Growing for Newbies

Alynne

Alynne

The topics pinned here have been so helpful, but I wish there was more simple info. Read the growing FAQ's but still have questions that many new gardeners may have.

You see a tiny hook of a seedling. Take it out of the dome now or wait until tiny leaves?

What are true leaves and when to up plant?

Basic store bought fertilizers - fish emulsion , bud and bloom , seaweed. How early how often?

Lack of room for grow lights, best option?

I love it here and am learning much but it is also overwhelming for the small grower.

Love looking at everyone's beautiful grows, just looking for help for the smaller of us.
 
Yeah, the guides can be a bit intricate(thesaurus.com ftw)...
 
If you need some clarification or have some questions, feel free to post them in this section...
 
NOTE: Google can also be useful (i.e. What are true leaves...)
 
I'm pretty new to growing as well. This is actually my first post on the forum. I've been visiting the site religiously for more than a year. I grew one Reaper plant last year, but it got severe hail damage and never got any pods from it. I am growing several different varieties this year. Most of them are coming up nicely, but all of my reapers seem to be struggling. Some of them didn't seem to have a normal cotyledon, while others looked too small and haven't grown much. All of my plants are currently in the same soil being watered at the same time with the same water, but the reapers are ALL struggling. Any ideas?
 
1 - Remove seedling from dome / covered container once its sprouted. You don't want it to be too damp. I personally only use covered containers to keep moisture in while germinating so I don't need to keep watering them.
 
2 - True leaves are the plants "real" leaves. so any leaves other then the cotyledons are "true leaves". When to pot up depends on what you started them in / what size pot they are currently in. I start in jiffy peat pellets, then pot up to a 1 or 2 litre pot when plant has one or two sets of true leaves.(i do it early) They stay in those pots until they fork.
 
3 - I personally give my plants a weak hit of organic ferts when I pot them up from pellets into pots. I give either weak fish emulsion, or weak liquid blood & bone. I switch to a (non-organic) bloom/flowering fert once buds start to form. I apply my ferts every Sunday..so once a week. I give the small plants weak (organic) ferts every couple of weeks.
 
4 - grow less plants, prune them, or try your luck on a windowsill etc. I don't use any lights.
 
good luck :)
 
I'm a old man who has grown since the sixties. Farmer's almanac great source of info. Best advice I can give ya
Is keep it simple, learn from your mistakes, and maybe check with the local feed and seed store or botanical garden
For info
 
Doming the seedlings isn't necessary. Unless they are in a very dry heated room and you want to prevent them from drying out too quickly. It would be better if they were open air and you just checked on them more often. You should have a fan on them at this point also, which further dries them out.
 
I mix tomato tone and Neptune's harvest crab shell into the organic potting/seed starting mix at the first transplant, which I do when they have two sets of true leaves. Last year I watered with Neptune's harvest fish and seaweed emulsion. But be careful with this. If the soil is in a spot that stays wet, you will grow mold quickly. Using organics such as these will limit the chance of over fertilizing, but still you don't need to go crazy. Follow the directions for the dry fert mixes and use the emulsion sparingly.
 
You will be much better off with a grow light. Check out Envirogro's 4 bulb. It's less then 100, comes with 6400k T5 Bulbs and is compact and works very well.
 
Thanks so much for the input!

A few things I have learned so far this year:

The 2 ounce plastic soufflé cups work very well for germinating. I can then put them under the light for at least two weeks before potting into the solo cups. Cardboard egg container cups are horrible. Thought that being the same size they would work the same, but not true. I assume the cardboard leeches the water and I cannot tell how wet they are. I completely fried the few I tried to do this way.

Spritzing the tops of the cups with the seeds is not enough to keep them completely moist before germination. I pulled a few that were duds and realized that just underneath the surface everything was bone dry. On seeds that take a long time to germinate I should have been bottom watering. Tried to re-water some of the old ones. We'll see what happens.

Patience! It all takes more time than I thought it would or want it to. More water, more fertilizer, more heat, or just fussing with them is not going to help. Especially the water! I am trying to be very conscious of making sure the soil is almost entirely dry before I bottom water. Except for the seedlings I let go completely dry in the stupid egg containers.

One more question about when to pull from under the Dome. When you first see the little green hook? Or do I wait until it's actually standing up with two tiny little leaves? I have a few that started to hook and then have stayed there for a week. I put one under the lights and it fried, the other is still in the dome and hasn't budged. It is still green though.

Looking forward to all the info I can get, and hope this helps others like me. Thanks again!
 
I'm in the same boat as you, so this thread is really helpful! I've never started seeds before and decided to take the plunge this year. I got my little cups, a little tray, and started everything last Sunday. Now I'm just waiting...Good advice here that I will definitely be applying :) 
 
So far, just dragon cayenne and cherry hot. I ordered a couple other varieties yesterday (jalapenos, cayennes, a mix of bells, tekne dolmasi, filfil baladi, Turkish Charleston, and caballero poblanos) and can't wait till they get here! It took me forever to decide what to order...so many different possibilities! What are you growing?
 
Hi Roo,

From seed I have Chultepino, Red Brain and hopefully Tiny Tobascos. This is only hopeful. I do not have a good track record with seeds.

From Chiliplants I've ordered:

Ammazzo
Cherry Chocolate
Cochiti
Fatalii
Fire
Fish
Goat's Weed
Habanera white 2
Jalapeño Early
Merah
Shishito
Trinidad Scorpion

Had a cherry on my list but had to pare down from 30. I was supposed to do 6 but just couldn't.
 
I recommend Cherry Hots if you like a milder heat. I really like them because I can eat them without suffering  :lol: I'm a lightweight. If I remember correctly, there was a bit of heat, but it wasn't much. Looks like a good list! I only meant to pick a couple varieties, but...ended up with more than I should have. Alas! I'll just have to make a bigger garden.
 
This thread was made for me!
 
 
A few things I've learned so far this year in my complete inexperience:
 
-Don't buy the cheap bargain soil from Home Depot and plant your seeds in it without sterilizing first, unless your preferred soil ratio is 10% dirt and 90% live fungus gnat.
 
-Don't use a non-permanent marker to mark any of your seedling cups, unless of course you enjoy the suspense of mystery gardening.
 
-Even though I read a million times not to overwater, and I know  the dangers of overwatering, and everyone said not to overwater... I overwatered. Don't overwater.
 
Habanero McGee said:
This thread was made for me!
 
 
A few things I've learned so far this year in my complete inexperience:
 
-Don't buy the cheap bargain soil from Home Depot and plant your seeds in it without sterilizing first, unless your preferred soil ratio is 10% dirt and 90% live fungus gnat.
 
-Don't use a non-permanent marker to mark any of your seedling cups, unless of course you enjoy the suspense of mystery gardening.
 
-Even though I read a million times not to overwater, and I know  the dangers of overwatering, and everyone said not to overwater... I overwatered. Don't overwater.
Click to expand...
 
Last year was the first that I realized I was overwatering my balcony plants.  Started using the chopstick method.  Using the same theory with my seedlings, Thursday I came home to this:

 
It's hard to find a balance, but we learn...
 
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