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Newbie Questions

Eric

Eric

This is my first try at growing peppers and I have a lot of questions and concerns. I posted the details in the welcome section but will copy and paste below.

The peppers I am attempting to grow from seeds are Bhut Jolokia, Red Savina Habanero, Chocolate Habanero, White Habenaro, Caribbean Habanero, and Thai Birds Eye peppers.

Here is my plan and schedule, feel free to offer suggestions if anything looks off or could be done better/differently.
I have been doing a fair amount of reading and looks like the seeds can all be started the same way, the plan is moist soil in a tray "separate for each species" kept at keep at 85 degrees with a heat mat till I get sprouts "I'm hoping this will happen early May" then I will transplant them into little pots with grow lights "4ft T5s" indoors until June, at this point I will start taking them outdoors a few hours at a time until they are out 24/7 aiming for June 15th or 20th to have them outdoors for the remainder of the season.
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OK so my first question is about soil, I see the sticky and read a few other post and it seems I need to find the right mix for my location so I'm taking suggestions on that, there's a lot to consider there and so many options I am overwhelmed at the moment.

Another concern I have are my peppers cross pollinating, I plan to seperate the Bhut pepper plants but the rest will be within feet of one another is this going to cause me problems down the road or am I just over thinking this? For the most part the Habaneros should be ok I assume but will my chocolates mix with the whites ect and I'll just have a bastard pepper on my hands come the second season? I could just order fresh seeds next year but I would like to use my own if possible.

I have plenty more questions to ask but I'll start with those, the soil is my main concern at this point as my seeds will be here this week and I want to get them started asap.

Thank
 
I don't use soil. I use Coco Cori for growing, I sprout in small baggies and coffee filters on heat mat at 85 d when sprouted, i move them to 2 x 2 pots with coco Cori only after I get first set of real leaves start on 1/4 strength nutes.
works for me as i have different growing conditions, may not work for you.
 
:welcome: from PA

There are ways to isolate for seed other then distance. This year I plan on trying the tulle cloth method for covering some branches.

I am not positive on the weather there but being in the same state I am thinking you shouldn't have to wait until mid-June to plant out. Mine will be going by mid-May.

Good luck.
 
There're many different methods to choose from and when you find one that really works well you don't want to mess with it too much!!

On an aggressive scale I consider myself somewhere in the middle. They're many here that go much harder than me. I'm very happy with my results thus far and here we go:

I germinate my seeds in a plastic deli container with coffee filter paper on the bottom. I place them on a heat mat set for 85°F. You want to keep the paper moist without any standing water on the bottom. When they sprout and develop green hooks I'll place them in a grow plug 72 cell tray with a dome cover. I continue to use the heat mat until they have a good foot hold, such that when I pull the grow plugs I'll see roots coming out from underneath.

I will then pot up to a 3.5" x 3.5" pot and use "Pro Mix BX" Remember once the little guys sprout they need light and water. I don't juice them until I place them into the "BX" which I will use PHC seedling & houseplants 6-12-6 biofertilizer by means of bottom feeding until they go outside. Then I use "Pro-Gro Organic Fertilizer" until the flowering stage which I will use another fertilizer that takes them the rest of the way.

I water from the bottom up which has produced tremendous results for me thus far. Peppers don't like to be over watered at all. I stick my finger in the mix just a little bit to feel for moisture. If it is dry and the pepper seems just a touch wilted down then I add enough water in the bottom of the tray so that its ¼" over the top of the channels.

For lights I use 2 (T5s x 4') per shelf and have a total of 8 shelves. I started late February and my plants are ready to go outside now. Most are about 13" tall, very thick and dark green. I am so far ahead of schedule from last year that they're going to be out growing their grow room. I have to milk it out until early June when the night frost is behind us. I'm going to be in real deep $hit very soon!!

That's my story.

Good luck, Jack
 
Thanks for all the info, I am about an hour from harrisburg so out climate is the same for the most part, I'll look into some of these different methods and have more questions soon :D

Thanks
Eric
 
+1 on using "Pro Mix BX" as your growing medium. It is newbie friendly, fortunately for me.... :cool:

A great batch of nutes are made by Botanicare: Pro Grow, Karma and Cal/Mag. Used with the Pro Mix medium, you'll be on your way.

Time is of the essence for you, as the type of plants you mentioned need a fairly long season. Why don't you also plant a couple of faster growing Jalapenos or Super Chilis-- this might give you some germination and growing tips that will help those other bad boys down the road. Might end up with some great poppers, also...
 
HawaiiAl said:
I don't use soil. I use Coco Cori for growing, I sprout in small baggies and coffee filters on heat mat at 85 d when sprouted, i move them to 2 x 2 pots with coco Cori only after I get first set of real leaves start on 1/4 strength nutes.
works for me as i have different growing conditions, may not work for you.
Click to expand...

if you use just Coco do you use twice if not more nute's?


 
there is a lot of great advice on here i cant add anything but im from Allentown Pa and go to gettysburg just about 3 times a year
nice area you live in

thanks your friend Joe
 
Time is of the essence for you, as the type of plants you mentioned need a fairly long season. Why don't you also plant a couple of faster growing Jalapenos or Super Chilis-- this might give you some germination and growing tips that will help those other bad boys down the road. Might end up with some great poppers, also...
Click to expand...

