So after borrowing my missus camera I have again managed to get some pictures.

Two startling pieces of news.

1. Bill has a red chilli !

2. Huey has three chilli’s !

The tomato plants are still growing like triffids (all except toms 3 — which nearly drowned in the rain so I needed to drill irigation holes in the pot).

Huey Dewey and Louie are going from strength to strength. I have moved Dewey to join Huey on my daughters window ledge.

Huey is now : 13 inches high.

Dewey is a massive 22 inches high.

Louie is now : 15 inches high.

All the plants have loads of flowers – Huey has three chili’s.

In addition to this Gus our little puppy has today recieved his first collar and he does look proud. We’ve had him tree weeks now and he’s getting big !!!

Patrick’s cucumber plant is going to have outgrown the small green tent soon.

The chilli’s have almost doubled in size in the last week.

My son patrick now has a cucumber which is located outside in the green tent. I’ve moved the tent away from the decking at the bottom of the garden to facilitate the much needed garden bench.

We’ve moved the palm tree around to the back which also joins the bench on the decking and with the umbrella attached I’m ready for studying outside !!!

On a slighly sad note one of the two sun flowers my wife managed to grow from seed has been eaton by something in the garden. And the Jasmine in the front has dropped it’s one and only flower.

Last but not least our puppy Gus is growing up quite quickly. We’ve nearly got the toilet training sorted but I guess like all teenagers he is rebelious to say the least. And just when you are mad as you can be – on comes that sweet look …

Laters.

Due to the mistakes not potting up earlier in the year I am not anticipating fruit this year from these guys. That being said I am as ever an eternal optimist so fingers crossed.

I am desperately trying to get back to the associated projects I was planning. Also I since Bill and Ben are still being attacked by the mystery jaws (you can just see the leaves have holes in them). So I have also considered retrofiting one of the cameras to be infra-red so I can watch over the guys at night.

So this afternoon with help from my son and :

3 x 72cm (or 28″) green pots
4 x Large Tomato Grow bags
1 x water sprinkler

We started the process of potting potting up nine tomato plants.

Well I’m sure the pictures speak for themselves but whilst arranging the front garden I noticed that bill who is now a staggering 22 inches high. Is too too big for the small green house he was living in. For this reason I have moved both Bill and Ben out of the housing. The housing has been moved to the back garden and the plans are to move Huey Dewey and Louie into it as soon as they’re big enough.

Important news

Just a quick note to say Dewey has done me proud and put on a spurt of approximately one centimetre in the last two days !

Careful examination of the dowel I installed in the pot and marked shows the increase in hight.

Which is excellent since this implies little or no trauma caused by the potting up.

A hearty congratulations are required for such a resiliant plant – well done Dewey !

I have also added dowel sticks from Huey and Dewey’s pots and marked with a line to show how high these guys are.

A conversation I had with a colleague he suggested that plants have what appears to be echo sounders. In this way they will grow to the size of the pot you have planted them in. Well if my guys northern cousins are anything to got by there must be something in this (even though the science is a little questionable).

Also because of the lack of room in the outside gowing tent, I have brought a third plant in doors. What is interesting now comparing the guy that have outside with the guys that were brought in a week ago. Is that whilst not as big the guys from outside is almost as tall as the biggest plant.

To give some perspective on the sizes of the plants I should really have put rulers or something in the pots.

Whilst it’s not obvious from the pictures Bill and Ben are in 13 inch pots and stand 15 and 13 inches high respectively.

Huey is in a 5 inch pot and stands 3 inches high.

Dewey is in a 4 inch pot and stands 4 inches high

Louie is also in a 4 inch pot and stands three inches high.

I am planning on replanting Huey Dewey and Louie into 10 inch pots later this week. Whilst I am not anticipating any fruit this year I would like to see them increase in size to at least what the guys outside are doing.

My 4 Port USB extender has now arrived !

These devices are a godsend if you want to place USB devices more than (the official) 5 metres away from the PC. The solution consists of two parts :

1. A receiver which plugs into the PC
2. A transmitter which you connect your USB devices to.

Then you connect a piece of CAT5e or CAT6 cable between the two units. I have tested these units reliably up to 35 metres which is more than enough if you want to put that webcam in the greenhouse!

A word of caution though. Since they are only USB 1.1 and a camera will utilise approximately 9Mb/s (of the available 12Mb/s). Then you will not be able to connect more than one webcam per device. I have successfully managed to connect a webcam alongside a controller board (pictures).

The Plug

The usb extender was purchased via eBay over the Internet from CDL Micro. The product I purchased was their “USB 4 Port Extender Hub over Cat5e / Cat 6 Network” at a cost of £44.85 (free P&P). I cannot recommend these guys enough. Even though the first device I received was DOA. They responded promptly arrange for an RMA and replaced the faulty unit without a quibble.