Just how fast (or slow) do chillies grow?

Calamari Kid · Apr 26, 2016

Hi all. I can't help but notice that despite identical growing conditions, my habanero and reaper "plants" are *MUCH* smaller than my datils and hawks' claws. Granted, the hawks' claws are annums, so their initial grow pattern is different. But I am talking about 3 inches on the datils which as far as I know are chinense, vs about an inch on the habanero and the reaper.

Is this normal or have I got 2 dud seeds from 2 separate sources at the same time? :confused:

N.B. The nagas are just as small, but they are in soil so not quite the same.

Comptine · Apr 26, 2016

Nah, chinenses just grow super slow. That's why they are normally started pretty early, to accommodate the long growing season.

Calamari Kid · Apr 26, 2016

Cheers. I did think that the Datils looked rather annumy despite being classified as chinense. Cool, thank you very much

Noah Yates · Apr 26, 2016

Yeah, datils are exceptionally lanky chinenses!

Calamari Kid · Apr 26, 2016

Noah Yates said:
Yeah, datils are exceptionally lanky chinenses!

Ahhh... that explains. Thank you.

LordHill · Apr 26, 2016

Had to explain that to a coworker when I was trying to get him to start his superhots in February.. heading into May, he now understands

Calamari Kid · Apr 26, 2016

LordHill said:
Had to explain that to a coworker when I was trying to get him to start his superhots in February.. heading into May, he now understands

Those pesky princesses need the warmth too! The nagas that I started at the beginning of the year are still so small that I am starting to wonder if they have some mutation that had made them dwarfs!

LordHill · Apr 26, 2016

Warm is good. Heat mat at 85ish does them wonders.

aamartin77 · Apr 26, 2016

LordHill said:
Warm is good. Heat mat at 85ish does them wonders.

I have a few plants that have been growing for about a month, maybe a little more, and they are still puny. They are sitting on a heat mat, but I turned it off because I almost killed the sprouts early on when it got into the mid 90s. They are currently sitting in my garage. Do you think it would increase their growth rate if I were to turn the heat mat back on? My only concern is that I'll come home one day to find all my plants slumped over again.

alkhall · Apr 26, 2016

Lighting will provide a good amount of heat.

Using my infrared laser thermometer, I see that my six-lamp T5HO industrial fixtures at approximately six inches from my plants have the temperature at between 89°F and 95°F as measured on the leaf surface.

FROG DOG · Apr 26, 2016

they are creepy slow for the first month or two but once they hit their growth spurt they takeoff!! :onfire:

Vicious Vex · Apr 27, 2016

alkhall said:
Lighting will provide a good amount of heat.

Using my infrared laser thermometer, I see that my six-lamp T5HO industrial fixtures at approximately six inches from my plants have the temperature at between 89°F and 95°F as measured on the leaf surface.

My soil temps using a soil thermometer and I was getting core readings around 90 degrees after the plants had been bottom watered. First time I didn't need to use a heat mat to get the seeds to germinate. I'm having really good success using just the T5HO 4-Bulb lighting system.

Spicy Mushroom · Apr 27, 2016

My datils (some of my worst germination rates) have been lanky and slow growing compared to my other Chinense. My various habs have outperformed my datils. so we had a different experience. The fact your datils are growing as well as your Annuum I would chalk up to individual plant genetics. As others said, Chinense just take longer...usually.