Question regarding growing from seed

Late last year I happened to find myself in Decorah, Iowa, home of Seed Savers Exchange, so I picked up a number of pepper seeds: Hungarian alma (apple), Fatalii, Mustard Habanero, Rooster Spur, and some Hot Portugal. About two weeks ago, I bought one of those 72-cell Burpee kits that hydrate themselves (with a mat that acts on capillary action to suck up water from the container it's sitting in) and contain little pellets of what I believe is called coir (coconut fiber), which you hydrate and place your seeds in. I'm sure the experienced from-seed growers know what I'm talking about. I planted two seeds in each cell.

Anyhow, it's been almost two weeks later, and the seedlings have started coming up. The almas, rooster spurs, and hot portugals are almost two inches in height. The habanero or fatalii are slowly making their way up, too, but still very young. (I expected them to take longer, given the climate they're most successful in.)

Now, how long am I supposed to keep these plants in the coir? The only time I've done seedlings before, it was in soil, and I transferred them into progressively larger containers, hardened them off, and planted them outside. What I'm reading on the Burpee site seems to suggest I'm supposed to keep them in the starter until I'm ready to plant them. Or not? Am I supposed to thin them out where there's two seedlings per cell? Or is it best to transplant them to soil when they reach a certain maturity? And, in that case, do I take the coir along with them, or do I separate the roots out and plant in the new soil?

And, by the way, if anyone wants some of these, I'm going to have far more than I know what to do with.

I have not tried these particular kits, but I would thin the plants to one per cell. If the seedlings start to look crowded, transplant. You probably can do this by just putting them, starting medium and all, in a large container with growing medium in it. Try not to disturb the roots too much, although if they are tangled up and circling, you should loosen them. This is the technique I've used for peat pellets, and I'd guess what you have are similar.

I'm not too familiar with this specific product, but the Jiffy seed starting mix I use has no nutrient value. Once the first true leaves appear you may need to provide some kind fertilizer for the growing plants. I hope I've handled that by mixing some compost into the seed starting mix.

The Burpee kits with 72 cells also include a packet of organic fertilizer, which leads me to believe that their coir pellets have no nutrients. The same is true of peat pellets and most sterile starting mixes. Any of the cell or pellet starting systems will require potting into larger containers for peppers planted in mid-March or the plants will be stunted. The plants need room for proper light penetration to avoid legginess as well as room for the roots to grow. LAZ is correct in thinning to one plant per cell, preferably using small scissors to cut one off.

The main reason for using sterile media for seed starting is to avoid fungi that cause damping off. I usually use sterile media for the first transplanting of peppers, tomatoes or eggplant that were started in peat pellets. For later potting I use a mix that includes some screened compost that has been heated in an old microwave oven to control damping off and kill insect eggs. I keep an oven under an enclosed porch and reserve the oven for cooking compost to be used in indoor potting mixes. Most elements of the display died, but the add 30 seconds button works for setting time. The cooked compost stinks, so use only a microwave oven that you will never use for cooking real food.

I don't remember there being any fertilizer in the particular kit I bought. It is possible I missed it, though. Anyhow, it doesn't matter as I've transplanted 40 of the seedlings over to red Solo cups with holes and potting soil and they seem to be doing fine. The seedlings were a bit leggy, but I realized that was because I was using an incandescent bulb as my light source. I transplanted them and buried them deep, and I now have four 48" fluorescents going, and they appear to be doing well. Each plant has a true set of leaves, and some are working on their second pair. Nobody seems to be dying. I feel a bit bad for dumping at least as many promising seedlings, but there's only so much room I have for my garden.

I use Jiffy pods. When a 'true' leaf appears I trim back to one sprout per cell and transplant them to plastic cups of potting soil (which are dirty from previous years). Then I put them in my sunny back porch until they look strong enough to handle a little wind. Then I move them outside for a day or two and then I plant them. A few of them die (maybe 5 out of 50 or so) in the cup, but I'm left with plenty to garden. It's not a scientific process but it's easy and works well enough for me. I feel like going full-on nerd with the seeds is a lot of extra hassle for not much more abundance.

Well, the peppers seem to have turned out okay so far.








Note the last one is a Trinidad Scorpion. Only one of my Scorpion seeds sprouted, but one should be enough. Otherwise I have eight each of the other five kinds of peppers. Started acclimating them to the outdoors today, but I think I'll still wait about a week before transplanting.

When did you start them?

Mine have been really difficult this year. Perhaps it's because I used a different vendor for seeds, but I may be buying plants this year.

Then again, last year I thought the same thing, bought a bunch of plants & of course the seeds then took off & I ended up giving away most of the plants I purchased.

pairs4life wrote:When did you start them?

Mine have been really difficult this year. Perhaps it's because I used a different vendor for seeds, but I may be buying plants this year.

Then again, last year I thought the same thing, bought a bunch of plants & of course the seeds then took off & I ended up giving away most of the plants I purchased.

I started them on Feb. 29. The only guy that was tricky was the Trinidad scorpion. I did 10 in those Burpee coir pods and 10 using the wet paper towel in a plastic bag method. It was the paper towel that yielded the one viable seedling (actually, the only one that sprouted at all.) The fatalii and mustard habanero were also fairly slow to start (but that's to be expected, from what I understand, of the habanero-type Capsicum chinense peppers.) I think those peppers took about 2-3 weeks to sprout, while the others were going in 1-2 weeks. However, once they got going, they did fine. Otherwise, I had well over 100 seedlings going, but had to thin them out because there's only so much room that I have for lights.

We'll see how the transplanting into the backyard goes. Looking at the weather report for this week, it seems like I should still wait a bit. Not because I'm afraid of frost, but because of soil temps.

Peppers (also basil, eggplant and okra) really dislike night temperatures below the low 50s and can be set back badly by temperatures in the mid 40s. My Lincoln Square location is closer to the lake and generally cooler at this time of year than Binko's location, so I am reluctant to put these plants in the ground before the end of May and then only if soil temperature and weather forecast are favorable. I may need an extra up potting, but the ability to bring inside at night is very valuable.

I use bottom heat for starting all of my warmth loving plants. It makes a big difference in germination speed and reliability as well as seedling growth rates. The ones named above are still on heat mats under their flats as well as getting pretty intense light from fluorescent lights suspended by chains to allow height adjustment.

As long as you have gotten them acclimated to the outdoors a bit, they will be fine, unless we get a frost. Those look great and obviously have gotten quite a bit of sun already.