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How soon is too soon?

D

Dynebag

Hi guys!
Im conflicted here and I need your help!
I'm in Scotland UK, which suffice to say doesnt have the best weather. Because of that I was thinking of sowing my superhots earlier than others, on the 1st of November. I'll be sowing them in a variable heated propogator then popping them under 3 cfl bulbs making up 550watts.
Is that too early to sow the seeds? Or should I hold off until December?
 
"Soon" and "too soon" are relative to things like how much space you have, as well as potentially how much light and heat can you give them. I started seeds January 1 a few years ago, and that was too soon based on the amount of available space. I generally order plants already started, but if I start from seed again it likely won't be before the end of February to the middle of March, based on our weather here. I'm in the Cleveland OH area - lots of snow and stuff, and a short growing season. I generally have to bring plants inside the house to finish ripening off pods. Also, I'm in an older house that has poor insulation - running heat all the time gets very expensive. I have a small room that I grow in over the winter, and I generally either use a space heater or let it stay cool so the plants remain dormant. 
 
12 weeks from germination.
3 weeks in potted to 3 inch pots.
 
1-2ft tall if not topped. 8in-1ft tall if topped.
 
you dont really need to start in novemeber if you're not planning on transplanting into 1 gal+ or outside in May...
 
juanitos said:
12 weeks from germination.
3 weeks in potted to 3 inch pots.
 
1-2ft tall if not topped. 8in-1ft tall if topped.
 
you dont really need to start in novemeber if you're not planning on transplanting into 1 gal+ or outside in May...
Click to expand...
  Also remember it takes time for the seeds to germinate, I had some take a Month if not more last year.  
 
Yeah thats another factor, I'm hoping the new propogator will speed up germination time.
Im planning on potting them into 3 gallon pots in early spring.
 
right it took me 3 weeks to germinate.
then they were 1-2 foot tall in 3 inch pots 9 weeks later
 
so, germ in december
plant in containers in january
give them 2 months and they are 1-2ft tall... and its only march.
then you have to wait another 2 months till may and maybe they get rootbound and you don't have enough room.
 
you can add another month if you top.
so april/may. which some people transplant / plant out then in southern regions. 
 
I assume when you wrote 550W of CFL you meant incandescent equivalent watts?  Not that it matters but 550W of actual CFL power is a pretty big start indoors and is going to be noticeable on your electric bill.
 
IMO, the best solution to a short grow season is grow more plants.  50 plants catch twice the sun that 25 do.  Regardless it's never too early to start them but it takes a very high amount of light indoors to equal outdoor sun.  In other words you end up paying a premium in electricity for that early start and need larger pots with more soil that could have been divided among more plants in smaller pots.
 
It's not that I'm suggesting smaller pots are better, only that the option is doing a lot of work yourself or letting nature do it through more plants.  Consider the following plants which germinated around the beginning to middle of April, which were three and a half months old when the picture was taken and were only inside for 4 weeks.   
 
You may have a shorter season but if you were to get at least a few hundred peppers per plant (those pictured have produced over 1000 each this season) and just grow more plants would it be enough?  You may have to pull the plant or at least pods indoors to get a lot of them ripe at end of season but that's the tradeoff with superhots.
 

 
I don't mean to discourage early starts.  I'm only stating that a lot can happen in a short season.
 
Not speaking from years of experience, but I will be starting to germinate mine on January 1st as I too have a crappy climate and short season here in South Wales. I plan to have a 2 foot 4 bulb T5 over them on a deep windowsill in solo cups once planted into soil, then pot up to 4" or 5" pots under the same T5. Then the plan is to plant out in a greenhouse in 8" pots during Easter (but may make use of other windowsills if it is too cold out) finally potting up in 12" or 14" deep pots in May.

Not sure how it will pan out, but it has to beat planting plugs in May/June like I did this year! Some plugs were planted in early May and they produced really well, but the supers were bought late and I got literally 1 pod off each plant.
 
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