seeds The Little Seedling that could

jimbo53 · Aug 1, 2014

Tried to start some Hungarian Wax Peppers from seed in seed starting mix, no luck nothing germinated.

Switched methods and tried in damp paper towel in Ziploc bag, finally after about a month several germinated.
Planted the seedlings into seed starting mix, only two took root. Then came a wind storm and knocked over the tray spilling the soil and seedling on to the ground. My youngest son wanted to "Rescue" the seedling so we took the one that was still in tact and put it back into some soil.

It put on some growth and a new leaf, but the stem is looking a little leggy. Should I transplant to a little larger pot, planting it deeper to sturdy the stem?

withywindle72 · Aug 2, 2014

looking good

dday · Aug 2, 2014

I had a whole tray of about 25 plants, they were doing good, good germination but I kept the lid on the germinator and the heat on too long, a few got super leggy then fell over! Then they dried out for like 2 days because the wife forgot to water them while I was away on work, so I lost about half of them..

Then the entire tray got knocked over and I couldn't tell them apart because my ordering was based on their location in the germinator...

So.... I ended up with 4 plants that actually made it through an ordeal similar to yours. They took forever but they are looking great now, and it's a bit of a lottery what seeds made it into plants.

Also, I topped all of them once they hit 6 lets of leaves, and WOW, they started to grow something crazy. One split unto 5 stalks, two of them with 3 and another with a double. Once your little ones gets up there, check out the topping thread and don't be afraid, it will give the plant a turbo boost.

Dave2000 · Aug 2, 2014

I wouldn't disturb/stress it with transplant just yet, only giving it as much light as possible. A couple weeks from now you could subject it to light fan forced airflow to invigorate the stem.

jimbo53 · Aug 2, 2014

withywindle72 said:
looking good

withywindle72 thanks for the comment.

dday said:
I had a whole tray of about 25 plants, they were doing good, good germination but I kept the lid on the germinator and the heat on too long, a few got super leggy then fell over! Then they dried out for like 2 days because the wife forgot to water them while I was away on work, so I lost about half of them..

Then the entire tray got knocked over and I couldn't tell them apart because my ordering was based on their location in the germinator...

So.... I ended up with 4 plants that actually made it through an ordeal similar to yours. They took forever but they are looking great now, and it's a bit of a lottery what seeds made it into plants.

Also, I topped all of them once they hit 6 lets of leaves, and WOW, they started to grow something crazy. One split unto 5 stalks, two of them with 3 and another with a double. Once your little ones gets up there, check out the topping thread and don't be afraid, it will give the plant a turbo boost.

dday, I know how you feel about leaving others to watch over your babies. Every year we go on family vacation when school lets out at the beginning of summer; and that's right at the heart of growing season. I have to rely on others to watch over my garden, and they usually don't put in the tlc that I do.

I will have to look into topping, I have heard a lot of people rave about it.

Dave2000 said:
I wouldn't disturb/stress it with transplant just yet, only giving it as much light as possible. A couple weeks from now you could subject it to light fan forced airflow to invigorate the stem.

Dave, thanks for the info. I will just keep doing what I'm doing for a little longer and then put a small fan blowing at it indirectly to tuff in up the stem.

dday · Aug 16, 2014

jimbo53 said:
withywindle72 thanks for the comment.

dday, I know how you feel about leaving others to watch over your babies. Every year we go on family vacation when school lets out at the beginning of summer; and that's right at the heart of growing season. I have to rely on others to watch over my garden, and they usually don't put in the tlc that I do.

I will have to look into topping, I have heard a lot of people rave about it.

Dave, thanks for the info. I will just keep doing what I'm doing for a little longer and then put a small fan blowing at it indirectly to tuff in up the stem.

I looked again at a plant I grew. First it only popped 3 pods and nothing else would stick. Once these 3 pods ripened, I topped the plant. Chopped it down around the 6th set of leaves up the stem, just below the fork. I just felt it was too leggy and it was part of the problem why it only was able to sustain 3 pods. It took about a month to grow back (started growing back right away) and now.... holy JEEZE. It has like 8 bods and 2 of them are at least 8 inches long. These things are freaks! The first set of pods I had were about 4 inches long.

