seeds To seed or not to seed?

RoninCat

RoninCat

Hello, a newbie grower here with a newbie growing question. It's like this - last to last month I ordered quite a few chilli seeds from eBay, I think must've been over 20 different varieties, but despite all my attempts to start them I couldn't get even one seed to germinate. Not even ONE out of 200+ seeds I was sent ._. I tried practically everything - zip lock bags, jiffy pellets, sowing directly in soil, with and without hydrogen peroxide treatment, even resorting in frustration to extracting embryos from testa! I'm now convinced the seeds I was sold were from some old stock that he'd procured cheaply from somewhere. Anyhow, I was gutted and almost gave up on the idea but then one day I decided to give it another go, so I went on eBay again (this is before I was familiar with this site) and ordered a few seed packets, this time from a different seller. They are the more common varieties - Tabasco and jalapeño, and also what the seller claimed white bhut jolokia. I wasn't expecting much when I set them up for germination this time round (15th Aug), but to my pleasant surprise almost all the seeds germinated, average germination time being 4 days or less! Needless to say I was elated! :3 Fortunately I have been able to keep the seedlings alive and healthy so far, and judging by their growth it seems to me that most, if not all, will be able to make it to the adult stage, and hopefully produce fruit too :)
 
I think I should stop yattering away and come straight to the dilemma I'm facing. The thing is that the varieties I'm currently growing are fairly common and their fruits easily obtainable, which in itself is not a bad thing, and their addition to the garden will certainly be welcomed, what I really, REALLY wanted to do was to try and grow some of the more exotic varieties that get so talked about here - superhots like 7pot and douglah and moruga scorpion and fatalii and the like, and also some of the milder and more flavoursome ones like Aji lemon and some others the names of which I can't remember off the top of my head right now.
 
My question is, should I consider buying seeds of some of the varieties I just mentioned, or should I just wait until my current plants have grown up and produced fruit? My mind says I probably shouldn't be hasty but my heart is convinced I should forget the disaster with previous batch of seeds and just go ahead and take the plunge. Also another thing I'm a little apprehensive about is that I'm in India, and from what I've gathered most of the reputable growers and seed sellers on here are based in the US, which brings the prohibitive cost of shipping into the equation. But then I also know that if I do decide to buy from you guys I'll be getting top quality seeds. And, the subtropical climate I'm in is certainly in my favour...
 
O_O
 
*gluts on a Jwala with a blank expression*
 
Kindly advice. Thanks!
 
First off, Welcome to THP
 
Second, never buy seeds from eBay. Spend some time here and you will familiarize yourself with reputable seed sources and you will get what you paid for.
 
And additionally, if you are just starting out growing and your season is still early, You may still have time to experiment. Getting the seeds you want in the time frame to get a successful grow may be the only variable. The thing to consider though is this, acquiring seeds TRUE seeds from the US and grown in an isolated condition would provide you a source  to recoup your initial costs by offering the seed to other chili heads you may acquaint yourself with.
 
Thanks very much everyone for the pointers. I hadnt heard of pepperseeds.eu before but am familiar with the hippy seed company through their awesome YouTube videos, they seem quite passionate about their chillies :)

has anyone bought any seeds from pepperseeds.eu? Any reviews?

hp22bh: thank you. Couple of months ago I wasn't aware of any other options so I had to make do with eBay though I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole now. Lesson learnt the hard way :p

You raise a good point about the purity of seeds. I've read threads here where people have said they'd ordered a particular variety of seeds thinking it'd be true to its name but the plant produced fruits of some totally different variety altogether.. I certainly don't want such nasty surprises, and I won't mind paying a little bit more for that extra peace of mind..

About the length of growing season, I've been living in India for the past 4 or so years now and from my limited experience I'd say the winter season here in Punjab is relatively mild and short when compared to the UK, with lowest temperatures rarely dipping below 8c and very little to no frost.. Whether that is conducive enough for chilli plants' growth I don't know since this is the very first time I'm attempting to grow something, although the online literature I've read seems to suggest they are grown all year round by farmers here.. Maybe I should wait and test it out myself before thinking of starting any more seeds? :s

Also one more silly question if I may: are the climatic requirements of all the different varieties of chillies (chinense, baccatum, annuum, etc.) the same or do I need to worry about providing different growing conditions to different plants?

Oh and thanks for the welcome Rymerpt ^~^
 
I already did!

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from Judy

and from Tim (teejay):

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A hug!

:D
 
I was referring about a thread on Glog section. Anyway, this thread is definitely a Glog. My bad, sorry. I'm always messing all up. :)

Seems you're doing good, wish you all the luck.

A hug!
 
Good thing you didn't waste all your growing efforts on E-bay seeds.
 
Likely would have tured out to be Bell peppers or some such.
 
Prohibitive shipping?
 
I've shipped seeds from the USA across both oceans for a couple of dollars.
 
Of course, in some countries, they arrive very late (month or longer), or snagged by some postal inspector.
 
Nice selection you have there mate.
 
I just have one question, forigive me if it seems as though i am insulting your intelligence.
 
Have those plastic cups got drainage holes in them? And a little word of advice, clear plastic cups are not ideal. Roots like to be in relative darkness so white cups will work better than the clear ones.
 
