When to start peppers from seed
A Complete Guide to Starting Peppers Indoors: See Description for a Digital Table of Contents
welcome to the rustic garden today I
want to do a comprehensive video on seed
starting peppers indoors today is March
4th and I have had these peppers
starting somewhere from the middle of
January all the way through February so
I can show you different stages and
really cover the whole process I want to
start right at the beginning and again
this video is really for people that are
just starting growing transplants
indoors or if you want to learn more
about peppers but if you don't need all
the stages just fast through fast words
through the video so first thing is is
seed starting mix you do not want to use
soil from outdoors you will bring in
fungus and insects so you want to get a
bag product that usually stays indoors
and that would be like gypsy starting
mix that's what I like to use there in
the mylar bags that are sealed now that
being said because it's a natural
product you're probably going to get
fungus gnats they have and pretty
impressive ability to lay eggs it's kind
of bless through everything you can pour
boiling water into here to try to kill
off any eggs I put neem oil in here now
to disrupt the growing process of any
potential fungus or insect eggs or
anything that might be in here you can
microwave it I don't recommend freezing
it because the eggs can last through a
freeze also pre moisten the soil put
some water in there get some fluid into
it because if you just use dry mix it's
not gonna really draw water in when you
go to water and I'll talk more about
that when we get to the watering so it's
a pre-moistened mix drop it into the
seed tray fill it once some pack it down
fill it again and you have a great
starting bed for your pepper seeds I do
not put fertilizer in here at the
beginning the actual seed will supply
enough nutrients to the plant to get
your emanated and get going and we'll
talk about fertilizing afterwards I used
to say go ahead and put some organic
fertilizer in there go ahead and put in
some props of chemical fertilizers I
found the organic fertilizer can cause
fungus and mold growth it doesn't hurt
your plants but it's unsightly and the
plants just really don't need it
so here are two trays that
set up and you want to start to seeds
first base and if you're not doing a lot
of seeds you could go ahead like for
instance I'm going to do Cayenne red
pepper I'm going to do an orange cayenne
serrano and this is an Anaheim pepper if
you're only doing a couple you can go
ahead and just put them into a cup or a
container like this this way you can
skip the transplant
you can skip planning into something
small like this and having to transplant
it up but if you're doing a lot of a lot
about peppers you can do it this way so
just start by dropping two seeds in and
just press it in you can do a
quarter-inch 1/2 an inch I did plenty of
experiments and found that the pepper
seeds will germinate at any depth
alright and that's all you do cover them
up you would label them put the date on
there and you're good to go
now peppers are going to take anywhere
probably from seven days to 21 days to
germinate let me show you what I mean so
when it's flat I started these on
February 11 so today is March 4th so
what's I've been 17 days plus 6 so 23
days so this is about 3 weeks in and
what you'll notice are like this variety
much larger germinate more quickly this
was a bell pepper wonder bell both of
these groups or bell peppers so they
germinate pretty quickly and then you
come on over to this group and you can
see that some of them are just Germany
now and this is a poblano so different
varieties of peppers will take a longer
time to germinate so don't get
discouraged but it's going to take
somewhere between 7 and 21
days this is how I start all online my
grow closet stays at about 7075 degrees
peppers like heat to germinate so you
could put a heat mat under here that's
going to raise the temperature up to
about 83 is a little bit more and these
will germinate quicker the warmer they
are once you use a heat map they
germinate they break the surface in
about two or three days you can shut off
the heat mat with the assumption that
your you know grow closet or the room
that their interview to stay around 70
degrees fries but a heat map will speed
up the germination process but you don't
need to leave the heat mat on through
the whole process I mean once they start
growing shut it off and they will grow
just like this with no problem so I keep
mine in a tray just like this and I
bottom water and what bottom watering is
is instead of pouring water right on top
of the surface which is going to
possibly splash out starting mix move
the seeds and if you have disease or
funguses you're going to spread the
disease and fungus with the splashing
water you don't want to do that and it's
more time consuming I water just by
keeping something a jug like this fill
up the trade this way to about a quarter
step with the tray and just let the
trays soak up the water from the bottom
these are just been watered they're nice
and dark whatever they don't absorb in
15 or 20 minutes just pour out but
you'll find that you get you know pretty
good practice at eyeballing how much
they're going to need the other question
I get is how often do I water these and
the answer is one time a week to five
times that we could depends on their
size depends on how warm your grow
lights are it just depends on what's
going on but you watch the top of the
soil when this soil becomes light ahead
videos on it if you want to look it up
when the top of soil dries out get to
the light brown the color that the
starting mix looks like when it doesn't
