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To the pros - if you were to give your best advice on first time growers what would it be ?

I've learned A LOT and continue to learn something new every day....off the top of my head the biggest things for me were:
 
#1 - Don't over water
#2 - Patience is a virtue
 
Lots of other little things, but these are the two major ones that stick out to me
 
Edit/disclaimer - I'm no pro
 
I definitely consider myself an amateur after many years, but my best advice would be to follow the KISS strategy whenever possible - Keep It Simple (Stupid).
 
Germination example:
Option 1: label tiny cups and pre-soak all your seeds in a water/H202 solution for 12-24 hours prior to sowing into germination station
Option 2: sow seeds directly into germination station
I've done both many times, and get almost the same results with option #2 with about 1/2 the work
 
Growing examples:
Common advice includes topping seedlings above nodes to promote forking and bushier (therefore more podded) growth. Another is picking early flowers and green fruit so that the plant puts more resources into growing or pushing out more pods. Again, I find that mother nature works best and neither technique produces enough results to warrant the work.
 
I'm not saying people shouldn't try different techniques. Different things work for different folks. For me, I fall back to KISS when in doubt and think about what happens in nature.
 
I thought about posting a topic like your,but forgot to.Good post,there will be some good advice form to pros.Maybe,we will not have to learn the hard way.

1)Always deseed in a well vented area.
2)Wear good gloves.
3)Watch out for damp off.
4)Remember to have fun.
5)Most imported don't rub your face with your arms or hands.Hands can also bring some serious pain to us guys when using the bathroom.

I learn most of these 5 things the hard way.Pepper oil goes threw gloves and will lite you up.
 
Most importantly is start with good seeds from a good source. i.e. not Ebay
Second is to soak the seeds for anywhere from 6 hours to a couple of days before planting them.
Third is don't water too much.
 
nzchili said:
Most importantly is start with good seeds from a good source. i.e. not Ebay
Second is to soak the seeds for anywhere from 6 hours to a couple of days before planting them.
Third is don't water too much.
Click to expand...
Yep That cost me a year!!  Get good seeds from THP members!!! 
 
afr0n0me said:
All of us newbies are always wondering what are some the best advice you seasoned growers can give us ?
Click to expand...
 
0) one plant per container
1) don't water until they wilt for more than a couple of hours, until you know better (afternoon droop is normal, well, here (Florida) it is).
2) know of copper sulfate and pyrethrin at least, for when the time comes to use them.
3) don't water when the sun's overhead.
4) obtain seeds from here.
 
ok, this is starting to sound like voodoo specific to my zone ...
 
I'm hardly a 'seasoned grower,' but I have learned a few lessons this year.
 
Don't be afraid to lightly fertilize your plants.  Fish guts mixed with bat poo, miracle grow, hydro concentrate liquid, whatever...
Periodic 1/4 to 1/2 strength doses of balanced ferts never hurt anything.  Even young plants can benefit.
 
Once you've established the fertilizer needs of your plants, don't go changing the dose or type without good reason.  I tried reducing the nitrogen dose in late summer when my plants started blossoming like mad.  The thinking was that foliage growth would slow and the plant would devote more energy to pods.  Well, after ~3 weeks, I suddenly noticed that the plants had stopped blossoming and were starting to look a bit pale. Back I went to the established feeding schedule and now the plants (new growth at least) are back to rich green and fresh flowers are starting to set. (Too late, I'm sure.  Even Aridzona gets frost by the end of November.)  What's more, pod development accelerated notably as soon as I started feeding again.  DOH!
 
1)  Use well draining soil.
 
2)  Don't overspend on exotic things.  It's a disturbing trend around here.  Pick cost effective ways to supply NPK, calcium and magnesium.  Nature grows things fairly well without our "help" except in the case of drought.  It gets tricker in subsequent years of reusing the same soil but you have time to learn about that.
 
Spending very little money you can have results that are limited by your available sunlight and season length far more than anything else.  That's going to be your limitation living in Canada and all the *great stuff* in the world can't make up for it, though a greenhouse would help lengthen your season.
 
Well I'm a bit of a noob to growing vast quantities of chillis I'm no stranger to farming.

So my 4 rules for production;

1 - Source the best genetic material you can.

2 - Feed it in a manner that fully meets its nutritional requirements.

3 - Rapidly diagnose and treat any signs of ill health.

4 - Maintain top notch security, keep your stock in place and everything else out.
 
I'm no Pro by any respects but...
 
1: Provide adequate lighting
2: Don't Overwater
3: slight Under-fertilization is better than Over-Fertilization
4: Make sure you supply the plant with good sources of Calcium / Magnesium
5: Don't let problems like pests or diseases go unattended (and harm all of your plants instead of just one)
6: Learn to understand what your plants communicate to you.
7: Research specifics (from books or scholarly articles) about varieties you are growing or seek advice from someone who is familiar with your variety.
8: Understand soil, and microbial life
9: Learn from your mistakes
 
The top 2 I can think of, for someone completely naive about growing seeds would be:
1. Use a soilless seed starting mix, not "top soil" or "potting soil".
2. Use adequate lighting, not a window.
 
I'd give two pieces of advice:
 
1) don't over complicate fertilization - Its really easy to read all the glogs and discussions around here about ferts and get all caught up with getting lots of different kinds of ferts, mixing and matching, time of year, blah, blah, blah...  Resist that.  But if you can't resist, go full in and fully learn the basic science, biology and chemistry behind fertilization so you can make intelligent, informed decisions.
 
2) run good experiments - There are sooooo many things to try when growing peppers.  Don't try them all in one year.  Pick one or two (or more if you have enough plants) each year and run experiments.  For example for 2014 I wanted to figure out if clipping early flowers is better than not, and if raised beds is better than pots.  So I grew a minimum of 4 plants of each variety: 1 clipped flowers in pot, 1 clipped flowers in bed, 1 with no clipped flowers in pot, 1 with no clipped flowers in bed.  Turns out I had the most consistent best results from plants that I didn't clip flowers off and grew in beds.
 
Also understand what works well in one geo area may not work well in another, even within the same growing zones or even same city.  Micro climates can make a big difference.  For example, PIC 1 said he has something like 3 different soil mixes that he uses based on where the plants are in his yard!  So take advice from others with a grain of salt.  Run good experiments on your own plants to know for certain what works.
 
The key is that gardening is a multi-year learning experience.  You won't become a pro in a year.  Even by reading as much as possible.  You become a pro by being methodical year after year, and learning what works and what doesn't. 
 
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