Welcome to THP, it looks as though you will be a bang up grower in no time. :cheers:
 
 
Edit: A hug!
 
Lots of good advice here Ronincat, you definitely headed in the right direction. Good luck and post some pics when they start throwing out pods please.
 
MaoMao,
 
Good for you!  The cuisine of India is fascinating and something I enjoy often.  Do you plan to use these peppers in cooking?  Two months ago I was honored to sit down for dinner in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina with friends from the state of Uttar Pradesh.  Also at dinner were friends from Tamil.
 
Good luck on your growing!
 
Jim
 
beer2beer said:
I was referring about a thread on Glog section. Anyway, this thread is definitely a Glog. My bad, sorry. I'm always messing all up. :)

Seems you're doing good, wish you all the luck.

A hug!
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beer2beer : Oh no I don't think I'm ready for a personal glog yet, the idea is far too intimidating atm :p but I'll definitely start one when I've something decent to share! ^~^

A hug!

Gotrox said:
Good thing you didn't waste all your growing efforts on E-bay seeds.
 
Likely would have tured out to be Bell peppers or some such.
 
Prohibitive shipping?
 
I've shipped seeds from the USA across both oceans for a couple of dollars.
 
Of course, in some countries, they arrive very late (month or longer), or snagged by some postal inspector.
Click to expand...
Gotrox : hehe when I started this post I was under the impression that like most online orders, seeds would also be shipped via courier, but after checking out pepperlover.com and noticing that they do free worldwide shipping I deduced they'd be sent via normal post.. That's when I placed the order.. and it arrived here within a fortnight which was a nice surprise too :)

Nova said:
Nice selection you have there mate.
 
I just have one question, forigive me if it seems as though i am insulting your intelligence.
 
Have those plastic cups got drainage holes in them? And a little word of advice, clear plastic cups are not ideal. Roots like to be in relative darkness so white cups will work better than the clear ones.
 
Welcome to THP, it looks as though you will be a bang up grower in no time. :cheers:
 
 
Edit: A hug!
Click to expand...
Nova: yeah, i did drill drainage holes before throwing in the potting mix :) Normally I use origami newspaper pots such as these :

XPjrYUO.jpg


The good thing about them is they are biodegradable so they can be transferred into garden soil when the time comes and they decompose fairly rapidly. But a few days ago I saw a video on YouTube by gardener named praxxus55712 (he's awesome BTW) in which he had his seedlings growing in clear plastic cups. Here is the video :


He said the reason why he's using clear cups is it is easy to keep a close eye on the root structure so that the seedlings can be transplanted into bigger pots etc before they start getting root bound, something which sometimes goes undetected in opaque pots.. And also that it is easy to check the soil's moisture levels. That made a lot of sense to me so I decided to try it out myself and so far it's been working great :)

I didn't know that roots need to be protected from direct light. Maybe I should wrap black polythene bags round them?

A hug!

Hawaiianero said:
Lots of good advice here Ronincat, you definitely headed in the right direction. Good luck and post some pics when they start throwing out pods please.
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Hawaiinero: thank you :) and yes will def share more pictures! :)

Eeeeeeee! said:
MaoMao,
 
Good for you!  The cuisine of India is fascinating and something I enjoy often.  Do you plan to use these peppers in cooking?  Two months ago I was honored to sit down for dinner in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina with friends from the state of Uttar Pradesh.  Also at dinner were friends from Tamil.
 
Good luck on your growing!
 
Jim
Click to expand...
Thanks Jim!

Yes, that's the plan.. but the thing is I haven't tried any of the superhots yet so I can't say if they will be fit for my style of cooking or not. If not I can always use them to create sauces and the like ^~^ I absolutely love hot food so I'm sure I'll find ways of consuming them hehe.. But I also want to grow varieties that are renowned more for their exceptional aroma and flavour than just the heat, stuff like Aji lemon, Aji pineapple and the like, so that I have a nice balance between heat and flavour going on in my future chilli garden :) let's see how it goes! :)
 
RoninCat said:
He said the reason why he's using clear cups is it is easy to keep a close eye on the root structure so that the seedlings can be transplanted into bigger pots etc before they start getting root bound, something which sometimes goes undetected in opaque pots.. And also that it is easy to check the soil's moisture levels. That made a lot of sense to me so I decided to try it out myself and so far it's been working great :)

I didn't know that roots need to be protected from direct light. Maybe I should wrap black polythene bags round them?
Click to expand...
 
Meh, at worst the light will force the root tip back inwards, light root pruning. If you're worried, just snug them together or loosely cover with black poly or such.
 
Ah, i didn't know roots can get 'pruned' when exposed to light. you learn something new everyday! :) thanks for the advice miguel - think i'll snug them together for now and cover them up with polybags when roots start peeping out of the soil :)
 
RoninCat said:
Ah, i didn't know roots can get 'pruned' when exposed to light. you learn something new everyday! :) thanks for the advice miguel - think i'll snug them together for now and cover them up with polybags when roots start peeping out of the soil :)
Click to expand...
Or just drop them into a red solo cup with drain holes too. That way you can pull them out to look at whenever you want
 
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