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2022 - too early to get started...

My real start of the season is still months away but I couldn't resist to put something in the soil already - Tasmanian Black! :dance:

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Some of the seedlings already had tiny true leaves that didn't grow. However, I think moving them up to a warmer location is starting to have it's effect!
 
I hate them damn gnats. For what it's worth, something that I started doing a couple of years ago... I get a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide and make a 10% solution of it and water and soak the seed starting mix for a couple of hours. It solved my fungus gnat problem. I won't even bring a bag of soil mix in the house until I've soaked it.
 
Last year we had a real plague of fungus gnats. I have applied Stenema nematodes (Steinernema feltiae) with a near perfect result... after about 10 days not a single fungus gnat to be found!
 
It's been a while since my last update, and that is mainly because... well... there is just nothing to say, other that that it's not going well with my SB seedlings. They are just not growing at all and starting to yellow. I already lost a couple of varieties entirely... 😥

The new Papa Dreadie seedlings I started are apparently doing quite well in the little tent I made for them (knock on wood) so I decided to put the other seedlings in their own tent as well. The tents are made from fresh bags that have little perforations in them, allowing some air circulation. We'll see what will happen with the sick seedlings but I'm seriously considering to start from scratch. The Papa Dreadies haven't been sown in the supposedly bad soil by the way, contrary to all the other ones...

Now I currently have quite a bit of Papa Dreadie seeds in the dirt (as well as a couple of Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion seeds). Of the first batch of 4, 3 have popped sofar. And another four seeds that I have sown a bit later are still in the propagator. If they all do well I could just turn this into a PD season. So if I do restart the others, the number of varieties will be limited to those that I really wanted to grow.

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On a positive note, the Tasmanian Black is doing very well and is about to open it's first flower...

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If it's due to bad soil, you could try to salvage what you got. Carefully wash out the roots of the seedlings with luke warm water and transplant them to better soil. Plants can be very forgiving when offered better growing conditions!
Hope you can turn the tide!
 
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They have been transplanted into other soil for a week or so now. We'll see how it evolves.
In the mean time I started some new seeds of the varieties I already had growing...
  • marabella market caramel scotch bonnet
  • white scotch bonnet
  • HSH scotch bonnet
As a surplus I also planted some Beth Boys SB seeds from WHP that I still had lying in my seed box 🙂
 
The first of the Papa Dreadie seedlings is already growing it's first true leaf. I must be doing something right then 😊
The white scotch bonnet seedling from the original batch is also responding well on the new situation, but it was the healthiest of them all anyway. For all other seedlings it's not clear yet, I'm still assuming that I'm going to lose them...

Unfortunately, the little tents over the seedlings make it impossible to make any pictures as they are all damp on the inside.
 
I do my best to ensure the best possible aeration after the plants sprout. I honestly don't think it's a good idea to keep them in so much humidity.
 
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The bags are perforated so there's still some air exchange. Anyway, if it works like this, it's better then to see them die off. I'm not going to keep them in the bags forever of course. When I see the plantlets develop properly the tent goes off.
 
I hope everything will work out the way you want. I was just worried when I saw something I wouldn't do.

That Tasmanian Black looks fantastic. I will grow a few this year too.
I wish you much success with your growth!
 
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Actually I have never done this before either and I'm still completely unsure of what is the actual problem. It's really frustrating... all I want is that my plants are healthy 🙂
 
Maybe unwisely, my germination trays this year host a wide range of average germination times… so early seedlings have remained under the dome, in 100% condensation-on-cotyledons humidity.

I agree it’s a risk, mostly of damping off… but personally, I’ve never experienced damping off, not with my other gardening nor so far with peppers. Maybe something else I do prevents it, or maybe I’ve been lucky and will learn to be more cautious.

It’s certainly not good for them, though. It didn’t seem to slow down their development at all, but the condensation on the cotyledons caused reversible curling upwards… I think as a result of the stomata being blocked and the seedling struggling to exchange gasses correctly.

If I weren’t so lazy, I would transplant each variety when germination was sufficient instead of waiting for larger groups. That said, laziness hasn’t bitten me yet.
 
MarcV said:
The bags are perforated so there's still some air exchange. Anyway, if it works like this, it's better then to see them die off. I'm not going to keep them in the bags forever of course. When I see the plantlets develop properly the tent goes off.
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I'd remove those plastic bags, maybe not the main reason why your seedlings are stunted but it probably don't help either. I noticed that over watering, humidity level (too high) or too much light can dramaticaly slow their growth to the point they are just not growing anymore...
 
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