I just started my seeds for 2022 today. I typically do like 10 varieties a year, 3 of each plant, for around 39 total. Mostly the superhots like ghost, Reapers, and scorpions.
I mostly make hot sauce with them, we also have a large veggie garden, so pretty much everything in the hot sauce comes from our backyard other than vinegar and salt. I also dehydrate whatever else I don't use. I just make it for fun, giving it to friends and family, but it is expensive buying a couple hundred jars every year.
This year, I decided to try to fund my hot sauce making by selling excess plants. I have ordered 16 varieties this year, and have around 15 seeds for each one. So I'll keep my usual 30 or so plants, but will sell the rest on Facebook or Kijiji locally.
I have about a hundred plants that I started today, and still have about that many seeds left in the packets. As these sprout and get established, I'll move them outside to my greenhouse, and then start the next ones.
This is going to be new to me. The last couple years, I wasn't very happy with the germination rate I was getting, under 50%, my temperatures and moisture were pretty good I think, but I never pre-soaked the seeds. This year I pre-soaked them for 24 hours in a water and chamomile tea solution.
I'm trying out using these red beer cups, I punctured the bottom on all of them, and also cut all the way around about 95% of the bottom, about an inch up, just leaving one thin section on either side. I do this because the last couple of years I've had problems when I move these into my raised beds, with pill bugs/roly-polies, eating my young seedlings. Last year I used these red beer cups and that stopped them completely, but by then I had already lost several seedlings. So this year I'm growing them from these right away. The idea is, that I can just snap those two little remaining sections when I go to transplant them into the garden, so there is no longer a bottom on the cup, and the cup sides will still be there to protect the plants from the bugs.
Anyway, excited for another growing season. Here in Southern Ontario I still have about 3 months until these can go in the ground. I have around 10 over wintered plants in the greenhouse that still look good too.
I mostly make hot sauce with them, we also have a large veggie garden, so pretty much everything in the hot sauce comes from our backyard other than vinegar and salt. I also dehydrate whatever else I don't use. I just make it for fun, giving it to friends and family, but it is expensive buying a couple hundred jars every year.
This year, I decided to try to fund my hot sauce making by selling excess plants. I have ordered 16 varieties this year, and have around 15 seeds for each one. So I'll keep my usual 30 or so plants, but will sell the rest on Facebook or Kijiji locally.
I have about a hundred plants that I started today, and still have about that many seeds left in the packets. As these sprout and get established, I'll move them outside to my greenhouse, and then start the next ones.
This is going to be new to me. The last couple years, I wasn't very happy with the germination rate I was getting, under 50%, my temperatures and moisture were pretty good I think, but I never pre-soaked the seeds. This year I pre-soaked them for 24 hours in a water and chamomile tea solution.
I'm trying out using these red beer cups, I punctured the bottom on all of them, and also cut all the way around about 95% of the bottom, about an inch up, just leaving one thin section on either side. I do this because the last couple of years I've had problems when I move these into my raised beds, with pill bugs/roly-polies, eating my young seedlings. Last year I used these red beer cups and that stopped them completely, but by then I had already lost several seedlings. So this year I'm growing them from these right away. The idea is, that I can just snap those two little remaining sections when I go to transplant them into the garden, so there is no longer a bottom on the cup, and the cup sides will still be there to protect the plants from the bugs.
Anyway, excited for another growing season. Here in Southern Ontario I still have about 3 months until these can go in the ground. I have around 10 over wintered plants in the greenhouse that still look good too.
