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A new season

craigers

craigers

It might be a little bit of a head start, but I couldn't help but to start my plants today lol.
I got seeds in the mail and hit Lowes less than an hour later.

seeds planted:
red 7 pot
bhut jolokia
trinidad scorpion
dorset naga
chocolate hab ( to be added )

The set up that I am using this year is much different than what I typically use to grow things indoors, so I do have some concerns.

I typically use cool white and sun spectrum mix for lighting, and have the plants only a few inches away from the light after breaking soil.
I ended up getting x2 Sylvania 150 watt pro gro lights. I'm worried because these things put out a lot of heat, so I don't want to put them to close and fry the plants. I'm thinking of just swapping out the gro lights for cool whites when the seedlings come up.

The only vermiculite they had is a strange gold flake and sand mixture. I typically have used the little styrofoam ball type, so again unfamiliar with that.

Does anybody have exp. with using these lights?

Here are some pics of the set up. I'll try to keep this thread updated with the progress. thanks.


hpim1069.jpg


hpim1071.jpg


hpim1072.jpg
 
craigers said:
The only vermiculite they had is a strange gold flake and sand mixture. I typically have used the little styrofoam ball type, so again unfamiliar with that.
Click to expand...

Can't wait to see them peek their heads out...

The styrofoam stuff you are talking about is called perlite. Vermiculite holds more water.
 
Be careful with those peat pots. They suck the moisture right out of the soil. You will have to water much more often using those compared to say plastic solo cups with holes poked in the bottom.

Good luck!!
jacob
 
I've found those lights to be terrible unless you're just using them for heat, floros would likely work much better
 
Can I also add a bad experience with them pots?

I find the chilli's don't have a vigorus enough root system to grow through the pot. I then had major root bound problems and had to resort to tearing them off with roots aswell.

Luckily all plants survived.

Chris
 
Toleman said:
Can I also add a bad experience with them pots?

I find the chilli's don't have a vigorus enough root system to grow through the pot. I then had major root bound problems and had to resort to tearing them off with roots aswell.

Luckily all plants survived.

Chris
Click to expand...

ScruffySecond.jpg


You want to see a glimpse of hell? Rootbound bean sprouts in those cardboard egg containers you buy your eggs in? The Momster loves 'em.
the horror...
Her beans rock, though, and I love my Mom, so it's all good.
 
I killed the lights thinking it was vaporizing all the moisture in the soil, but your absolutely right about these pots, it does dry the soil out extremely fast. I'll be sure to remove them prior to re potting to prevent the root issues as well.

I had a feeling these lights were fail too. Good thing I kept the receipt. Suddenly I feel a little concerned about the germination success rate lol.
 
The germination rate should be fine as long as you maintain moist soil and temps around 80 degrees. I personally use the 72 cell plastic germination trays with the plastic domes. Once the seeds start sprouting, I just remove the dome and all is good. As for the lights, when you return those, I would just buy some cheap (key word=cheap) 2 bulb 4 foot long florescent shop lights. That is all I use and have never had an issue with them. Just buy some small chain so that you can keep the lights about 1 -2 inches above the plants as well as be able to move them as the plants grow.

Here is an example of my setup:
April2009017.jpg


Once the sprouts are big enough, usually when they get their first real leaves, I transplant them into 3" plastic square nursery pots.

Here is an example:
DSCF3141.jpg
 
jjs7741 said:
Be careful with those peat pots. They suck the moisture right out of the soil. You will have to water much more often using those compared to say plastic solo cups with holes poked in the bottom.
Click to expand...

I had bad experience with plastic cups holding too much water; may have been the soil while I should having been using a better draining mix.

I have switched to the jiffy cups with jiffy seed mix (with part potting soil & part worm castings) because they DO dry out faster, which gives me more control over the moisture.

I don't plan on burying the cups in bigger pots tho, as I agree the roots have problems breaking thru, and the jiffy cups themselves don't breakdown for quite some time.
 
Pepperfreak,
When do you start your peppers in relation to when you will plant them out?
How tall are they when you go to plant them out?

