seeds Growing from seed

I've recently gotten into gardening and growing tomatoes and have been looking to expand the types of things I grow just so I don't get bottlenecked into one area. Hot peppers are something I've always enjoyed and for some reason never get to try too many different varieties of so I want to give growing them a try. Because I'm growing from seed this late in the season, is it possible for me to plant the peppers in pots, grow them outdoors and then bring them indoors for the last month or two once the weather dips in my area to possible frost periods? I do have some grow lights but I'm curious if people do this in the northern climates.I really don't know much about hot peppers other than what they taste like so growing wise, is there something unique about growing them that most newbies would easily miss? This community seems really helpful and I really should not have been surprised that theres a forum dedicated to hot peppers.

You can bring them in and they'll at the very least stay alive.  Whether they produce pods or not depends on indoor temps and how much light you're able to give them.  Mine started growing pods indoors with just 3 T8 shoplights so you really don't need anything crazy.

As for anything specific you need to know for peppers...you'll want a heating pad or something to keep seeds warm while they're germinating, as most pepper seeds like to be at around 80 degrees to germinate.  They can germinate at lower temperatures but it will take longer.

Not too sure what you mean when you say northern climate. If you're like me (northern British Columbia) and have about 90 days for a growing season than you'd be fairly late to the game for most of the superhot and hot pepper types - Jolokia and scorpions habs etc. You'd still be ok for some of the mild peppers like the jalapeños or Hungarian banana peppers though. They tend to have about a 60 days to harvest period, but even then I wouldn't expect much In terms of overall production. That said it'd be enough to get your feet wet.

Neil

Most of the good ones (superhots) take (almost) as long as a baby to arrive.
You can bring them in and *maybe* get some pods if all the stars line up.
 
Mine get started in Feb, go outside in June (short growing season in the high desert), and come back in before the first frost.
 
I always get some pods---not in huge quantity---through the winter.
 
In feb I start new ones, and the yearlings go in the ground in June, while the new ones stay in pots for the first year, migrating inside and out as the weather dictates.
 
Thai varieties seem to be very forgiving and prodidgious producers, chinenses are notoriously finicky, baccatums seem to do very well also.

Blister said:

Not too sure what you mean when you say northern climate. If you're like me (northern British Columbia) and have about 90 days for a growing season than you'd be fairly late to the game for most of the superhot and hot pepper types - Jolokia and scorpions habs etc. You'd still be ok for some of the mild peppers like the jalapeños or Hungarian banana peppers though. They tend to have about a 60 days to harvest period, but even then I wouldn't expect much In terms of overall production. That said it'd be enough to get your feet wet.

Neil

Click to expand...

 
Im in Edmonton, AB, the weather is sunny but temperature drop on a dime. Yesterday we had a massive snow fall and -5C temperatures after weeks of 15+. It makes having even a simple indoor grow setup  a requirement if you want anything that takes longer to grow.
I do have some HPS/MH lights which I plan on using to finish plants with and am planning to upgrade from spiral CFLs to some T8s for my seedling/cutting rack. I'm wondering if a couple 400w lights would be sufficient for a couple plants to produce pods. I'm not really worried about getting huge yields, I'm mostly looking for the experience and knowledge in learning to grow from seed on my own. But thanks everyone for your comments.

Ah ok, you share a very similar climate to me. I'm in Quesnel, BC and have had to really change things up in order to get super hot peppers to fruit. I tried soil in regular sized pots with T8 fluros. I started early. I overwintered chilies like the trinidad scorpion in soil and had 4 year old plants. Never really produced for me. Finally changed things up. I bought an LED light and gave coco coir a shot last year. It was a learning curve, but I had great results once I got things dialled in.

I have about a 90 day growing season. The combo of LED lights, coco and hydro nutes changed everything. I've found that I can grow a MUCH larger plant in the same size pot than I ever could with soil. It grows faster too. I was able to get a few harvests last year. I had peppers from Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion Red and the Ministry of Agriculture Scotch Bonnet. These peppers range from 120-160 days to harvest. Much longer grow time than I have in a season.

I have no experience with MH or HPS, but I'm sure that either would serve you as good if not better than my 180w LED light has. I'd imagine that you'd be able to get a harvest out of the mild peppers if you started now and used a MH/HSP light at the end of the year. A 400w MH/HPS puts out much more than my 180W LED.