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Begginer with a basic question

C

crow

Hello everyone! I'd appreciate an advice!
 
I live in Croatia, and it's winter here now. Last expected frost is somewhere by the end of the March.
 
I have ordered Habanero red seeds, and planted about 30 for germination in small plastic cups (2 in each, about 1,5 inch apart). 24 germinated over the past 3-4 days, which is quite nice.
 
What I did is that I've put the cups with seedlings in a cardboard box, measuring 1.6 X 1.3 X 1.3 feet. I have wrapped entire box with a tin foil, and on top of it I've put a lid - also wrapped with a tin foil. Inside I've put a single 103W output 6500K CFL, about 0,5 feet above the plants. It has output of about 1450 lumens.
 
I plan to transplant peppers in about 1 month, perhaps a week more, and put them outside in my garden.
 
Is that single bulb enough for now, and for how long? How much bulbs would I need for 24 plants, before I put them outside (which is in one month at the earliest posible), to grow healthy plants. This is the first time I'm doing this.
 
Thanks! 
 
Should be fine.Do you have some air flow for the plants,maybe a small fan blowing through a hole in the box.This will help strengthen the plants.
 
At the moment I don't, thanks for suggestion! 
 
I could perhaps add a fan from my old PC, maybe I could power it with an old 5V AC phone adapter. Would the PC fan do the trick? Since the adapter is 5V, It should turn slower than it does on PC.
 
If I'm not mistaken, its a caribbean red habanero, and it's my starting pepper. It's hard to get any of hottest peppers here in Europe, because they're quite rare.
 
If this turns out well, I might try to grow Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad Scorpion next 
 
That will work fine. Start taking your plants outside as early as the weather lets you. Remember to harden them off as you go.
 
Hello! 
 
I'm bumping the thread, as I have another question regarding the yellow leaves on seedlings.
 
Could this be because I was overwatering them?
 
Sorry for image "quality", my camera sucks.
 
5 days ago:
ebe97k.jpg

 
After I've given them less water, today:
200fjnc.jpg

 
Cups have holes underneath, so the water can drain. I will transplant them soon into pots which are larger than the cups they're currently in. 
 
Another question: When should I give them some fertilizer, and what kind of would you recommend? The soil they're in I have oredred from germany, it's soil mix for vegetable growing.
 
ps. To the left, there are some smaller seedlings in the same cup with the larger one. Those seeds germinated a lot later than the rest and while under the CFL, so that's why theres difference in age/size  :)
 
Also, I'm hardening them a bit. There's a PC fan at the side  which works at low rpm, so the air circulates. Each day, as its sunny, I bring them ouside for half an hour longer. Today they were 4 hours outside, yesterday 3:30h, two days ago 3h etc
 
How often are you watering? Let the soil almost completely dry out before watering again. Even at this young stage the peppers do not like to have constantly wet roots or stem bases.
 
For the cups with multiple plants, I would transplant each seedling into their own "Solo" cups or European equivalent sooner rather than later. The bigger you let them grow in those small cups, the more difficult it will be to pull the roots apart safely without damage. If you do transplant them into Solo cups, you will only have to water once every 7-10 days especially in the beginning.
 
Your hardening off schedule sounds spot on, very nice.
 
Thanks a lot suchen! It was a life saver for the peppers! I transplanted them today, and I have to admit that I was surprised to see how  much roots expanded. Fortunately, it was right on time, and I didnt have much trouble separating roots. But, if I have waited any longer, it might be nearly impossible to separate them without damaging.
 
Dobro dan... Nothing helpful to add except I was with IFOR in Croatia. Lovely country, I was in Virovitica, seems like great farmland there.
 
Dobar dan! :)
 
These were rough times, back then. I'm thankful to you for participating in the peace mission back then!
 
I myself am near Zagreb, which is about 60 miles west from Virovitica. The town of Virovotica is located at very edge of region/province called Slavonija, which is largest farmland area in the country.
 
Nice hearing from you!
 
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