Well, after my last attempt dried out and died when I had to leave town for 3 days, I was pretty pissed off at plants in general for a bit. But now I think I wanna start some more plants to set outside, you think its too late in the season? I guess worst that can happen is i have to finish them off indoors.....So i guess this post is now pointless, I'm starting more anyway lol
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If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
seeds Too late to start seeds?
- Thread starter TXCG
- Start date
You're in Texas man, you have plenty of time to get started yet. If you want to get a jump on things you can always order from someplace like chileplants.com, they ship live plants.
or go to a decent size farmers market & buy some plants, we have one thats in mpls that probably has at least 100 vendors & you'll find a good selction of chile plants also other plants.
Sure, you have time. In fact, the weather seems to be off by about two months over here...delayed. I was able to keep plants seeding even after Christmas before I had to get them inside for the two freezes we had. Last year I ordered a few live plants from the http://www.thechilewoman.com/. I was very pleased, other than my Rocoto's not making it (due to the humid and hot hot Louisiana weather.) That and my UPS man seemed to have played football with my plant shipment...I had a few plants without mix...just roots! Still, they made it just fine with a little TLC. She offered to help me out, but they made it just fine....
Rock on,
Primo
Rock on,
Primo
habman said:
Haha, yeah, i do recall seeing a little plant near one of the school buildings around here that still had peppers and leaves on it in like late November last year....
But yeah, the reason I wanted to start from seed is that way I can pick exactly what type of pepper i want instead of from what I'm assuming would be a more limited selection of live plants at the farmers market. I'm gonna go look around at the feed co-op stores & stuff this weekend and see what i can find.
I dont know what kind of chiles you're looking for but if you're not too picky then you should find some good selections.
at the farmers market I'm talking about, they have chiles that you dont find in the normal stores to buy young plants.
unless you're looking for something rare for your area that people dont plant & use alot.
its just a thought for ya, I like to grow certain kinds also but then I also just want some hot chiles for drying/crushed/powder & I'll take any decent grower that I like, which selections can be good. granted I dont know what the farmers markets are like down in your area but just dont rule them out for a place to pick up some plants, & even herb plants
at the farmers market I'm talking about, they have chiles that you dont find in the normal stores to buy young plants.
unless you're looking for something rare for your area that people dont plant & use alot.
its just a thought for ya, I like to grow certain kinds also but then I also just want some hot chiles for drying/crushed/powder & I'll take any decent grower that I like, which selections can be good. granted I dont know what the farmers markets are like down in your area but just dont rule them out for a place to pick up some plants, & even herb plants
Txclosetgrower said:
Being in TX you could have started earlier but it is just about the right time to start for the North East.
About 2 1/2 months ago I started mine in those growing trays that have the dirt plugs. I just noticed some of the bigger ones have leaves that are turning yellow. On closer inspection I found their roots were growing out of the dirt plugs already.
Arrgghh! I have another 1 1/2 months to go before I can plant outside (it's actually supposed to SNOW this weekend! ... that stupid rat was wrong again about an early spring). I don't have 80 pots to put them in. I'll try putting the plugs in dixie cups and adding more soil.
I think I should have waited longer before starting.
I started 36 seeds in 12 jiffy plugs (following directions on package, says to plant 3 & cut out the weakest 2 in each plug)in one of those jiffy greenhouse tray things on wednesday, and since there isn't any good warm spot in the house, I am using a 60 watt incandescent bulb and a 45 watt cfl for heat. I checked the temp of the plugs today with a food thermometer my work donated to the cause, and its 80 degrees F on the dot. Hopefully I'll be seeing some sprouts in a week or so, when that happens the incandescent bulb is gonna have to gfto and make room for my t5 fluoros I got for christmas 
I planted 6 (2 plugs) of each of these(click = link to description @ thechileman.org):
Pepperoncini
Beaver Dam
Dorset Naga
Gold Bullet Hab
Red Savina Hab
Carribean Red Hab
I'm also gonna go pick up that autopot tomorrow when I'm in dallas. I'm not going to buy the reservoir tho, I'm just gonna use a rubbermaid container. Also gonna get some coco, I'm going completely soilless this season, coco sounds like the best of both soil & hydro rolled into one. Not to mention you only need 1 type of nutrient for both vegetative and blooming stages of any plant (unlike most types of hydroponics using 2 or 3 part nutrient systems).
I also plan on grabbing a couple of live jalapeno plants from somewhere local and washing most of the dirt off the roots and planting them in coco. That way I can get something out on the porch already and figure out what I'm doing with coco before I plant my seedlings in it.
I'll let you guys know how the shopping trip goes tomorrow, most likely I'll buy even more crap than I planned on, texas hydroponics is a badass store.
