• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

seeds Efficacy of 42 watt cfl's for starting seeds

drdextrose

drdextrose

Hey everybody! Though I've been lurking for quite some time, I'm new to posting on this forum, and fairly new to growing peppers in general. I'm going to try growing from seed in 2013, and since I'm located in zone 5, I really need to get a headstart on the growing season. I plan to grow Jamaican Red Squash, Lemon Drop, Aji Crystal, and Ancho San Luis. They will be sown on the first weekend of February under two 42-watt 6500k cfl's rated at 2,750 lumens in a mix of turface and granite, and transplanted outdoors in mid-late May.

My question is, just how many seedlings should I be able to rear with this setup? And roughly how large can I expect the plants to be at the time of transplant, provided they are properly cared for?

Thank you for any info you can provide :)
 
Welcome to the forum...

the question is not how many seedlings you can start under your lights, rather how big will they get in 4 months...you can start probably 2 72 cell trays, but you won't be able to grow them all without additional (a lot ) lighting and area...

Feb to May is 4 months...

here is what my plants looked like at 4 months this year...seed planted 31 December 2011, this was taken 4 May

05-04-12b011.jpg
 
Woah.... Thanks for the heads-up there. I would have been screwed. I'm starting these guys in a dorm, so I doubt they'll let me hook up my HPS. Maybe I'll see if there's any unused space in the campus greenhouse... Assuming I can't change my setup, do you think I can get by if I sow in early april, and keep maybe three plants of each variety?
 
wasn't trying to be a downer on an idea man...why not just grow one or two good plants to get your methodology down then when you either move out of the dorm or graduate (or dropout heaven forbid), you will know what you are doing...
 
You aren't being a downer, man. That's reality. I'm just trying to find the most efficient way to go about this given the resources I have. Any and all tips, instructions, or reality checks are helpful.

With my current setup, how many seeds should I realistically be looking at sowing, and when should I sow? My growing season starts in mid-late May and ends mid-September.

I've already got the basics down. I've successfully grown a few chili plants from store-bought transplants, but I'm interested in some of the less common varieties.
 
If you want to grow inside to production, you need at least 3K lumens/ft2...so you have two lights, and that's about 2 square feet of good strong light 1' from the plants...but one good plant will take up at least 4 square feet

If you are just planting seeds to start seedlings that will be moved outside once the weather permits, you could get 32 plants in 3 X 3" containers and they would grow great until plantout IMO...if you figure on getting 50% germination (a figure I use when planting) then you could essentially plant one 72 cell tray of seeds...then when it comes transplant time from the seed starting tray to the 3" containers, only transplant the healthiest plants and let the others go to compost or give them away...

you don't want to start your seeds too early or else you will outgrow the available space you have...look at your last frost date and back up there 6-8 weeks for annuums and 8-10 weeks for chinense...
 
Man, that's exactly what I wanted to hear! Even 12 or so transplants would do me right. I have no intention of fruiting under the lights.

Thanks, Jack! You've been a huge help, brother.
 
you are welcome...hey, if you are only going to raise 12 plants, you could end up in 6" containers after the 3s....that's the progression of transplanting I do...seed starting tray to 3" to 6" then to final container/ground...depends on how fast the plants grow or how much longer I have to leave them inside, I sometimes go to 2 gal before final transplant...
 
Sweet. Now I just need to acquire a bunch of containers. I understand that plants will "stress" and flower early if they are allowed to become rootbound. Could I use this to my advantage in trying to make a chinense variety produce fruit within my short growing season, or would I be better off just letting nature run its course and trying to overwinter them, if yield is less than satisfactory?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top