Advice for Starting/Growing Peppers?

[catjac1975]

Peppers take a long time to grow. I just started mine a week ago and they have already sprouted. They are in tiny cells so will eventually be up potted to 4" pots. I started them on a heat mat. They will be going under lights today.

Once they are a good size about 6" tall, I top them off. This encourages branching and a larger harvest. They will probably go into the ground around end of April.

Mary

Oh Yes! I forgot . BOTTOM HEAT.

 

[ducks4you]

What size containers are y'all using?

...

It's wierd but you can just tell as your peppers grow when they need a bigger pot, root circling will start to happen too.

Dunno, for sure, although I Don't have to start peppers this month.
One gardener panelist on Mid American Gardener says that she won't use the multi celled containers, but starts ALL of her vegetables seeds in 3 inch pots to avoid transplant shock.
I am FINALLY gonna start leeks today, and since I just bought a couple of cheaper packages than the others that I purchased online, I intend to start THEM in a collection of small yogurt containers.
With my leeks I intend to grow them and transplant directly from their starter pots into the ground.
I think it's more important to consider your inside/greenhouse growing conditions. Since you are creating/using soil blocks you are step ahead of me.
I will be reporting on my leek success/failures and we'll see if that works.
I have several maples and a larch that were ALL growing circling roots.
I saved them all, for the time being before I can afford to take them down, but cutting the circling roots with a reciprocating saw.
I wonder if we should cut any circling roots in seedlings before transplanting?

 

[meadow]

Depending on the crop, I think cutting the roots could be too big of a shock. If we're talking about little veggie seedlings, I think it would be less shock to gently loosen the edges (I sometimes wiggle/tap my fingers very softly along the edge), or even swish them in water if you really want to straighten them out.

This guy has a really interesting video of transplanting leeks out in the garden, but I've run out of time and cannot find the one that I want to show you (where he's using a long dibble to pre-make the growing hole and backfilling it with good loose soil). He has very harsh growing conditions. Here is one I had bookmarked, but if you're interested please do look at his other leek videos (and I'll also try to remember to find the one I wanted to show you):

 

[ducks4you]

THANKS!!! I've seen videos using a dibbler and I understand that you transplant leeks several inches deep and then the soil fills in the holes throughout the season, thus burying as much white for better flavor.
Btw, I watch many videos with CC. THIS one is a hoot! Mistranslations, mis spellings, etc.!
I reminds me so much of this video game that DD's had a long time ago, and the gaming community is VERY familiar with it.
It is Japanese and one of the English subtitle translations is:
"All Your Base are Belong to us."

 

[flowerbug]

...
Btw, I watch many videos with CC. THIS one is a hoot! Mistranslations, mis spellings, etc.!
I reminds me so much of this video game that DD's had a long time ago, and the gaming community is VERY familiar with it.
It is Japanese and one of the English subtitle translations is:
"All Your Base are Belong to us."

i've seen that one quite a few times already, but one i saw yesterday which got me laughing was:

"I like to keep my fingers in god's butt..."

 

[meadow]

THANKS!!! I've seen videos using a dibbler and I understand that you transplant leeks several inches deep and then the soil fills in the holes throughout the season, thus burying as much white for better flavor.
Btw, I watch many videos with CC. THIS one is a hoot! Mistranslations, mis spellings, etc.!
I reminds me so much of this video game that DD's had a long time ago, and the gaming community is VERY familiar with it.
It is Japanese and one of the English subtitle translations is:
"All Your Base are Belong to us."

I was mistaken, it was one of his videos on growing parsnips that I was remembering! Ah well. I do love his voice and manner of speaking.

I once ordered a game from Japan which arrived in a mailer marked "For Japan ONLY!" It became an insider joke in our family ever since.

 

[donna13350]

For sweet peppers, keep the soil moist; but to get the most heat from hot peppers, allow them to dry out a little before harvest.

I was always taught to flood hot peppers a couple of days before harvest to increase their heat?? I do let them dry out, but flood them first..it's supposed to trigger a panic mode in them and they increase their heat. There are tons of articles on this, just wondering if you've ever tried it and what your results were?
Also..the peppers that you wintered over..was there a noticable increase in yield?

 

[Zeedman]

I was always taught to flood hot peppers a couple of days before harvest to increase their heat?? I do let them dry out, but flood them first..it's supposed to trigger a panic mode in them and they increase their heat. There are tons of articles on this, just wondering if you've ever tried it and what your results were?
Also..the peppers that you wintered over..was there a noticable increase in yield?

Never heard of that procedure (flooding) but if it waterlogs the soil enough to stress the plant, it makes sense. But although both methods (dry or wet) would theoretically work, I have seen too much damage from waterlogged soil to try that personally. IMO flooding could be almost the same as root pruning.

The wintered-over peppers did OK, and bore much earlier than if I had used transplants... but the yield was nothing special. Then again, I made no effort to fertilize them; so they might have more potential than I observed.

 

[Branching Out]

Does anyone have strong feelings regarding retaining the cotyledons once the pepper seedling is a few inches tall? I find that the seed leaves are often touching the soil, so my preference would be to remove them unless there is a valid reason to keep them.

 

[seedcorn]

Can’t speak for peppers but will destroy yield on soybeans.