I planted 6 (2 plugs) of each of these(click = link to description @ thechileman.org):
Pepperoncini
Beaver Dam
Dorset Naga
Gold Bullet Hab
Red Savina Hab
Carribean Red Hab
I'm also gonna go pick up that autopot tomorrow when I'm in dallas. I'm not going to buy the reservoir tho, I'm just gonna use a rubbermaid container. Also gonna get some coco, I'm going completely soilless this season, coco sounds like the best of both soil & hydro rolled into one. Not to mention you only need 1 type of nutrient for both vegetative and blooming stages of any plant (unlike most types of hydroponics using 2 or 3 part nutrient systems).
I also plan on grabbing a couple of live jalapeno plants from somewhere local and washing most of the dirt off the roots and planting them in coco. That way I can get something out on the porch already and figure out what I'm doing with coco before I plant my seedlings in it.
I'll let you guys know how the shopping trip goes tomorrow, most likely I'll buy even more crap than I planned on, texas hydroponics is a badass store.
Txclosetgrower said:I started 36 seeds in 12 jiffy plugs (following directions on package, says to plant 3 & cut out the weakest 2 in each plug)in one of those jiffy greenhouse tray things on wednesday, and since there isn't any good warm spot in the house, I am using a 60 watt incandescent bulb and a 45 watt cfl for heat. I checked the temp of the plugs today with a food thermometer my work donated to the cause, and its 80 degrees F on the dot. Hopefully I'll be seeing some sprouts in a week or so, when that happens the incandescent bulb is gonna have to gfto and make room for my t5 fluoros I got for christmas
I planted 6 (2 plugs) of each of these(click = link to description @ thechileman.org):
Pepperoncini
Beaver Dam
Dorset Naga
Gold Bullet Hab
Red Savina Hab
Carribean Red Hab
I'm also gonna go pick up that autopot tomorrow when I'm in dallas. I'm not going to buy the reservoir tho, I'm just gonna use a rubbermaid container. Also gonna get some coco, I'm going completely soilless this season, coco sounds like the best of both soil & hydro rolled into one. Not to mention you only need 1 type of nutrient for both vegetative and blooming stages of any plant (unlike most types of hydroponics using 2 or 3 part nutrient systems).
I also plan on grabbing a couple of live jalapeno plants from somewhere local and washing most of the dirt off the roots and planting them in coco. That way I can get something out on the porch already and figure out what I'm doing with coco before I plant my seedlings in it.
I'll let you guys know how the shopping trip goes tomorrow, most likely I'll buy even more crap than I planned on, texas hydroponics is a badass store.
You can save yourself a step next time and plant in coco plugs instead of peat, that way you can just transfer to the pot after fluffing the roots a bit.
Pick up a seed mat when you're at the hydro store, well worth the money.
P_Schneider said:
You can't just plant a jiffy plug in coco too?
I bought those before I planned on growing in coco, but anyway I went to the hydro store yesterday and they were kinda closed for re-stocking/inventory but they had a sign that said you could come in if you already knew exactly what you wanted.
Well, I did, and the only thing they didn't have that I wanted was the autopot, you have to order that from them online they said.
I ended up with:
5 kg bale of cocogro by botanicare
1 liter bottle of Hesi's one part coco fertilizer system (which I had read was good and the guy at the store confirmed kicked ass) a bag of perlite
& pH up & down starter kit with tester.
All for like 50 bucks. Not too bad, I'm going plant shopping today, maybe borrow the girlfriend's camera for pics.
Forgot the seedling mat though, what kind of local store would have them? A nursery, wal-mart, lowes, etc?
Txclosetgrower said:You can't just plant a jiffy plug in coco too?
I bought those before I planned on growing in coco, but anyway I went to the hydro store yesterday and they were kinda closed for re-stocking/inventory but they had a sign that said you could come in if you already knew exactly what you wanted.
Well, I did, and the only thing they didn't have that I wanted was the autopot, you have to order that from them online they said.
I ended up with:
5 kg bale of cocogro by botanicare
1 liter bottle of Hesi's one part coco fertilizer system (which I had read was good and the guy at the store confirmed kicked ass) a bag of perlite
& pH up & down starter kit with tester.
All for like 50 bucks. Not too bad, I'm going plant shopping today, maybe borrow the girlfriend's camera for pics.
Forgot the seedling mat though, what kind of local store would have them? A nursery, wal-mart, lowes, etc?
Well you can do it, and it probably won't make that much of a difference but 2 things come to mind.
1. peat has different chemical properties than coco which may, or may not make a difference, not sure really.
2. Your going to have to peel all of the mesh off of the plugs before you plant them. The roots tend to get bound up if left on and some times tear off if they have worked their way through the mesh when you take the mesh off. That's the main reason I switched from jiffy to the coco plugs.
