fast start, slowing down

[jordanleereynols]

I started about 100 pepper plants this year, my first attempt ever in starting anything. Used heat mats and put them under lights as soon as I seen the first sprout. I could fit exactly 100 cells under the floro light I bought, and 96 seeds sprouted, and about 5 or so have died from "natural causes". I made a room out of plastic in my basement and have a heater in the room that keeps it at a steady 85 degrees. I have bottom watered since day 1 as needed.

It seems like it took forever to get true leaves. I noticed when watering some of the plants that some roots were coming out of the peat start cells so I figured I would up pot. Again, most all of the plants had 2 true leaves, none of them had more than that and it had been nearly a month under the light. While up-potting, I notice that to me, the roots seemed long and not nearly as much roots as I would expect. Some of the roots had grown through the bottom of the pots and had grown 3 inches long along the floor of the starter "pan". I up-potted to 4" pots with pricey soil that has fertilizer. The soil in the starter cells had good moisture, but there weren't enough roots to hold all the soil together when up-potting.

I don't have enough room to keep them all under the light, so I moved some into a black rubbermaid and plan to move it outside every day as daytime temps are nearing 70 every day.

My question is, at a month old, do my plants seem to be struggling or normal? I wanted to plant them in the garden around may 15th, but at this rate I'm looking at my plants maybe having 4 leaves and only being a few inches tall.

[SPierce]

I think (IMHO, at least) youre still on track and normal. I've got a tray of seedlings going as well, they're about 3 and a half weeks old, and are just now starting to develop their first set of leaves. They seem happy and healthy- so as long as yours is the same, healthy- and seems to be ahead of mine- I wouldn't worry about them being behind.

[Halfway]

They do seem a tad bit behind, but the stragglers I had last year caught up quickluy once outside. We do not have enough sunny days at this time of year to keep a cilantro from drooping, so the peppers MUST stay under the lights.

One big thing I have learned is to keep the peppers on the heat mat as long as possible. Once they are removed and up-potted, they have to adjust to the basement temp of around 60-65. They get a little heat right at the flourescents, but not enough to warm the soil. This does seem to slow them down a bit.

Please keep us posted.

[rainbowgardener]

Seems a little bit slow to me. You mentioned 100 plants under "the fluoro" light. Only one? For 100 plants? Tell us a little more about how much light and how close to the plants.

[jordanleereynols]

after just 2 days of me moving some of the plants into the rubbermaid and outside during the days, I can tell the outcome isn't going to be good it doesn't seem. It was 85 here yesterday with no wind, and it looked like the plants took a junk big time, turning lighter in color and leaves a bit droopy. I kept them out of the sun the first day, and let them have about an hour maybe 2 of sun yesterday. Going to give them 4 hours today and there is supposed to be a bit of wind too. The only thing I can think of is that the outside plants have moved from having light 100% of the time to having light hardly none of the time. Hopefully they will come around. I think the ones under the light def will be ok, just slow.

As far as my light, I got an old old old shop light from my grandfathers shop. It is 5' long and holds 6 floro bulbs. He had a bunch of extra bulbs too, so I should be good for a couple years. The light is 3 to 4 inches from the plants. And it stays on all the time.

[Halfway]

May want to shade them outside plants a bit. Or at least partial sun. Too much will cause "shock".

Best of luck...that is a lot of plants!

[rainbowgardener]

Turning lighter in color isn't too little light, it's too much. Moving plants from fluorescent lamps, even a couple inches above them, to direct sun, is a difficult transition. Our eyes are so good at adapting, we don't even realize how very much brighter it is outside, even on a cloudy day. Find a filtered light area to put them at first or use row cover/ shade cloth.

I have a bench on my deck. When I first bring plants out, I put them UNDER the bench. Just the indirect light that gets to them and a little bit between the slats is enough. After they are used to that, then I bring them out to where they get more light, but not full sun.