New guy here respectfully needs help. This week I have learned so much from you guys about the extreme hot peppers and want to order a bunch of seeds from thehippyseedcompany. Is it too late to start (mid June) even though I do have a greenhouse (Seattle)? I am willing to invest in a grow light set up. I do have various peppers in the ground and in starter pots already, but I'm dying to enter the world of 7 Pot, Trinidad Scorpion, etc. Thanks.
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seeds Is it too late to start seeds?
- Thread starter chileaddict
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If you start them now you will have to overwinter them, which is pretty easy to do if you invest in some grow lights. The 400w light from HTG supply is decent and cost around 120. The biggest problem with over wintering is the battle with bugs, you don't know who you'll battle all winter, but they will show up. It may be aphids, thrips, or spider mites, but they will try to destroy your pepper dreams. Luckily they can be controlled, and your ragged plants will make their debut in the spring, put on new growth, making all the trouble worth it. I started a bunch of seeds late last summer, and over wintered them. Most all of them are between 3' - 6' tall and are ready to really produce a lot of pods.
So just as long as you grow them in containers and have space / lighting to overwinter them you will be fine. Hydro is another option, but comes with a whole new learning curve. I just stick to containers and over wintering, it is much easier.
So just as long as you grow them in containers and have space / lighting to overwinter them you will be fine. Hydro is another option, but comes with a whole new learning curve. I just stick to containers and over wintering, it is much easier.
My current plan is to start a 1 7 pot brain strain and 1 white habanero as soon as possible for over-wintering purposes. I'm not expecting a crop from either of these at all. I have very nice south-facing windows that get quite a bit of sun, coupled with a few lights here and there and I am one to think I can have 2 really unusual house plants sitting in my library/computer room.
Keep that frame of mind, and it should not be too frustrating.
Also, consider fast-maturing cayennes and similar varieties if you don't mind your harvest being cut shot. Those mature at around 65 days. Add 30 days to transplant, and we're talking about fruit late August.
Keep that frame of mind, and it should not be too frustrating.
Also, consider fast-maturing cayennes and similar varieties if you don't mind your harvest being cut shot. Those mature at around 65 days. Add 30 days to transplant, and we're talking about fruit late August.
Remember...without pics, it didn't happen. I hate to be the thunderclouds in the sunny forecast, but I learned a valuable lesson this year - it is near impossible to grow plants without sunlight.
Yes, you can use lighting (take your choice - LED, HID, CFL) but then you also have problems of soil compaction in containers, the plants getting root bound, getting too wet/dry, the insects, too much/not enough humidity - a whole gamut of things to deal with.
Personally, I'll shut my GH down around Christmas time and won't open it until after Valentine's Day. I can afford to either heat or light it, but not both! I do plan to overwinter some plants in it - I can section off a part of it and use a small electric heater to keep it warm enough so they don't freeze.
YMMV,
Mike
Yes, you can use lighting (take your choice - LED, HID, CFL) but then you also have problems of soil compaction in containers, the plants getting root bound, getting too wet/dry, the insects, too much/not enough humidity - a whole gamut of things to deal with.
Personally, I'll shut my GH down around Christmas time and won't open it until after Valentine's Day. I can afford to either heat or light it, but not both! I do plan to overwinter some plants in it - I can section off a part of it and use a small electric heater to keep it warm enough so they don't freeze.
YMMV,
Mike
Not sure what you mean by "it is near impossible to grow plants without sunlight.". If you have adequate lighting this is not a problem. HID lighting will help plants "grow" to their full size. Even under MH lighting you will get pods, I was harvesting a lot of pods through out the winter. Most of my overwintered plants are between 30" - 6' tall.
Soil compaction in containers isn't a big deal if you use the right soil. You have more control over water and nutrients indoors then outdoors (no rain) so the too wet / dry isn't a problem.
Insects are the biggest problem when it comes to overwintering, they are really the one thing that can destroy your overwinter dreams. Over this winter I didn't lose any plants to bugs, some of them looked a little ragged, and lost a bunch of leaves, but they are quickly making a come back now that they are outside.
Basements, if you have one, can make a great grow room.
Soil compaction in containers isn't a big deal if you use the right soil. You have more control over water and nutrients indoors then outdoors (no rain) so the too wet / dry isn't a problem.
Insects are the biggest problem when it comes to overwintering, they are really the one thing that can destroy your overwinter dreams. Over this winter I didn't lose any plants to bugs, some of them looked a little ragged, and lost a bunch of leaves, but they are quickly making a come back now that they are outside.
Basements, if you have one, can make a great grow room.