P_Schneider said:
Yeah, I was hoping the plug would be small enough to not matter that much, i didn't know if it might damage it by retaining too much water/fertilizer compared to the peat since I'm gonna be feeding nutrients designed specifically for coco. Well, I should have 2 of each plant, so I'll try it both ways and find out, but next time I'll use the coco plugs.
But yeah, thanks for the advice man, I'm only 20 (21 in april
), so I'm pretty new to the whole gardening thing. I really appreciate all the help I get on these boards, you guys rule, so anyone who sees me doing something wrong feel free to correct me, I honestly am pretty much making this up as I go lol. So hopefully we can all learn something from my experiments with coco, at the very least we can figure out what not to do lol. Anyways, time to shower up and go shopping
I just planted all my seeds last nigh in the Jiffy peat Plugs. I've got 42 orange hab plants, cukes, and beefsteak tomatoes. Plus some mixed chile seeds that I won't know what they are until the come up. The package said that there are; jalapeno, ancho, serrano, cayanne and hungarian mix.
Should be intersting. I plan on planting them outside around the end of May. This is my first garden so I will provide the trials and tribulations as this progresses. I plan on canning a bunch of hot pickle spears for bloddy marys. It will also be my first venture into canning.
Should be intersting. I plan on planting them outside around the end of May. This is my first garden so I will provide the trials and tribulations as this progresses. I plan on canning a bunch of hot pickle spears for bloddy marys. It will also be my first venture into canning.
Still no sprouts in the jiffy plugs, but i went out and picked up several live plants. The roster for this season so far consists of:
1 Mucho Nacho Hybrid
1 Red Beauty Bell Pepper
1 Sun Bell
1 Habanero (from bonnie plants)
and my mom wanted me to grow her some tomatoes so I picked up a Supersweet 100 cherry tomato plant.
Everyone was transplanted to the coco coir last night and given a thorough watering, I plan to water once a day, or every other day at most. From what I've been reading about growing in coir, that seems to get the best results. If they look like its too much water i'll step it down a notch.
I plan on feeding with every watering too, using the hesi 1 part coco nutrient pH'd to a little below 6, as per the directions on the bottle.
1 Mucho Nacho Hybrid
1 Red Beauty Bell Pepper
1 Sun Bell
1 Habanero (from bonnie plants)
and my mom wanted me to grow her some tomatoes so I picked up a Supersweet 100 cherry tomato plant.
Everyone was transplanted to the coco coir last night and given a thorough watering, I plan to water once a day, or every other day at most. From what I've been reading about growing in coir, that seems to get the best results. If they look like its too much water i'll step it down a notch.
I plan on feeding with every watering too, using the hesi 1 part coco nutrient pH'd to a little below 6, as per the directions on the bottle.
update
So far so good. I've been watering every day or every other day as planned, feeding with every watering and so far no complaints out of the plants. I figure if they were going to have problems with overwatering, they would have already shown it. So far them canna guys seem to be dead on with their tips for coco
The peppers are slowly but steadily growing (probably more than I can tell, since I look at them all day every day). Everything is perfectly green, only the sun bell has slightly deformed leaves, but it came that way. Doesn't seem to be hurting it at all, but time will tell on that one.
The tomato plant, however, is another story. That thing is growing like a friggin weed. Its already up to my knee, and pretty soon I'm going to have to get a cage for it. I pruned off the bottom suckers and the bottom two branches to keep it more tree-like than bushy. I'm waiting on the cage because the wind is doing a great job thickening up the stem.
The only thing is the top has apparently split into two, and most things I read suggest keeping it a single stem vine....But topping it, even if it is only 1 of two tops, seems a little harsh to me. Pruning side branches is one thing, but I think I'll leave the top alone for now.
So far so good. I've been watering every day or every other day as planned, feeding with every watering and so far no complaints out of the plants. I figure if they were going to have problems with overwatering, they would have already shown it. So far them canna guys seem to be dead on with their tips for coco
The peppers are slowly but steadily growing (probably more than I can tell, since I look at them all day every day). Everything is perfectly green, only the sun bell has slightly deformed leaves, but it came that way. Doesn't seem to be hurting it at all, but time will tell on that one.
The tomato plant, however, is another story. That thing is growing like a friggin weed. Its already up to my knee, and pretty soon I'm going to have to get a cage for it. I pruned off the bottom suckers and the bottom two branches to keep it more tree-like than bushy. I'm waiting on the cage because the wind is doing a great job thickening up the stem.
The only thing is the top has apparently split into two, and most things I read suggest keeping it a single stem vine....But topping it, even if it is only 1 of two tops, seems a little harsh to me. Pruning side branches is one thing, but I think I'll leave the top alone for now.