Your absolutely right, I have the seeds on the way so I'm going to run with it this year if I don't make it in time I'll cut my losses and prepare for next year, one thing I have noticed these last few years is it's been warm till the end of October, I'm not banking on this but it would give me sufficient time to grow my peppers.

My biggest challenge is going to be getting the seeds started, if that goes as planned I have a decent chance of making the season.
 
Sounds like you have a plan of action and are well motivated! Many ways for you to proceed--you might consider the container/coffee filter method in addition to the growing in the soil approach. You might be surprised if one way is faster than the other and could give us all a good report on the "race" to germination.

Though I use the Pro-Mix BX, that method Hawaii Al recommends using coco coir might be the overall 'fastest' of them all. (Starts his seeds using baggies/coffee filter method, then straight into the coco coir, add nutes.) With your T5 lights, you could see some amazing growth.

I'll bet you get some pods this year. And you might also think about 'overwintering' your favorites when October rolls around. Thatsa whole 'nother ball game.... :cool:

Good luck...
 
true true. I got some seeds from a fellow forum member in trade that are chocolate bhuts....they are popping en masse. I can spare 4 or 5 if you run out of time, just send me a PM if interested. I also have 3 or 4 Caribbean Reds extra too.
 
sounds like your ok other than a late start. pro mix for soil. there's a million fertilizers out there. just got to find one that works. PA has good growing conditions. i lived in philly and bucks county. the only drawback is the shorter season. when i lived there i dropped seed in february and put them out by the end of april. here in GA i'll harvest until january (that is fantastic!). as far as crosses go , they won't show up in the peppers themselves just the seeds from that pepper. if you want to save some seeds you can put some cheesecloth on a few branches and only save seeds from those branches. they also have nets that cover the whole plant for isolation.good luck dude.
 
Looks like you have the basics down and will be off to a good start. If you want to grow this year and don't have seeds sprouted yet you could always buy some already grown plants from chiliplants.com I purchased a few just in case my seeds didn't sprout the first year I started growing as a back up plan.

I think they should be shipping plants by now and I believe they are ready to be grown outside so you could have plants in pots by next week since you got a late start this year.

Then you can do some reading on the advanced growing tips like foilar feeding, compost, worm tea to maximize your crop.
 
Thank you all for the great info and compliments, I have been reading up on the bag an coffee filter method and have decided that may be the best way to go, it seems like a little more maintenance but I like the idea and have used this method in the past just experimenting and it worked well.

Hopefully some seeds show up tomorrow and I can get them started, the research I left out was where to buy the seeds "I did the ebay thing" so they'll all show up at different times, hopefully I get good seeds from these people a few say germination tested 95% and 90% so those should be ok as for the rest I'll just have to wait and see if it turns out with a high loss then I'll chalk it off to lesson learned and experience for next year. :D

I got excess seeds for most here's the list again with see quantity.
White Habanero Pepper 20 seeds
RED SAVINA Habanero 5 seeds
Caribbean Habanero 50 seeds
Red Habanero 5 seeds
Chocolate Habanero 25 seeds
Bhut Jolokia 30 Seeds

I also got Thai Peppers and paid for them but the listing has disappeared from my won list and from ebay all together, I have never seen this happen before so we"ll see if I get my seeds but I believe it was 20 of those.

I don't expect a high success rate on these seeds but on the off chance they do go wild I am prepared and have an outlet for the excess plants as there is no way I could process 100+- pepper plants at this point so they would be re-homed once they are moved outdoors.
 
Good luck with your seeds. Hopefully you won't get any crosses. To avoid getting a cross I only buy from well new shops that grow in isolation to avoid crosses. FYI the white habs will take 6-8 weeks to germinate. I've been waiting for 5 weeks on mine and still nothing while some of my other seeds are already 6-8" tall and are about to go outside to be hardened off.
 
Choc habs are slow to pop for me. White habs? Seriously? No such plant here.....lol...my seeds just sit there...duds......lol no loss, as they were given to me 2 years ago.
 
The guy claims a 95% germination rate on the white habs so we'll see, I do have one problem my pepper seeds are in the oven that is warmed by the piolet light the ones at the top are 88 and the ones on the bottom are 83 degrees will this be ok or is 88 to hot for the bhuts?
 
Who's "The Guy". I'll promise you 100% germination rates if it means I'm taking your money and then convenience you it's your fault why you didn't get 100% and keep your money. If your not buying for a very reputable seller then claims mean nothing.

Peruvian White Habanero can take a few weeks, but in my experience and what I've read from others they almost always take a long time because it's such a week strain of pepper.
 
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