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chinense What is best for maximum growth in Carolina reaper seedlings?

Fieryguitarist

Fieryguitarist

Hello hot pepper people,

I recently germinated a Carolina reaper. It is about 11 days old. I have heard that they take a serious amount of time to grow. So I was wondering what things I could use to speed up the process. Any suggestions for nutrients I could try?

http://imgur.com/a/nGSGY
 
What potting soil is it in?  
 
Assuming it's growing in something decent, all you can do is give it sun and warm, fresh air.  So long as the leaves stay nice and green, it's unlikely to be in 'need' of anything.
 
Don't go all control freak - you'll just wind up over-fertilizing and stressing the plant. 
 
They don't need any more time to grow than most of the other hot pepper plants. Most seed starting mediums will have a little fertilizer mixed in, and if so, you don't need anything else, at least for now. What I do is incorporate Nutricote in the tray I start my seeds in. I then take the seedlings out and put them in 4 inch pots in my regular Canadian peat based soil and incorporate the Nutricote in those pots as well. Then, when they are large enough, which doesn't take long, I put them in the pots I will grow them in, which normally is 7 gallon container. Instead, if you are growing them in the ground, they will be set with a decent fertilizer for a while. Everybody has their own situation, but I don't treat my pepper plants like annuals. A lot of my plants are 3 to 5 years old. I only get rid of the ones that have problems or don't produce like I want them to. Tom
 
If you have good potting soil and lighting.. start feeding them with mild sollutions of fert (half strength for vegetative stage) biweekly when they are 5" tall. When they are about 8" start with weekly ferting. Don't go full strength until they start flowering. Don't over water, let it dry out between waterings. It's better to let all your plants dry out to the point that the first plants starts showing dehydrated (lower leaves droopy) and then giving all a good soak without fert.

Keep day night Temp between 60-75 F for the best growth. Any colder gives slower growth, warmer makes them grow fast though splindly. Depending on your strategy that can be a good thing, but I tend to keep them compact until it's safe to go outside. For practical reasons. They then "boom" when they go outside and start growing rapidly. By the time you're also getting some pods.

Ferting is crucial but it's really easy to over do it. Especially young plants are sensitive. Never fert dried out plants with droopy leaves. Always soak them with some tapwater first.

Soak = generous portion of plane water, not soaking as in drowning them. Good soil will equally distribute moisture within the substrate.
 
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