how early is too early to get a head start???

G

gangaskan

more curious than i am anything, but is there any downsides to starting earlier than ideal in your zone?  
 
 
i just potted some more lavender like a week ago, sprouting already  :party:    i love this crap, i would love a whole yard of lavender so i dont have to cut that crap  :rofl:
 
 
that same time i threw in some yellow habs, and peach ones.  also some blood Hungarian paprika seeds.  they're under lights 8 hrs a day in a fairly warm basement room.  also have it insulated mostly with reflectix  bubble insulation.  works great, i'll have to post some pictures when i get home i will take one or two.  have an old bread delivery rack that was converted to shelving that a friend of mine used for some time.  he asked me if i wanted it and it fits a ton of stuff on it!  
 
 
 
 
planted some seeds today. Caribbean reds, j. peach ghost scorpion, reaper, 7 pot bubble gum, yellow scorpion, Brazilian starfish. will keep indoors until spring
 
I live fairly close to you in the Cleveland area. I don't usually start seeds until the February/March timeframe because I don't have enough room for as many chile plants as I grow once they outgrow the large Solo cups. So I move some of the really late-season plants to 1-gallon containers and leave the annuums and others in Solo cups. Sounds like you won't be growing nearly as many plants, so this may not be an issue for you.
 
If you do need to slow down their growth at some point, you can give them less light and heat (just don't get too cold; chile plants don't like sustained temps below 50F.) I only give mine heat to germinate, then they just get what I have the rest of the house set to. If the snow/cold lasts too long into the Spring, though, I'll give them extra light and heat for a while until I can take them outdoors.
 
I started seeds last week, although I will most likely be able to be outdoors and into the ground around March 1st.  Ive already got a few that have sprouted and will most likely transplant them next week or so and put them into my grow tent.
 
geeme said:
I live fairly close to you in the Cleveland area. I don't usually start seeds until the February/March timeframe because I don't have enough room for as many chile plants as I grow once they outgrow the large Solo cups. So I move some of the really late-season plants to 1-gallon containers and leave the annuums and others in Solo cups. Sounds like you won't be growing nearly as many plants, so this may not be an issue for you.
 
If you do need to slow down their growth at some point, you can give them less light and heat (just don't get too cold; chile plants don't like sustained temps below 50F.) I only give mine heat to germinate, then they just get what I have the rest of the house set to. If the snow/cold lasts too long into the Spring, though, I'll give them extra light and heat for a while until I can take them outdoors.
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yeah, my wintered ones are around 65 degrees (what my house is set too)   i have about 10-15 of them give or take   just the ones i like from this year.  i had some dragon cayenne that went south of the border that i had to pull, but otherwise everything does look great so far minus the aphids, still battling those things but winning every day :)  
 
Yeah, 10-15 plants isn't too bad. I usually grow between 30 and 50. Aphids..... if you're not adverse to having them in the house, you might consider ordering ladybugs. I order from buglogical.com and just let them loose in the house after aphids show up. They have managed to obliterate the aphids every time I get them. You can get them from elsewhere, but I have to recommend against getting them from Hirts - the ones I got from there ignored the aphids, and others said they had no luck with Hirts, as well.
 
I see you are fairly new to this site, so I am going to add a tad here. Although I've been in the Cleveland area for many years now, my roots are in TX and I've also lived in CA. I had no real understanding of the grow differences at the latitude extremes until I moved here. Point being that you'll want to check out where people are from or at least how much research they do before relying on posts. People who are closer to the equator who have never tried growing in these conditions have the same lack of understanding that I had. Before replying to people in other parts of the world I check out their weather patterns and don't reply if their conditions are significantly different from what I have experience in. Not everyone does that, though they are very well-meaning.
 
Here in 5a I start super hots in late January and everything else last couple weeks of Feb or first couple weeks of March.  Seedings get transplanted into 3" pots and are usually 16-24" high at plant out in May.  Under good growing conditions I have pods in July.  
 
I'm 90 miles south of Cleveland.  I have been starting everything in mid-January.  That has worked well but I may start a couple weeks later this year.  Some of the baccatums get 2' to 3' tall in large Solo cups and, although root bound, have been fine once planted out.  I'd like to get them in ground while a little smaller this year and see if there is a difference in how quickly they take off with there outdoor growth.  The Jan. start seems really good (for my location) for the chinense - they've been nice, lush plants when I set them out.
 