Or you can overwinter your plants without much light by cutting the plant back(roots too) and let the plant go semi-dormant for the winter and then start growing it again in the spring when there is more heat and light. Growing indoors for production takes time and money but getting an ealy start on the growing season is usually easy and is the best use of resources in my opinion which can lead to some massive plants/production
Wordwiz, I thought you'd change your mind about growing during the coldest months with the least amount of light. Its just not practical for most small operations without lots of supplemental light and heat
Wordwiz, I thought you'd change your mind about growing during the coldest months with the least amount of light. Its just not practical for most small operations without lots of supplemental light and heat
MrArboc said:Sorry, but that made me laugh. I guess you're not a "glass half full" kind of guy
I try but somebody always spills my milk lol
My wife moved here from New Mexico....during our worst drought in recent history a few years ago...told her how dry it was and how at most we only got maybe a dusting up to maybe an inch....maybe 2 inches of snow a winter..........
Yeah, that fall when she moved, we had the wettest winter in recent times with a healthy 6" snow and a couple 4" snows... followed by a sopping wet srping, summer, fall, then this past winter we had an 8inch snow, a 6 inch snow, a couple 4" snows, and a couple 1-2" snows.......more snow in one winter than the total in the previous 10 combined. lol
We generally don't get frost until mid November.......having said that, the trend will probably buck as in the previous examples lol.
Thanks for all the responses and ideas. I think I will continue to learn about growing indoors and what equipment to get because I'm so *&#*! anxious to start growing some of the superhot porn I've been looking at. I just can't stop thinking about the 7 pot Brain Strain (my new desktop background) and Trinidad Scorpion. I did buy a 12" Bhut Jolokia online a few weeks ago, and should get 3 Red Savina plants in the mail today to go with 8 Orange Habanero starts I got from the store a few days ago. Others I have in the garden are 2 Kung Pao, 2 Cayenne, 4 Jalapeno, 1 Thai, and 2 Big Jim. Also, I had 24 plants finally pop their little heads out of the dirt and cannot remember if they are habanero or cayennes from last years crop.
I'm in a similar situation chileaddict, my chinense's are growing so slowly I'm thinking I may only see a few pods from them before winter comes. I started late. My biggest success this year will be my overwintered plants though. I didn't do a thing to them last year except bring them in, in containers, under the eves of the house and just let them go dormant. Just before spring I cut back the dead stuff and repotted. Now I have some Fresno chili's with about 50 pods on and will be ripe in a week or two. For me, the Chinense have been sooooo sloooooow. Could be a handful of variables for me, but I'm not stressing over it. I'll just set them aside for next season if I have to, I know they will make great pods next year no matter what.
Whatever you do keep good tabs on how you're doing it that way you can find where you went wrong and all that kind of thing. Good luck brotha.
Whatever you do keep good tabs on how you're doing it that way you can find where you went wrong and all that kind of thing. Good luck brotha.
Diablo...you are right. I'm going to order seeds from hippyseedco. now. Who cares if the new plants don't produce this year? I'll get them going, learn alot along the way, and maybe they will survive to next year for and even better crop. I hate the "wait till next year" crap anyway. Thanks everyone.
Good. So I guess the reason my african violets aren't flowering when I treat them like chiles is some kind of genetic abnormality. I mean - they are both all plants. And the Echinodorus I potted up must have been freaks as well because they all died when I treated them like chiles despite the fact that they are both plants.
Thanks. Always nice to learn something new.
Thanks. Always nice to learn something new.
weed is a weed.
science yo.
science yo.
OK, one can grow indoors, I intend to this summer and winter and probably fall and next spring. But the important point is doing it economically. I could have added 3600 watts of HPS lights in the GH (had I had time to run the wiring, upgrade the breaker box, etc.) but no way would it had made sense to do so. I would have lost money per pound of tomato I sold.
If you have the room to grow plants, the lights needed to do it, and the heat it needs available, I would go for it. But do be aware (I learned from failing!) that the container mix for outside gardening, where the containers sit on/in dirt and get exposed to rain, humidity, sunlight, is different from what is needed when they sit on a floor. The mix that has been perfect for my GH toms was the worst possible for the plants I had upstairs.
As I always try to add, YMMV!
Mike
If you have the room to grow plants, the lights needed to do it, and the heat it needs available, I would go for it. But do be aware (I learned from failing!) that the container mix for outside gardening, where the containers sit on/in dirt and get exposed to rain, humidity, sunlight, is different from what is needed when they sit on a floor. The mix that has been perfect for my GH toms was the worst possible for the plants I had upstairs.
As I always try to add, YMMV!
Mike