Would you consider this a normal amount of growth?

Xenthium · Jul 12, 2018

Hey all, this is my first year growing anything hotter than a Habanero.
I've read that superhots tend to grow pretty slowly (not sure if all of you consider scotch bonnets to be a superhot), but when I compare my young ones to others of similar age in various videos/pictures I feel like mine are lacking behind.
They're all 44 days old from the moment I put the seeds in the dirt (Took roughly 10 days before they started to sprout).
They've been living under a 250w 6500k cfl bulb (12 on 12 off) inside of my storage closet with a variable speed computer fan as circulation.
I also haven't started feeding them any nutrients yet.
Do you think their growth is lacking given their age, or fairly normal?

From right to left, 2x Jalapeno, 2x Scotch bonnet, 2x Carolina reaper & 1 of each in smaller pots as backups.

Any replies are appreciated, cheers!

Chilidude · Jul 12, 2018

They need more nutrients by now, start feeding them with some of that.

Xenthium · Jul 12, 2018

Chilidude said:
They need more nutrients by now, start feeding them with some of that.

I'm on the fence about feeding them nutrients, I wasn't sure if I should wait a month or so for them to use the nutrients in the potting mix; I transplanted them from their seed cells 6 days ago.

ideacipher · Jul 12, 2018

Potting Mix nutrients are great but.... Best idea is test your soil to keep from over feeding.

What kind of nutrients are you talking about? If the numbers are under 10 you should be kinda safe.

AndyW · Jul 12, 2018

You can pretty much always use low-strength diluted fish emulsion. I don't feed that early personally, but this is only my second year growing and I didn't fertilize at all the first year.

Xenthium · Jul 12, 2018

ideacipher said:
Potting Mix nutrients are great but.... Best idea is test your soil to keep from over feeding.

What kind of nutrients are you talking about? If the numbers are under 10 you should be kinda safe.

I use a fish emulsion + seaweed liquid fert, NPK is 5,1,4

AndyW · Jul 12, 2018

You could start out at half strength and see how they respond. I've had a hard time ever overfeeding with fish emulsion.

Xenthium · Jul 12, 2018

AndyW said:
You could start out at half strength and see how they respond. I've had a hard time ever overfeeding with fish emulsion.

They're due for a watering in a couple days so I'll do what you've suggested, cheers.

Doelman · Jul 12, 2018

if that's MG potting soil or something similar with fertilizer in it, I wouldn't feed yet. I have plants in 3 gallon pots with MG potting soil that were started March 1st and transplanted into those containers a month and a half later, they still don't need extra fertilizer and the plants are huge.

The plants look fine, I would up your light to 16 hours a day though.