as well.

The grown plant is supposedly suited just for a balcony or window sill, so I thought it would do better than it did - but here is how it looks today:

Haha, I know, VERY sad. Not only did it go through a major aphid epidemic a few months ago (which I was able to pretty much get rid of by wiping the entire plant with soapy water), but it now seem to not like living on the dry heater.

I was about to give up on it, but after watering it a few times anyway (they say here in Germany "hope is the last thing to die"), and then letting the soil get really dry, it re-sprouted some leaves (arrow is pointing at one) - gotta love those cute furry thick leaves! I guess it isn't ready to go just yet!

Getting it to fruit has proven to be a whole other issue....it actually produced two small eggplants (about golf ball size) earlier this summer, but despite multiple hand-pollination when there are flowers, I haven't been able to get it to do anything much since then.

Guess it's sort of a project for now!


And so it can also enjoy its glory days on this post, here is a pic of what this plant looked like in July on my window sill (pic right):

Here's to new starts coming up soon for the season....and hanging on to hope for the what you still have!

Here are some tips to start off with for growing this "finicky crop", which I will also take into consideration:
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/how-to-grow-eggplant.aspx