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Very Beginner

I'm very new to growing anything at all. I'm trying to grow Trinidad Scorpion (Butch T) peppers because they seem to be ¿nearly? impossible to buy around here. I can't find them fresh, frozen, or otherwise. I can't even find a sauce made from anything above habanero peppers. So I decided a new hobby of mine would be to grow peppers! I'm looking for a little solid help though. I've done some searching but the information I found seemed a bit wrong and I'd like some smart people to help me. :)

First off, I'm growing strictly indoors. The peppers I'm choosing to grow are not ones I would want the small and curious children around here getting into. What I made is basically two 8x4 ft tables stacked on top of each other. There are tow sheets of something near plywood (looks pretty but less sturdy) reinforced with 2x4's underneath. I have 4x4's at each corner. The 4x4's are 6ft tall. I have two hanging florescent light fixtures hanging from it, each fixture has a 'grow light' and a 'full spectrum daylight light' in it.

What I have is basically this...
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          8ft
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||  \/     \/     \/  ||
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        4ft (deep)

I have a closet that is right next to a laundry room so it stays quite warm in there. I have some seeds germinating in there now. I went with 4 different types of peppers. That's really only because Pepper Joe thought I'd be interested in two free seed packets of peppers that I'd never heard of before. Of course, my thought is, Hot Dog! :) I guess his prices are a bit higher than others, but the additional seed packets and the quality of the packaging was impressive. The other seeds I ordered came in pretty shoddy packaging...

So... the questions!

I have 4x 5 gallon pots for my Butch T's. Will that be more than an indoor plant will need; I'm assuming the plant will not get as big as if it were outside. If that's too much, is it possible to plant more than one in the same pot? I'm also wondering the exact same thing about Bhut Jolokia's.

Is it easy to over-water peppers? I read many different ways to gauge soil dampness. Right now they have about as much water as they can hold. I imagine that's way too much?

Since they're (hopefully) germinating now, I'm guessing it doesn't matter if different peppers are growing near each other. They won't be touching at all. When I plant them, how far apart will they have to be? I'd like to avoid that cross pollination as much as possible but my apartment is of very limited space. Is there any easy way to avoid that risk? I'm guessing being inside in a low traffic area will help that a lot.

Is there any chart somewhere that says what the soil should be like for optimal growth of various peppers? I have a soil testing kit and I plan on using it until I'm better able to know by appearance of the plant.

Can most peppers grow year round when they're indoors? I'd like to let them just keep going and going and going. Along the limited space... would it make sense to- if the plant is growing too large and I run out of room trim the stems and if it's not big enough trim the flowers? It sounds like that's about the way to do it from what I read but would like to be sure. Also- will the plant at some point give up living like it's at the end of it's life cycle forcing me to start some new plants all over again?

Probably my most important question-will pepper plants produce a hotter pepper as they get older?

When I do harvest my tasty peppers... if I want to keep the seeds, should I air dry the pepper, then remove the seeds, let dry more, and toss in an air tight bag? It sounds dead simple, want to make sure it is that simple.

As for growing more- miracle grow is the de facto method of anything around here it seems. I think it's a pretty balanced fertilizer (18-18-21). Would the use of that, and maybe a few others for extra nitrogen or phosphorous, be enough to keep me from needing to re-soil the pots? I have about 100 quarts in soil and I _really_ don't want to have to redo that every 6mo as the bag suggests. Sure, replacing the lights every 6mo as another site suggests makes sense (half life), but replacing the soil seems like something that would be overkill.

I think I covered every one of my questions. I'm sorry there were so many. I did say 'very' beginner, right? I have $600 into this project so far... I just did a tally of everything I bought (including tools) to accomplish the task. Wow...

Any extra advice/suggestions/tips or answers for something I didn't ask will be hugely appreciated. Big thanks in advance!
 
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