I want to start by saying I love hot peppers!
This year I planted Major League, Jalepeno and habanero. Now I got good yield from my major league and ok from Jalepeno and nothing from habanero. I was thinking I need to start them in the house earlier than march.
My question is do you think if I start them now under grow lights they will get good and strong for the 2013 season? I plan on having them in an earthbox tht will just go outside next summer.
The second question is more about multi year plants. I live in Canada so multi year plants have very rarely passed my mind until you guys started talking about them. Do you think I can pull this off?
-
Northernfox
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 870
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 am
- Location: Fort Saskatchewan Alberta
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I start my pepper seeds indoors end of Jan or very beginning of Feb. Start tomatoes around Valentine's day or a week later. I never tried starting peppers any earlier, but one year I did decide if starting tomatoes on Valentine's day is good, wouldn't starting them in Jan be better?
For me the answer was definitely no. The plants get really big. To keep them going you really need to up-pot them into bigger pots (mostly I grow my seedlings in 3 to 4" pots and keep them there until they go in the garden). So then they are taking up a lot of room and soil. I don't have room in my seed starting set up, under my lights, for big plants like that.
I tried moving the tomatoes into the living room, in front of windows, with supplemental light. But then they weren't getting nearly the light they needed and instantly got super-leggy. Of course because they were started early, it was still too cold to think about bringing them out.
When I could bring them out, all those long leggy stems snapped in the first breeze...
If you had a really good set up where you would have room under lights for plants in gallon containers it might work. Remember the plants have to be really close to the lights.
Last fall I did try bringing a pepper plant in to over winter. I didn't try putting it in to dormancy, just keeping it growing under light. It did ok at first, but as the hours of light got shorter (again I had it in front of a window with supplemental light) it did worse and worse until it was barely hanging on. Then came seed starting season this year and I got busy with all the new seedlings and didn't keep babying the old pepper so much (misting it once or twice a day, keeping the light on it on a good schedule, rotating it, etc etc). It promptly died. So certainly people have kept them going indoors over winter, but I think again you have to have a good light set up and a certain amount of dedication.
If I were going to try it again, I think I would try the putting it in to dormancy route.
For me the answer was definitely no. The plants get really big. To keep them going you really need to up-pot them into bigger pots (mostly I grow my seedlings in 3 to 4" pots and keep them there until they go in the garden). So then they are taking up a lot of room and soil. I don't have room in my seed starting set up, under my lights, for big plants like that.
I tried moving the tomatoes into the living room, in front of windows, with supplemental light. But then they weren't getting nearly the light they needed and instantly got super-leggy. Of course because they were started early, it was still too cold to think about bringing them out.
When I could bring them out, all those long leggy stems snapped in the first breeze...
If you had a really good set up where you would have room under lights for plants in gallon containers it might work. Remember the plants have to be really close to the lights.
Last fall I did try bringing a pepper plant in to over winter. I didn't try putting it in to dormancy, just keeping it growing under light. It did ok at first, but as the hours of light got shorter (again I had it in front of a window with supplemental light) it did worse and worse until it was barely hanging on. Then came seed starting season this year and I got busy with all the new seedlings and didn't keep babying the old pepper so much (misting it once or twice a day, keeping the light on it on a good schedule, rotating it, etc etc). It promptly died. So certainly people have kept them going indoors over winter, but I think again you have to have a good light set up and a certain amount of dedication.
If I were going to try it again, I think I would try the putting it in to dormancy route.
-
Northernfox
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 870
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 am
- Location: Fort Saskatchewan Alberta
Thank you very much Rainbow! I have been slowly trying to learn when to plant things 
that just cut my learning down by at least two years !
Well seeing as I live in Canada it would seem starting new peppers every year would likely leave me smiling. I don't have a huge light set up. If I remember correctly yours is a lot large r tHan mine and what I based my decisions on
that just cut my learning down by at least two years ! Well seeing as I live in Canada it would seem starting new peppers every year would likely leave me smiling. I don't have a huge light set up. If I remember correctly yours is a lot large r tHan mine and what I based my decisions on
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30543
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
Have you seen the "Winter Pepper Torture" thread?
Here is a link to my post in which I first posted the set up I used -- One shoplight hung from the ceiling over an IKEA table top. This is a couple of pages into the 6-page thread:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=175258#175258
Here is a link to my post in which I first posted the set up I used -- One shoplight hung from the ceiling over an IKEA table top. This is a couple of pages into the 6-page thread:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=175258#175258
Last edited by applestar on Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
Northernfox
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 870
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 am
- Location: Fort Saskatchewan Alberta