Hello everyone!
I planted a handful of peppers last year, but due to moving I got a very late start and was only able to plant a few plants from my local nursery very late in the season. This year I started nearly all of my plants from seed (for the first time!).
I got almost all of my seeds from Refining Fire Chiles and was super stoked with the quality and variety.
I may have gotten in a bit over my head this year, with around 20 varieties, but go big or go home, right?
I started roughly half of my peppers in jiffy pods and the other half in coconut coir in two trays with domes and had better results than expected! I had a very high germination rate in both media, although it did seem that the coir did a bit better of a job.
The only losses I had were when my cat decided it liked the taste of seedlings and ate all but five of the plants in the coir on my first go around. Needless to say I wasn't happy, but I had extras of most of those seeds so it was only a minor setback.
After germination, I removed the domes and put both trays under an old t5ho fixture with two 60watt royal blue led strips mounted on the sides that I had lying around from my other hobby (reef aquariums). After bit of growth I transferred everything from the starter trays into solo cups and continued to let everything grow under the light.
Turns out peppers love coral lights! I had left two of the "coral" bulbs in the fixture (ATI aquablue special and ATI purple+ for any wondering) and replaced the other two with 5400k bulbs I had lying around. I have the LEDs running for about half of the 14 hour photo period because when my aquariums lights kick on, the heat gets a bit out of hand. I have had great growth under this setup so far!
I have just started hardening off the biggest of my plants and will hopefully be transplanting soon!
This year I will be growing the following varieties:
Annuum:
Alcalde
Aleppo
Black Pearl
Cayenne var. (Mixed bag seed pack, specific type unknown)
Early Jalapeno
Ethiopian Brown
Farmers Market Jalapeno
Poblano
Serrano
Tequila Sunrise
Thai Dragon
Bacattum:
Lemon Drop Aji
Sugar Rush Peach
Chinense:
Carolina Reaper
Common Habanero
Marupi Amarela
Mustard Trinidad Scorpion
Red and/or yellow Habenero (mixed packet)
Red Ghost (bonnie plant from Home Depot)
Pubescens:
Red Rocoto
Unsure:
Burpee brand "hot lemon" (possibly bacattum or chinense, reports vary)
Burpee brand sweet peppers (mixed lot seed packet with about 10 different types)
I planted a handful of peppers last year, but due to moving I got a very late start and was only able to plant a few plants from my local nursery very late in the season. This year I started nearly all of my plants from seed (for the first time!).
I got almost all of my seeds from Refining Fire Chiles and was super stoked with the quality and variety.
I may have gotten in a bit over my head this year, with around 20 varieties, but go big or go home, right?
I started roughly half of my peppers in jiffy pods and the other half in coconut coir in two trays with domes and had better results than expected! I had a very high germination rate in both media, although it did seem that the coir did a bit better of a job.
The only losses I had were when my cat decided it liked the taste of seedlings and ate all but five of the plants in the coir on my first go around. Needless to say I wasn't happy, but I had extras of most of those seeds so it was only a minor setback.
After germination, I removed the domes and put both trays under an old t5ho fixture with two 60watt royal blue led strips mounted on the sides that I had lying around from my other hobby (reef aquariums). After bit of growth I transferred everything from the starter trays into solo cups and continued to let everything grow under the light.
Turns out peppers love coral lights! I had left two of the "coral" bulbs in the fixture (ATI aquablue special and ATI purple+ for any wondering) and replaced the other two with 5400k bulbs I had lying around. I have the LEDs running for about half of the 14 hour photo period because when my aquariums lights kick on, the heat gets a bit out of hand. I have had great growth under this setup so far!
I have just started hardening off the biggest of my plants and will hopefully be transplanting soon!
This year I will be growing the following varieties:
Annuum:
Alcalde
Aleppo
Black Pearl
Cayenne var. (Mixed bag seed pack, specific type unknown)
Early Jalapeno
Ethiopian Brown
Farmers Market Jalapeno
Poblano
Serrano
Tequila Sunrise
Thai Dragon
Bacattum:
Lemon Drop Aji
Sugar Rush Peach
Chinense:
Carolina Reaper
Common Habanero
Marupi Amarela
Mustard Trinidad Scorpion
Red and/or yellow Habenero (mixed packet)
Red Ghost (bonnie plant from Home Depot)
Pubescens:
Red Rocoto
Unsure:
Burpee brand "hot lemon" (possibly bacattum or chinense, reports vary)
Burpee brand sweet peppers (mixed lot seed packet with about 10 different types)
