Peppers from seed

[autumn leaf]

I usually buy my peppers as small plants and grow them in the greenhouse.  Next season I would like to try and grow some from seed.  Can anyone tell me if peppers are more difficult to grow from seed than other plants e.g tomatoes?  Do they need any special treatment when germinating?  Any info greatly appreciated. ???

[autumn leaf]

[manicscousers]

we've only grown them from seed, planted 12 this year expecting 6, got 8, just grow like tomatoes  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not quite like toms; keep them warmer. They'll sulk in temperatures where toms will grow steadily.

[Merry Tiller]

And don't let them get too damp, they like their roots to be a bit drier than toms

[Barnowl]

Some need quite a high temperature to germinate. I usually start all of mine in a heated propagator because the greenhouse is quite cool.

Currently have half a dozen cut down to stumps  in the garage, withe the pots sitting in boxes surrounded by bubblewrap for an over wintering experiment. Trouble is that it's so mild they're already sprouting quite well again.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I tried them for the first time this year, and got them started by sitting them on top of the water heater. I made the mistake of putting them out in the mini-greenhouse with the toms; I should have kept them indoors till it warmed up a bit.

[Spruance]

I grow "Big Banana F1" from Thompson & Morgan.

Peppers need a long growing season so I usually sow mine in a heated propagator in the house, around mid-March and then prick them out into 3-inch pots in the (unheated) GH when they are around 3 inches high.

I agree that they do not like to stand in water, and I tend to wait until the surface of the soil looks dry before watering. This year I moved one plant out on to the warm (south facing) path outside the GH and it appeared to produce more flowers than the GH plants, but I had to bring it back inside for the fruits to develop.

This year not many of the fruits turned red, but this variety tastes just as good green, so I can certainly recommend it.

[Barnowl]

NB for most non-dwarf varieties, the bigger the pot the bigger the crop. If you start really early most will react well to a pruning back by putting out more fuit bearing branches.

[Spruance]

NB for most non-dwarf varieties, the bigger the pot the bigger the crop. If you start really early most will react well to a pruning back by putting out more fuit bearing branches.

That's interesting to know.

I grow my plants in 3 litre plastic pots. Would you think that was about right or should I go up a size or two?

[ruffmeister]

we always grow ours from seed, make sure they are warm to germinate and then keep them warm until  7cm tall then plant out and they'll do just fine, they will take longer to ripen but the fruits are still fine as they are green

[Barnowl]

/quote]

Not very good on litres - what diameter pot would that be?

[Spruance]

I'm not normally so good on metric Barnowl, but that's what it says on the bottom of the pots! ;)

From memory, I would guess around 8 or 9 inches diameter, and probably 7-8 inches deep.

[Barnowl]

I had two Georgia Flames, which can be quite a large plant, and the one in the 10" pot did a lot better than the one in the 7".

Using Pi R²h and my trusty metric converter I think the 7" is about 3.5 litres and the 10" about 7 litres.

I noticed Monty Don seemed to be using at least as much soil as one would for a tomato plant, however much that  is :)

The chillies in the ground at the allotment (so unconstrained) fruited the most heavily of those with larger berries, but I should say that the more bush like chillies with smaller berries (Numex Twilight, Bolivian, Apache etc) are perfectly happy in smaller pots. Just give them some liquid feed from time to time once they have started flowering.

The trough in the picture actually has two Poinsettia plants in it.