Hi folks. already had my first post but I thought I'd introduce myself here anyway.
I've been growing hot peppers for about 5-6 years now, and I've had vegetable gardens on and off over the last 20 years. Started out my chili growing with jalapenos and habaneros from garden center purchased plants. I've generally had pretty good success and harvest enough to make lots of relishes, pickles, and mashes.
This year I wanted to grow more varieties than I could get at my small garden center so I decided to start from seed. I've never tried to grow anything from seed in the past. I ordered jalapenos, habaneros, pepperoncinis, hot cherries, and cayennes from Pepper Joes. Along with them I got sample packets for Santa fe Grandes, Fresnos, and Takano-somethingorothers. Despite doing most everything wrong (or at least not at all ideal) I managed to get most everything to germinate and grow. A few of the varieties took about 5 weeks to germinate and consequently were way behind when planting time arrived in May. During the course of raising my seedlings I managed to cook them once in the attic window on an unusually hot day, and I dried them out pretty badly once as well. Despite that, and other rookie errors, I had very few casualties and Memorial Day weekend they went into pots for the patio. Oh, and because I have no impulse control, a 6 pack of Super Chili plants followed me home from the garden center as well.
Unfortunately, we've had one of the wettest, coolest Summers I can remember. My plants have been chronically over watered due to the amount of rain we've gotten this year, and the weather has been cool and cloudy. Not conducive to good pepper growing. Still, the plants, although not looking great, are putting out fruit. They are definitely taking their sweet old time to ripen, and harvests are lower than if I'd had better growing conditions. But still, I've got 9 varieties of peppers in my back yard and I'll have to figure out what I am going to do with all of them. Thanks to all of those plants I have quite a bit more fruit than I've had in the past.
I like the site here, and snooping around has given me a ton of info that will allow me to correct my errors next season. I'll probably drop back down to 3-4 varieties next season but by properly germinating the seeds, using good light and better fertilizing the seedlings I think I should have bigger, healthier plants that will provide me with all the pods I can use. Now, the Summer weather will have to be more cooperative as well.
Thanks for all the tips folks. I'll post up now and again, especially when seed starting time comes back around in March.
I've been growing hot peppers for about 5-6 years now, and I've had vegetable gardens on and off over the last 20 years. Started out my chili growing with jalapenos and habaneros from garden center purchased plants. I've generally had pretty good success and harvest enough to make lots of relishes, pickles, and mashes.
This year I wanted to grow more varieties than I could get at my small garden center so I decided to start from seed. I've never tried to grow anything from seed in the past. I ordered jalapenos, habaneros, pepperoncinis, hot cherries, and cayennes from Pepper Joes. Along with them I got sample packets for Santa fe Grandes, Fresnos, and Takano-somethingorothers. Despite doing most everything wrong (or at least not at all ideal) I managed to get most everything to germinate and grow. A few of the varieties took about 5 weeks to germinate and consequently were way behind when planting time arrived in May. During the course of raising my seedlings I managed to cook them once in the attic window on an unusually hot day, and I dried them out pretty badly once as well. Despite that, and other rookie errors, I had very few casualties and Memorial Day weekend they went into pots for the patio. Oh, and because I have no impulse control, a 6 pack of Super Chili plants followed me home from the garden center as well.
Unfortunately, we've had one of the wettest, coolest Summers I can remember. My plants have been chronically over watered due to the amount of rain we've gotten this year, and the weather has been cool and cloudy. Not conducive to good pepper growing. Still, the plants, although not looking great, are putting out fruit. They are definitely taking their sweet old time to ripen, and harvests are lower than if I'd had better growing conditions. But still, I've got 9 varieties of peppers in my back yard and I'll have to figure out what I am going to do with all of them. Thanks to all of those plants I have quite a bit more fruit than I've had in the past.
I like the site here, and snooping around has given me a ton of info that will allow me to correct my errors next season. I'll probably drop back down to 3-4 varieties next season but by properly germinating the seeds, using good light and better fertilizing the seedlings I think I should have bigger, healthier plants that will provide me with all the pods I can use. Now, the Summer weather will have to be more cooperative as well.
Thanks for all the tips folks. I'll post up now and again, especially when seed starting time comes back around in March.
To THP