have any water that's when you bottom
water the top will drive first Moisture
will stay below it moisture will stay
down here in the root system so as soon
as you see the top dry
it's a good time to water it's also a
good idea to let the tops try because
that helps take care of some disease and
fungus issues if you always keep the
soil moist the top is always moist the
fungus and molds are going to keep
growing so if you let them dry out it
really disrupts their growth cycle and
here's an example from another video
this is salad bowl lettuce which is not
healthy this is what leg enos is called
but you can see the difference in the
tops same starting mix this is fully
saturated this is dried out and the tops
are light brown so that's what you look
for is the light brown colors now for
lighting this is an example of lettuce
not getting enough light to get tall
they get thin they get leggy same thing
will happen with your peppers so you can
either if you have grow lights make sure
the grow lights stay above them and I
recommend that the lights stay on top on
for 18 hours when they just break the
surface and keep them on for 18 hours
for I don't know three four five six
seven days after germination that's when
they need the most light that extra
light will keep them from getting leggy
and spindly and it will be nice and
stocky once a week goes by cut the
lights down to anywhere from 12 to 16
hours whatever you'd like to do and that
will get these off to a great start now
there's no feed in here they don't need
to be fed yet but they're getting close
and we'll talk about feeding in a second
let me talk about acclamation because
there's two ways to do it and again I
know this was a lot of information but I
want to put it all in one video for
those of you that just want to watch it
start to finish
acclamation is a process of taking your
indoor plants and putting them outdoors
in a way that the Sun the wind the cold
doesn't burn doesn't harm doesn't stress
out the plants these plants have no
resistance to the Sun the UV rays
because I've been growing comfortably
indoors two ways to do it when your seed
your germinating if you can take this
outside and it's you know 40 degrees or
warmer just put this out in the Sun for
about an hour let the Sun hit these
newly germinated plants
and they will start getting a tolerance
to the Sun you will start acclimating
them and just do that you know for an
hour every day if you can or every other
day and you're going to be acclimating
them why they're mostly growing indoors
but you're going to be taking them in
and out so when it gets to this size
they have some tolerance build-up
they're you know getting the wind
blowing across them they're feeling the
cold weather so they're going to be a
tougher plant now if you can't do that
and your plants get to this size and
they're ready to go out you have to
slowly acclimate them to the outdoors
over a week and I can't give you an
exact recipe because if it's a cloudy
day they can stay out longer if it's a
sunny day they can only stay up 15
minutes so what you want to do is start
with 15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes
for the first day but then get some Sun
some wind some cold bring it back inside
next day same amount of time Thursday
you can start lengthening the amount of
time for six days to be moving into an
hour so seventh day you can give them a
lot of fun if you're able to put these
out when it's a fully cloudy day give
them four or five hours with being
outside they can get used to the cold
the wind the clouds will protect them
from the Sun and you can slowly harden
them off as this one of the terms use
harden them off to the elements but you
have to make sure you acclimate these or
when you move them outside you're going
to be really disappointed because all
your great growth is going to be harmed
by the Sun the wind in a cold so we have
the plants growing at this stage now
this is about what do we say 23 days
about 3 weeks worth of growth they
aren't quite ready for a feeding but
they're getting close and when they all
have their second leaves that's what
they're secondly that's they're actually
first set of true leaves when all of
them have the first set it truly is I'm
going to give them a liquid fertilizer I
prefer and use the process chemical
fertilizers because they cover
everything they don't smell they don't
attract insects but you can use if you
want oh that's actually kelp meal you
could use fish emulsion
that's a 5-1-1 fertilizer you want too
low fertilizer I recommend using
something that stays under a 5 5 5 n P
and K I like using the organic
fertilizers outdoors I just don't like
the smell the plants do not care I don't
care what people tell you
organic gardening is great but you don't
have to be an organic gardener to be a
great gardener or to have healthy food
the process chemical fertilizers do not
hurt you you do not care plants at this
stage there is no soil life growing in
here so these chemicals aren't going to
harm your microbiology and soil you just
don't have it as a plain old basic
starting mix and if I didn't mention I
just want to make sure that when you set
up your seed starting mix is you you
don't use soil that's been sitting
outside because it will bring it insects
and disease alright so how often do you
feed them well this is a 10-10-10
fertilizer so use this at half-strength
quarter strength a two point five a two
point five a two point five NPK or
something around the five five five is
perfectly fine I would just use it once
a week you can use a fertilizer
keeping it low once a week that will be
plenty of nutrition for these plants and
this is what they've been getting
they've been getting that fertilizer I