I'm considerably farther north than Cleveland and tend to start mine in late December to early January. I have a 90 day growing season so every little bit helps in my situation.

I'll also add that start time also depends on the type of chili you want. The "Days to harvest" is usually a good guide to when you should start because some chili's grow faster than others. For example, a jalapeño with 60 days to harvest will quickly out grow a jolokia with 160 days to harvest. The difference will force you to continually raise the lights as the jalapeño grows taller.

Other than that space could be an issue. It's not for everyone, but it sure is for me.

Neil
 
   My bhuts, and reapers are already working on their 4th set of true leaves. They will be under my LED's until plant out in March. Last year I waited until February to plant seeds and my super hots did not have enough grow time to get a decent harvest. Only my habs produced more than 20 pods! Especially when you account for enough time for the plant to recover from being topped! So this year I am not making the same mistake again. As long as you have the proper lighting and the grow space its never too early!
 
geeme said:
Yeah, 10-15 plants isn't too bad. I usually grow between 30 and 50. Aphids..... if you're not adverse to having them in the house, you might consider ordering ladybugs. I order from buglogical.com and just let them loose in the house after aphids show up. They have managed to obliterate the aphids every time I get them. You can get them from elsewhere, but I have to recommend against getting them from Hirts - the ones I got from there ignored the aphids, and others said they had no luck with Hirts, as well.
 
I see you are fairly new to this site, so I am going to add a tad here. Although I've been in the Cleveland area for many years now, my roots are in TX and I've also lived in CA. I had no real understanding of the grow differences at the latitude extremes until I moved here. Point being that you'll want to check out where people are from or at least how much research they do before relying on posts. People who are closer to the equator who have never tried growing in these conditions have the same lack of understanding that I had. Before replying to people in other parts of the world I check out their weather patterns and don't reply if their conditions are significantly different from what I have experience in. Not everyone does that, though they are very well-meaning.
Click to expand...
 
 
Based on the differences of geographical locations, is there a better way to determine when to start planting? For instance, 4 months before the first freeze date of your zone, or something similar?
 
I am getting the itch to start but don't want to start to soon. Last year I got some seeds in late march/april from someone on here, my plants gave me plenty of sprouts, but before the freeze hit and i lost them i was only able to get a couple pods.. 
 
Here in ~San Jose, CA I can usually start setting plants out ~May.  Now my goals are to have a freaking tree when it comes to certain plants, so I like to get going pretty early.  I just got my Shed hooked up, and running my lights, when I get home from work ~an hour, I'm going to see how warm it is and decide on a heater or not. but I Digress, I'm going to start my very limited superhots this week, and whenever my seeds get here from THSC the chinense are going to get started.  Going to wait till feb at least to start the annums.
 
santis00 said:
Based on the differences of geographical locations, is there a better way to determine when to start planting? For instance, 4 months before the first freeze date of your zone, or something similar?
 
I am getting the itch to start but don't want to start to soon. Last year I got some seeds in late march/april from someone on here, my plants gave me plenty of sprouts, but before the freeze hit and i lost them i was only able to get a couple pods.. 
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Given the heat and little rain of your area (comparatively speaking), you have to consider the tendencies of chile plants not to produce pods when things get too hot. You are going to have a window before the extreme heat of the summer, and should also have another window after that but before freeze/frost hits. So you want to start your plants, based on the days to production of each variety, early enough that they will be producing in these windows. Generally, I personally would target getting production in the spring, expect production to stop entirely in the summer, but keep them going so they have a second wave of production in the fall. You are in an area where it's best to use a heavy shade cloth, but the production will still stop when it gets too hot for them.
 
Actually, if you have room, I would suggest growing in pots then just sheltering them over the winter - your number of days below 50F are fairly few and it's not too much hassle to move pots as long as you have less than 50. Just keep them from freezing then set them back out when it starts to warm up outside.
 
I am in zone 10a , last year I started January 11th. This years grow I started my seedlings today :) December 19th. They will go in ground late February or early march.
 
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