Last year I started mine at various times during February and planted them out May first. Some of them including many of the C.chinense were 18 inches tall and not what I would consider leggy. I think that was a bit too long to keep them inside for me.

My setup was similar to your picture. I started them in a closet but had to move them out into the garage because the shelves were too close together.

This year I left almost 3 feet between shelves. I plan to start the C.chinense and C.pubscens the third week of February with a May 1st plant out expected.

IMG_4590.jpg
 
snowmanaxp said:
Pepperfreak,
When do you start your peppers in relation to when you will plant them out?
How tall are they when you go to plant them out?

Last year I started mine at various times during February and planted them out May first. Some of them including many of the C.chinense were 18 inches tall and not what I would consider leggy. I think that was a bit too long to keep them inside for me.

My setup was similar to your picture. I started them in a closet but had to move them out into the garage because the shelves were too close together.

This year I left almost 3 feet between shelves. I plan to start the C.chinense and C.pubscens the third week of February with a May 1st plant out expected.
Click to expand...

My plant out is usually sometime mid to late May and last year I didn't start my seeds until late Feb, early March, which gave me plants that were 10 - 12 inches tall. They all seemed to grow and produce quite bountiful. My fist year I started in mid-Jan and found that I was having difficulties with the plants getting root bound and too big. This year I think I'm going to again start later as I found that the plants last year seemed to be perfect size for planting out. So, I will count backward from my planting time to 2 1/2 - 3 months and then start the seeds. For me that means if I'm planning on planting out on May 25, then I'll start me seeds around/between Feb 25 and March 1.

I hope this helps answer your question.
 
Toleman said:
im sure the cups would be better if you cut the bottoms off but remember to be careful lifting them up.

Chris
Click to expand...

I agree...I have read many sources that warn to stay away fro Jiffy pots, mostly because they hold too much moisture and can cause root rot and other issues related to too much moisture. It is important to remember that peppers do not like 'wet feet'. I used the plastic cup method one year and they worked great! All I did was drilled out a big hole in the bottom and then placed one cup inside the other to catch the water that drained out. Now, the downfall was that they were tippy. I was dropping plants at almost every watering. I found the 3" square nursery pots really cheap at an online nursery supply company. I think a whole case of these pots was around $40 and provided me with enough pots for 3 years. They would last longer if I would take the time to wash and reuse.
 
That is a good site and have ordered from them in the past. But, I think I got my pots and trays from here:

http://www.growerssolution.com

They had really great customer service. I had ordered the wrong trays (I wanted solid trays, but ordered trays with drain holes instead). I called them up and they replaced them free of charge. They even sent out the replacement proir to receiving my return. In fact, I sent my return back to them after I received the new ones. I just love and value great customer support.
 
That reminds me of the service I received from Amazon. I ordered a Blu ray player which was faulty. I went on their website 2 weeks after ordering, clicked on my order and selected it as faulty. The new one was with me the next day. I still had the old one but if I didn't want to be charged for both I had to return it within 28 days. Printed a postage label off their website and filled out an online UPS (I think) form and they collected it when I'd asked.

For that reason I will always buy and rave about amazon.
 
The stability of the plastic cups is the biggest drawback. I never had any drainage issues. I drill a 3/8" hole in the bottom. I may purchase the nursery pots and trays to hold them as I will be starting about 150 plants this year between peppers and tomatoes and the extra stability will help. Not worth the extra cost for just a few plants, but for as many as I will have this year, the slight increase in cost is well worth it for more ease of use.

jacob
Pepperfreak said:
I agree...I have read many sources that warn to stay away fro Jiffy pots, mostly because they hold too much moisture and can cause root rot and other issues related to too much moisture. It is important to remember that peppers do not like 'wet feet'. I used the plastic cup method one year and they worked great! All I did was drilled out a big hole in the bottom and then placed one cup inside the other to catch the water that drained out. Now, the downfall was that they were tippy. I was dropping plants at almost every watering. I found the 3" square nursery pots really cheap at an online nursery supply company. I think a whole case of these pots was around $40 and provided me with enough pots for 3 years. They would last longer if I would take the time to wash and reuse.
Click to expand...
 
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