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Too late to start in S GA?

S

Sr. Beaver

Finally got settled in S Georgia and was wondering if it was too late to start from seed? It would be nice to have my own peppers even if they don't start to produce till early fall. What do all the experts here think?
 
Most likely YES ,to late to start. But when does it sart hitting temps of 40 or below? If you are going to grow annums it might be ok. Otherwise indoor growing or next yr
 
depends on how far you live from the coast but your first frost is probably somewhere around late november or first of december so that gives you 4 1/2 months if you start today...the chinense will not be ready in that short period IMO...you could, if you have a place inside for them, start the seeds now, grow them outside until frost comes, then move them inside for the winter and have pods probably by April next year...
 
When is your last frost date, if you even have one? Also depends what kind of peppers you want to grow. Annums tend to mature faster than Chineses if you are pressed for time. Superhots take upwards of 120 days to get fruit from seed.
 
First frost last year was 25 Nov and last was 01 Mar according to Farmers Almanac's website for Savannah GA and I'm only 40ish miles SW of Savannah.

This is the list of what I'm hoping to get going:
7 Pot BS
Bhut Jolika Indian Carbon
Billy Biker
Black Scorpion Tongue
Black Stinger
Butch T
C. Baccutum "Heartthrob"
Chico III
Chocolate Cherry
Condor's Beak
Congo Black
Congo Trinidad
Explosive Embers
Goatweed
Hawaiian Sweet Hot
Nagabon
Negro Chile
Orange Hab HPS
Orange Missle
Orange Manzano
Pimenta Da Neyde
Red Missle
Red Savina
Sanoran Chiltepen
Scotch Bonnet
Star Fish
Thai Giant
Thai Sun
TS Marouga Satan's Red
Yellow Devil's Tongue
Yellow Fatalii
Yellow Monkey Face

Thanks for taking the time to give a newb some pointers
 
Hey where exactly are you...I'm Cairo. You can get pods from your thai's if you germinate now maybe even the goats weed...but probably no pods from the other varieties...if you have a place to overwinter the other peppers then go ahead and you'll have one helll of a head start for next year.
 
@bigbodybussey, I'm just outside of Ft Stewart.

I decided what the hell, got em put into burpee starter cells and see where it goes, better to have some and a head start for next year, than nothing at all.
 
That's a long list of peppers to start this late in the year. If the plants stay healthy and grow well, and receive plenty of water since I expect it to be fairly hot where you are, you can get plants to a reasonable size and perhaps have some fully grown, full sized peppers.

Most likely only a few of the annuums and none of the chinense will be ripe yet by the first frost so it would be best to plant in containers that you can bring inside when it frosts so they can finish up ripening their pods inside, or you can drag them inside every time it frosts at night then drag them back outside the next (late) morning but as it gets cooler it will take longer for the pods to ripen, and it really gets to be a pain shuffling a lot of big pots around twice a day.
 
I've got a shed in the back yard I have no real plans of using for storage so I'm looking at getting some lights and a space heater to put in there once it starts to cool off to avoid the shuffling them in and out of the house.
 
You will probably get some ripe peppers from the goat weed and the thai. Chinense are slower, and the superhot varieties are the slowest so you may get some pods, but no way they will turn red/orange before the frost. On the other hand, if the winter is normal or mild, and you have a way of sheltering the peppers and possibly supplying some heat on the coldest days you can get a huge head start on next year's growing season.

Last year we had a pretty mild winter in Houston and we put an improvised cardboard box shelter over the peppers on the coldest days. In mid February I cut the top 1/3 of the plants back and then just let nature take it's course. Year 2 has been going great, a huge first round harvest with first red pods on the goat weed in early may and continuous production through about a week ago. Now the plant is loaded up with a fresh batch of green pods that should come ripe starting early fall.

I'm assuming your climate is pretty similar to mine, so I say start those seeds now and take care of the young plants over the winter. You should have a huge harvest next year, including some ripe superhots in June-July next year, which will be earlier than most everybody else.
 
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