Can this be right???

[wordwiz]

A caveat:

Last year, I knew nothing about growing plants from seeds indoors. We planted beans, peas, carrots, cukes, tobacco, tomato, etc., as seeds when I was a child but never inside. I put seeds in styrofoam cups for the most part and let them be. Had set backs due to aphids, less than great potting soil, too much/not enough/wrong watering regimen, insufficient lighting - is there a mistake I didn't make?

Anyway, looking at my diary, I sowed about 50 different varieties on December 20 and actually didn't have any plants that were worthy of transplanting into 5 gallon containers until the middle of May, and a few the end of May.

I would like to think I have learned a lot. I can germinate most seeds in a week or less and in three weeks they are large enough to go into a larger cell or container. My lighting is much stronger, I've learned to bottom water (using rain water when possible), found ferts that really stimulate root growth and have significantly upgraded my lighting. I feel quite confident sowing the tomato seeds in the middle of February and having them large enough to sell by the second week of May, though I will probably start them a week earlier. If they don't sell the first week or two and keep growing, I can always move them to a larger pot (and charge more).

But I'm wondering about the peppers. I will sow some of the Bhuts as soon as I get them (sometime this week) but am wondering about the others. The only other real hot one I'm growing is the Red Savina; the others are Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno, Habanero, Cheyenne, Tabasco and two Sweet peppers, a Bell and Banana. That's over 200 plants I need to have ready to sell and I don't want to miss out on an early-May sales opportunity.

If I order the seeds now, the first chance I will have to plant them will likely be January 6, unless they arrive by next Tuesday. That would be 10 days later than last year.

But I'm not ready yet! I haven't completely decided what kind of trays to sow the seeds in or the very best time to transplant them. I figured I had another month to work on this.

Was last year's long time to be ready for transplanting due to my incompetence or should I expect close to that this year?

Where has winter gone already??? It seems like it just started.

Mike

 

[MiLK_MaN]

If you are in the business of selling, it makes more sense to have the plants look as enticing to the customer as possible, which generally means bigger is better. With that in mind, you'd have to think bigger is better, and after a year of experimenting with LED's and all sorts of other stuff, you are no doubt in a better position to give the best possible conditions for these plants to grow.

 

[wordwiz]

MilkMan,

It ain't the conditions I worry about, it is the germination/grow time! I played with tomatoes this fall - I had bunches of seeds left over. The few peppers I tried took about a week to germinate and probably would have been big enough to transplant to growing cells no more than two weeks later. And I lean to thinking that taking five months from sowing to being ready to transplant into huge containers or the garden was because I didn't have a clue. I just read a thread in another section where most posters found it taking up to a month for Bhuts to germinate. I sowed my superhots (Bhut, Morich, 7-pod, Scorpion) the first week of January and though they had bunches of blossoms on them in early October, I didn't have enough year left to but a few pods.

I'm trying to find a good fert that doesn't have much Nitrogen, as that tends to make the plants grow tall in a hurry. Not bad if they are outside and getting 100,000 lumens but not good if they are getting 7,000 inside. I want short internodal growth, a huge rootball but enough foliage to look extremely bushy. Maybe something like a 5-30-30 mix. You can also be sure that each watering that includes ferts will have a generous supply of crushed up and dissolved multivitamins added. Once I started adding those to the cukes and toms in hydro they took off.

Mike

 

[MiLK_MaN]

What about if you lop off parts of the tops of each plant? I had a Peruvian White Habanero that got burnt under CFL when I sprayed some fly spray inside one of my tents (wont be doing that again), and decided to cut the tops off. The result was it just branched out to the side very quickly, so I'm guessing you could force the plants to branch out that way.

As for the time of germination of the superhots, if the seeds are extremely fresh, they'd commonly germinate between the 1 - 2 weeks that most people seem to quote. If you are that desperate to control the germination to a specific time period, why not look at something like gibberellic acid? I haven't had a chance to test it, but all evidence I've found on the net seems to indicate it certainly helps with germination.

 

[wordwiz]

MM,

Believe it or not, I have considering topping the plants. But it has to be done at a specific time - after the plants have got a great start but still early enough for sprouts to develop by the time I sell them. It's a great way to increase the production of a plant; I have been doing it with basil for a few years.

I think (at least at this time!) that what I will do is sow about 25 seeds as soon as I get them with the goal I'll have 18 that will germinate and survive transplanting. Wait two weeks and sow another 25. I plan on offering just 36 of each variety.

Too bad my time machine is in the shop now, otherwise I would zoom forward to May and see how the plants look.

So far, I have about $450 invested, but most of that is in one-time costs (lumber, ligts, fixtures) etc. If I don't sell at least 200 plants I'm gonna have to face "she who wonders if I'm a mad gardener."

Merry Christmas,

Mike