I am finally getting an early jump on my peppers. Up until this year its been mainly jalapenos and a bell type sweet. Here is what I'm starting with.
The rocoto pack says mixed because I am illiterate and thought I was combining red with red when I really combined red with orange. So now I have one mixed pack and one each still separate.
I grow these for myself but the wife and I also sell at the local farmers market. I have to start a lot more plants than I need for myself and there is a lack of germination space. I didnt invent this method but if you look at how they come up when a pod or tomato drops this is kinda what it looks like. That leads me to this...
As you can see the cells have duct tape on them and are labeled. For the middle cell I divide one cell in half and the top becomes the middle, the bottom is the cell the tape is on.
Now I dump the seeds in.
And the cover them up and water.
Plastic wrap the top...
And wait for this...these are jalapenoes I germinated a couple weeks ago.
Now I have to get to seaparating them into solo cups. The separation usually only takes maybe 2 min per cell, filling cups while holding a seedling takes a little bit longer. Damp off is almost never an issue. I didnt soak the seeds I just planted nor the jalapenoes. The jalapenoes were like a 25 cent pack from Dollar General at the end of last year. I think I've maybe lost 5 seedlings in the 5 years I've been germinating this way. Usually I will count out seeds per cell and do 10,20, or 30. The jalapenoes I divided a whole pack by sight. The newer ones I just planted I didnt count at all, but I'd guess most of them are at or below 20 seeds with a few of them maybe near 30 which for me is just about perfect.
These are orange habaneros I started last fall maybe. When I brought them inside as seedlings they did ok for a while and then aphids showed up or multiplied enough to be a problem and reduced these to stems with no leaves. They just started making a comeback the last month or so and I repotted them yesterday.
Everything is in a 10x10 greenhouse built on the deck off the 2nd floor with pvc, 4 mil plastic and duct tape
It stays warm enough with a small heater if the outside doesnt get below 20F. Then I end up moving everything inside.
The rocoto pack says mixed because I am illiterate and thought I was combining red with red when I really combined red with orange. So now I have one mixed pack and one each still separate.
I grow these for myself but the wife and I also sell at the local farmers market. I have to start a lot more plants than I need for myself and there is a lack of germination space. I didnt invent this method but if you look at how they come up when a pod or tomato drops this is kinda what it looks like. That leads me to this...
As you can see the cells have duct tape on them and are labeled. For the middle cell I divide one cell in half and the top becomes the middle, the bottom is the cell the tape is on.
Now I dump the seeds in.
And the cover them up and water.
Plastic wrap the top...
And wait for this...these are jalapenoes I germinated a couple weeks ago.
Now I have to get to seaparating them into solo cups. The separation usually only takes maybe 2 min per cell, filling cups while holding a seedling takes a little bit longer. Damp off is almost never an issue. I didnt soak the seeds I just planted nor the jalapenoes. The jalapenoes were like a 25 cent pack from Dollar General at the end of last year. I think I've maybe lost 5 seedlings in the 5 years I've been germinating this way. Usually I will count out seeds per cell and do 10,20, or 30. The jalapenoes I divided a whole pack by sight. The newer ones I just planted I didnt count at all, but I'd guess most of them are at or below 20 seeds with a few of them maybe near 30 which for me is just about perfect.
These are orange habaneros I started last fall maybe. When I brought them inside as seedlings they did ok for a while and then aphids showed up or multiplied enough to be a problem and reduced these to stems with no leaves. They just started making a comeback the last month or so and I repotted them yesterday.
Everything is in a 10x10 greenhouse built on the deck off the 2nd floor with pvc, 4 mil plastic and duct tape
It stays warm enough with a small heater if the outside doesnt get below 20F. Then I end up moving everything inside.