Long story short, topping made a fully grown plant into a super beast which is like smashing walls down and rocking out to AC/DC at the same time. I'm gonna take a shot of it when the sun comes up to post it, they are awesome and another reason why I will always and forever top my plants either as young plants or if I get them already grown, top them grown as well!

Dave2000 · Aug 17, 2014

^ If you had not topped it and waited a month it probably would have produced more. Grower anxiety and impatience usually does more harm than good.

geeme · Aug 17, 2014

dday said:
I looked again at a plant I grew. First it only popped 3 pods and nothing else would stick. Once these 3 pods ripened, I topped the plant. Chopped it down around the 6th set of leaves up the stem, just below the fork. I just felt it was too leggy and it was part of the problem why it only was able to sustain 3 pods. It took about a month to grow back (started growing back right away) and now.... holy JEEZE. It has like 8 bods and 2 of them are at least 8 inches long. These things are freaks! The first set of pods I had were about 4 inches long.

Long story short, topping made a fully grown plant into a super beast which is like smashing walls down and rocking out to AC/DC at the same time. I'm gonna take a shot of it when the sun comes up to post it, they are awesome and another reason why I will always and forever top my plants either as young plants or if I get them already grown, top them grown as well!

Topping did not increase the pod size; time of season did. Often very-early season and even very-late season pods are small, but mid-season pods are full-sized. What topping does for a plant is force it to fork more. Since pods are only put out a the forks, yes, this will increase production, after the plant regrows. If you had topped it above the fork, instead of below, you would have had even more. 8 is not a lot.

jimbo53 · Aug 19, 2014

Don't know what happened, lost two leaves.

8/6/14 Everything looks good, 4th leaf starting

8/10/14 One leaf starting to sow signs of droop (I don't know what else to call it)

8/16/14 Two leaves dropped 4th new leaf and existing leaf look strong and healthy

8/18 Changed the way I water, put tray under and will try to wick the water in instead top watering.

Thinking about starting to add diluted fertilizer or maybe some Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Dave2000 · Aug 19, 2014

It looks like the soil should dry out a bit, then wait for more root growth and then transplant into a larger container.

jimbo53 · Aug 19, 2014

Dave2000 said:
It looks like the soil should dry out a bit, then wait for more root growth and then transplant into a larger container.

Thanks Dave, I might have given it too much water; I was thinking it was too dry and that it what caused the leaves to fall off.

dday · Sep 7, 2014

geeme said:
Topping did not increase the pod size; time of season did. Often very-early season and even very-late season pods are small, but mid-season pods are full-sized. What topping does for a plant is force it to fork more. Since pods are only put out a the forks, yes, this will increase production, after the plant regrows. If you had topped it above the fork, instead of below, you would have had even more. 8 is not a lot.

I was commenting more on that when it came back, it came back much happier then before, I'm sure maturity and season had a lot to do with it as well. For a plant this size, with these size peppers, 8 is about all it can sustain I think. They are massive and all twisted in the plant... I keep telling myself I need to take photos...

dday · Sep 8, 2014

Dave2000 said:
^ If you had not topped it and waited a month it probably would have produced more. Grower anxiety and impatience usually does more harm than good.

Maybe, but the plant was super top heavy, the lower growth wasn't even there (just a stem). Topping really seemed to energize it.

RoninCat · Sep 8, 2014

jimbo53 said:
Don't know what happened, lost two leaves.

8/6/14 Everything looks good, 4th leaf starting

8/10/14 One leaf starting to sow signs of droop (I don't know what else to call it)

8/16/14 Two leaves dropped 4th new leaf and existing leaf look strong and healthy

8/18 Changed the way I water, put tray under and will try to wick the water in instead top watering.

Thinking about starting to add diluted fertilizer or maybe some Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

The seedling is a fighter! hope it makes to adult stage!

all the best

Emald001 · Sep 8, 2014

this might be an afterthough, but I bought some "Gro/Dan" rockwool sqaures and all my seeds pop within 3-5 days. I am at 100% thus far with these squares, however you must water them every few days since the rockwool dries out. Good luck!