seeds Need to slow down some seedlings!

[Hells Bells]

So I went gung-ho a couple months back and planted a bunch of seeds. I knew it was early but has plans to top them to keep them manageable.

Long story short... they are going nuts! I topped them at 6" and then a couple times more. What I have now are some very nice looking 8-10" tall dense/compact plants. My problem is now they are trying to stretch and have been producing flower buds. I've cut back ferts and photoperiod to 8hrs and have been plucking the buds.

How can I make these seedlings go dormant until I can get them in the greenhouse in April? Would taking them completely out from under my lights and putting them near a South facing window slow them down or kill them off? My space under lights is a bit limited at the moment. I have TONS of seeds so I could just start from scratch again.... I can't bring myself to kill these babies off though.

 

[geeme]

Yeah, been there myself! You can't make them go dormant, per se, but yes you can slow them down. Dim the lights and cool down the room. If you can, cut back a tad on watering, just make sure they don't get bone-dry. Cutting back on ferts is also key, as you've already done. Putting them in a south-facing window will put them in direct sunlight for at least a few hours a day, and that will either a) kill them if you don't do it gradually, or b) speed up their growth. Recap: cut back on light, food, heat, and water.

 

[Hells Bells]

Yeah, been there myself! You can't make them go dormant, per se, but yes you can slow them down. Dim the lights and cool down the room. If you can, cut back a tad on watering, just make sure they don't get bone-dry. Cutting back on ferts is also key, as you've already done. Putting them in a south-facing window will put them in direct sunlight for at least a few hours a day, and that will either a) kill them if you don't do it gradually, or b) speed up their growth. Recap: cut back on light, food, heat, and water.

I has completely overlooked dropping the temperature... good call

I had a few plants from last year that I'd kept root bound as an experiment. They stayed quite small so I potted them up and set them on the South window sill to see if they would survive. I'm happy to say they did. They were also trying to bud out at the time I transplanted/topped and now seem to have gone dormant. What is quite interesting is they are producing bud clusters that do not mature to a full bud or flower.

I am wondering if my current seedlings will do the same??

Sorry for the crappy cell pics..

 

[ms1476]

I have been doing the aforementioned with my overwinters to keep them in check (minimal water, minimal light, minimal heat) AND I drastically prune them as well. The pruning seems to be the most effective method. Every 2 or 3 weeks, I remove a lot of the leaves, top them, and cut back the branches. They come back with a vengeance and get the same treatment all over again. It definitely keeps them stimulated while maintaining a controllable size for being indoors. You can easily remove half of the leaves on the plants in your photos.

 

[Hells Bells]

I have been doing the aforementioned with my overwinters to keep them in check (minimal water, minimal light, minimal heat) AND I drastically prune them as well. The pruning seems to be the most effective method. Every 2 or 3 weeks, I remove a lot of the leaves, top them, and cut back the branches. They come back with a vengeance and get the same treatment all over again. It definitely keeps them stimulated while maintaining a controllable size for being indoors. You can easily remove half of the leaves on the plants in your photos.

I agree.... I could trim that one down quite a bit. I had only topped that one once above the sixth "tier" of fan leaves. Believe it or not, the plant in that pic is 10+ months old. I experimented with keeping it root bound to regulate its size just for the heck of it. I then was curious how quickly it would rebound from being root bound after potting it up to a larger pot. I did that quite late in the fall with only ambient lighting so it seems to have almost went dormant with little growth in the last couple of months.

The plants I'm trying to slow down are a couple months old and I've now topped them a few times. I also clean them up by trimming the odd fan leaf that shades things too much.

Here's one I've drastically trimmed back after a single topping just to see if it will rebound. I'll post up my findings in a few weeks.

This is one of its brothers in comparison that I've only topped and haven't cut back so drastically..

 

[ms1476]

Looks good. I have a White Bullet Hab that gets cut down to leafless, stubby sticks and then I have to repeat the process after it quickly turns back into a bush. Not long ago, I was totally afraid of pruning my plants, but my overwintering experiment has assured me that pepper plants are very tough indeed! I am sure that your trimmed plant will soon look like your untrimmed plant. Happy growing!

-Mark