just showed you and they're doing really
really well so that's about three weeks
worth of growth then we come over to
these plants pepper plants that were
started on 128 so these have four weeks
so these are at about five weeks so and
it's five weeks it looks great this is
when they're getting close to really be
transplanted up into these pots and the
way you tell is really by side these
guys are ready to go you can simply top
the plant look at the bottom and when
you see the roots starting to curl at
the bottom they're close this guy could
go another week or so in this container
but he's ready to be potted up and what
I do is I either use some recycle
containers my neighbors always give them
to me or a press container this way
styrofoam cups are great if you don't
like
styrofoam pick a cup or a container of
your choice but you want about an 8
ounce cup let me just see what this was
this is an escandalo and this is how I
like to label I like these cups because
you can write write on them
so just label Escamilla it was started
what do we get for the deep on here on
128 so I put an S for starting day 128
and then a T for transplant day of March
force now we use starting mix to get
these going when you're moving them up
into the cup you can then go to the
bagged soil the stuff that's outside if
you bring it inside you're still going
to get insects but at the point where
these are going to be outside mostly
you're perfectly fine to use bagged soil
that's been you know sitting outdoors
like any kind of potting mix or grow mix
if you want to use but what I have here
is the starting mix now I do mix neem
oil into my starting mix to help deal
with fungus and diseases and all you do
fill it up put a nice big finger circle
in there I'm going to remove this plant
and this one germinated late but I just
want a single plant in here drop it in
maybe just a quarter inch or so over the
stem press it in add in a little more
soil and it's good to make sure you put
holes in the bottom now this will also
go into the same tray that I showed you
just like this and then I just put in
all of my cups or my containers through
here and I still bottom water it's the
easiest way to do it because you just
fill the tray real quick the plants will
absorb what they need so we started with
planting the seeds you saw what three
weeks growth look like this is about
five weeks growth and then in plants
over here are only 13
days let's see what we got these were
started on 1:15 these are start on 1:28
so this is about seven weeks worth of
growth so all the plants here have been
growing for seven weeks they're nice and
strong they've been actually getting
acclimated to go outdoors but I would
still won't be able to put these up for
about five weeks and I wanted some
peppers just to get really strong and
tall at this point I'm also doing
something where I'm growing to be
growing two peppers right next to each
other because I read but that's
something that you can do and they do
really really well
for a long time I just won't let the
information that they have to be you
know one plant per whole space it up to
feed apartment that probably isn't true
now when they get to this size you can
do something that's called topping them
off and you would do this when you still
have three four weeks five weeks of
indoor growth and what you do will go
with this one and this one just to give
you a reference this was started around
118 it was transplanted in here on
February 26 and today is March 4th once
you transplant them into here you want
them to grow for at least a week or ten
days before you do this but you're going
to top them off that means you're going
to just go to put it down here to do it
you're going to take off the growing tip
pinch it off your plant will look like
this I remove the growing tip this with
just kept growing up just like that what
this is going to do it's going to force
side shoot growth from here the plant is
going to be stockier it's going to have
more side growth and you're going to get
more blooms and more peppers that way
what I found was that most peppers enjoy
this it makes them stronger don't do it
with banana peppers don't do it with
bell peppers I found they don't really
benefit from having the tops taken out
but most the other peppers really seem
to do well alright so now it's gone from
seed to you know through week old
seedlings five week old plants that are
ready to come out of
go into the cups now these are going to
stay in here like I said four to five
weeks they will be fed same way that I
explained once a week with a organic
fertilizer or a chemical process
fertilizer either one is fine at about a
5 5 5 and piqué or lower and these
aren't going to go into the ground until
the ground temperatures are about 50
degrees a bit the ground might be a
little bit colder but you want 50 degree
nice 73 days acclimate these to the
outdoors and you will have really
healthy great-looking pepper transplants
that will get you produce will get you
peppers sooner to your table because
you've been growing them indoors for 8
to 12 weeks that's the benefit you get
nice sized plants out there as soon as
the ground is ready rather than putting
in a pepper seed and then having the
weight 8 to 12 weeks for it to get to
the side you are already there hope you
enjoyed the video
quite comprehensive I notice I said it
was wrong but I hope it gives you an
understanding start to finish on what
you need to do for growing peppers
indoors and getting your transplants
going please check out my blog at WWDC
garden blog spot.com
also check out my youtube videos I also
have a seed in garden shop where you can
buy the seeds that I'm growing in my
videos and grow as I grow thanks
