I'm a Pepper You're a Pepper Wouldn't You Like To Be a Pepper Too???

Every year I have an awful time starting peppers from seed and getting them to the garden.

Sometimes I think it is the seed.  Sometimes I get germination indoors early with lights and heat pads then they fail.  (Mostly because I get too busy with other things and "I" fail)...

I would love to hear about others' experience starting peppers and growing them on to maturity in the garden.

I would love to be good at growing peppers...    Hungarian Wax,  Cubanela,  Sweet Bell would be my favorites.   I have no trouble growing Jalapeno...  but there is so much more to cook with.  

Hope to hear from the Permies and Gardeners here!     Thanks.

Peppers are the one thing I consistently mess up at the seed stage too. The heat mat gets them going fine but then something goes sideways, usually me forgetting to harden them off properly or just losing track of watering when life gets busy. Hungarian wax is actually one of the more forgiving ones once they're established outside though, so if you can get them through the indoor phase you're usually okay.

Peppers are often a struggle in my ecosystem, but if I can get them past the house plant stage, I've had some good success in large pots in the garden.

This year the weather is hotter than usual, and the critters are popping up all over, probably from seeds in the compost. However, I won't know what type, or even if they'll have enough time to ripen for months yet.

The next problem is whether they will get the perfect conditions they require to set fruit?

I generally just use LOTS of seeds, since I expect lots to fail to germinate and bugs to eat most of the sprouts. We just save the seeds from the supermarket peppers all winter and in the early spring I scatter handfuls of them on a big container. They stay in the garage until they sprout then go outside.

This has worked pretty well the last few years since I started doing it this way. No tender care, no heating mats or special lights. Just an excess of seeds. Water, sunlight.

Works Okay for planting directly in the garden too. Since we save lots of seeds and are constantly buying more peppers, I just scratch a shallow furrow in the garden dirt and scatter however many seeds I have and lightly cover them. A few grow. Fresh seeds work as well as dried seeds, maybe better.

Only 'drawback' is we have no idea what variety of pepper they will be, just whatever we bought and whatever survived. Right now I have a dozen plants in small pots and a few more growing from seed directly in the garden.

I enjoy the response.   It's a wonderful forum and I appreciate the opportunity to reach out to the "Like Minded" community.          

PEACE...

Thom Bri wrote:Only 'drawback' is we have no idea what variety of pepper they will be, just whatever we bought and whatever survived. Right now I have a dozen plants in small pots and a few more growing from seed directly in the garden.

I love your method Thom! I'm working up to peppers again - maybe next year after a hiatus without the polytunnel. I wonder if you save the seeds from your survivors this year, you might be able to develop a landrace that likes this method or propagation! Of course it will still be a lucky dip as to what you get

Nicholas Gainer wrote:.  Sometimes I get germination indoors early with lights and heat pads then they fail.  (Mostly because I get too busy with other things and "I" fail)...

.

What do you mean by they fail? damp off? too much water? not enough water? too cold where you're trying to grow the ones that do germinate?

I grow about 40-50 pepper plants a year and get a pretty good harvest. I grow a bunch of varieties, both hot and sweet. With germination, they need warm soil of 80-85f mostly; Id say 75f-90f , hotter for some varieties. Some need a humidity dome to germ, but then you need to watch for damping off. I keep mine on the heat until they're up and a couple of true leaves have formed. They need a good grow light; I use full spectrum LED. Lights can't be too far away. I find they germinate better in small soil cells; you can control the heat better than in a larger cell or pot. After they are growing nicely I'll pot them up and move them to a lower heating mat 75f, because my basement where I start them is usually 60f. Only after they are 5-6 inches tall do I take them off a heat mat. They still need a good light source however, a window sill probably won't due. They will die quicker of too much water, and can tolerate drying out a little--just a little. I use bottom watering trays.

I'm pretty sure that I let them dry out last time they failed in the cellar on heat mats with lights...   Sometimes I am busy and forget because they are in the cellar and not in an area that I can get to easily.  

This year was a better go at it because I used the enclosed porch and started in Mid May when temps don't get too cold in that part of the house.

Peppers are due to plant out in the garden 1st of July...   I have about 18 that are worthy of going into the ground.  That is a whole lot more than zero...  

I am a little extravagant and want to grow a giant patch of peppers...Maybe next year


  Still "playin' in the dirt" at age 62...    

Nicholas Gainer wrote:I'm pretty sure that I let them dry out last time they failed in the cellar on heat mats with lights...   Sometimes I am busy and forget because they are in the cellar and not in an area that I can get to easily.  

This year was a better go at it because I used the enclosed porch and started in Mid May when temps don't get too cold in that part of the house.

Peppers are due to plant out in the garden 1st of July...   I have about 18 that are worthy of going into the ground.  That is a whole lot more than zero...  

I am a little extravagant and want to grow a giant patch of peppers...Maybe next year


  Still "playin' in the dirt" at age 62...    

Sounds like you're doing pretty good this year! They can be fussy sometimes. You have to find what works for you and your environment. I've been growing peppers from seed for many years now, and I usually have it down to a successful germination and grow, but this year I had an across the board failure and had to replant all of them. This year I had adopted a new automated capillary mat watering system for all my seedlings, not just peppers. Well, the peppers didn't like it one bit. So, after it was evident that they were not going to germinate, I replanted the whole lot of them using my known process, and that worked.

Keep playin in the dirt, it keeps you young

I've had bad luck with pepper seeds thus far.  Last year was my first try, javenero and jalepeno seeds from my MIL's garden gave me ... nothing.  This year I tried the last of the javanero seeds again, plus some bell pepper seeds from store peppers.  Neither grew.  I've since found out from William on here that red bell peppers are the best choice if one is using storebought pepper for taking seeds from.  So maybe we'll try that next year.  But anyways the only pepper plant I have growing is the jalapeno I bought at a big box store as an impulse buy, it seems content in my yard.

I've screwed up starting peppers a few times. I used a heating mat but didn't have strong consistent lighting once they popped up through the soil. And ended up really spindly plants that flourish as much as other starters I got from friends.

I think something that a lot of people neglect when starting plants indoors is wind. Like once they pop up out of the soil run a fan over them so the seedlings can beef up their stalks. Someone told me you can brush your hand over the tray too to simulate wind.

Another thing I'll do if I'm not feeling lazy is acclimate the baby plants by bringing them inside/outside a few times before planting to acclimate them further. Hope you have better luck next season!

Found this while browsing and wanted to add my two cents. Are you using a heat mat for germination? It made all the difference for me, especially with more stubborn varieties. Also, once they sprout, shifting them under grow lights can really boost their growth until they’re ready to head outside. How do you guys keep your pepper plants warm enough during cooler nights? Would love to hear more ideas!