Starting early this year, got my first round of seeds sown on Nov 22nd, planning on sowing the second round in Jan.
Sowed 24 varieties, one 8oz cup per variety, two seeds per cup. Round two will be another 24 varieties.
Didn't get my first hook until day 10 and was starting to think I'd done something wrong, but by day 19 I had 47/48 seeds come up (a few were helmet heads and were pulled). I will thin them to one per cup over the weekend. All seeds seems to be doing OK, apart from the 7-pot yellow, which is runty and slightly yellow. In hindsight, I think the slow initial germ time was because the soil was a little on the dry side for the first week.
My seed starting mix was 4 parts MG potting soil, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite. Seeds were placed on top of the mix (no soaking) and covered with a layer of vermiculite. Temps were cycled between ~70F at night and ~90F during the day. I was really surprised by the germination rate, since the majority of the seeds were from 2013 or even earlier. Seeds are under a 4x2' T5HO light, about 4" from the top of the cups.
I'm also overwintering a few plants: douglah, fatalii, habanero lemon, habanero mustard, habanero white (mustard-orange pheno F1) and a "Burpee burning bush". I didn't do anything with the plants when I brought them in and an aphid explosion occurred about two weeks later (despite me not having a problem with aphids all season...). I stripped all the leaves and sprayed every few days with pyrethrin. I just about have them under control, but still find the odd one or two every few days. New growth has started appearing again. Also had a few fungus gnats flying around, but seem to keeping them under control by keeping the soil fairly dry, using mosquito dunks in the water and have fly paper hanging near the plants. Plants are under two 2x4' T8 fixtures, along with a ghetto LED light.
Sowed 24 varieties, one 8oz cup per variety, two seeds per cup. Round two will be another 24 varieties.
Didn't get my first hook until day 10 and was starting to think I'd done something wrong, but by day 19 I had 47/48 seeds come up (a few were helmet heads and were pulled). I will thin them to one per cup over the weekend. All seeds seems to be doing OK, apart from the 7-pot yellow, which is runty and slightly yellow. In hindsight, I think the slow initial germ time was because the soil was a little on the dry side for the first week.
My seed starting mix was 4 parts MG potting soil, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite. Seeds were placed on top of the mix (no soaking) and covered with a layer of vermiculite. Temps were cycled between ~70F at night and ~90F during the day. I was really surprised by the germination rate, since the majority of the seeds were from 2013 or even earlier. Seeds are under a 4x2' T5HO light, about 4" from the top of the cups.
I'm also overwintering a few plants: douglah, fatalii, habanero lemon, habanero mustard, habanero white (mustard-orange pheno F1) and a "Burpee burning bush". I didn't do anything with the plants when I brought them in and an aphid explosion occurred about two weeks later (despite me not having a problem with aphids all season...). I stripped all the leaves and sprayed every few days with pyrethrin. I just about have them under control, but still find the odd one or two every few days. New growth has started appearing again. Also had a few fungus gnats flying around, but seem to keeping them under control by keeping the soil fairly dry, using mosquito dunks in the water and have fly paper hanging near the plants. Plants are under two 2x4' T8 fixtures, along with a ghetto LED light.
