2019 Chilli Growing thread

[nst68]

I've bought a growing kit from the South Devon Chilli Farm https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/online-shop/chilli-growing-equipment/chilli-growing-kit/
Sowed them last night and put the propergator in the airing cupboard, fingers crossed they germinate.

How long should it (roughly) be before I start to see anything?

 

[Rathian]

I've bought a growing kit from the South Devon Chilli Farm https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/online-shop/chilli-growing-equipment/chilli-growing-kit/
Sowed them last night and put the propergator in the airing cupboard, fingers crossed they germinate.

How long should it (roughly) be before I start to see anything?

Looks like a good little kit!
I have used seeds from them before and had good results both in terms of germination rates and plants.

I usually find that the seeds germinate between 7 & 14 days.
It is always a bit of a lottery I find based on the variety of chilli, temps, level of moisture & individual seed variance.
In my experience the best thing to do is keep them moist (not water logged though), warm and try to be patient

You're starting nice and early so you have time for another round of seeds if needed.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

 

[nst68]

Looks like a good little kit!
I have used seeds from them before and had good results both in terms of germination rates and plants.

I usually find that the seeds germinate between 7 & 14 days.
It is always a bit of a lottery I find based on the variety of chilli, temps, level of moisture & individual seed variance.
In my experience the best thing to do is keep them moist (not water logged though), warm and try to be patient

You're starting nice and early so you have time for another round of seeds if needed.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Cheers, will do.

I've always "cheated" and bought plug plant from the local garden centre, thought I should man-up this year

I added the 250ml of water and the coir discs expanded, there's still water left in the bottom of the properator, should I tip this away?

 

[Rathian]

Cheers, will do.

I've always "cheated" and bought plug plant from the local garden centre, thought I should man-up this year

I added the 250ml of water and the coir discs expanded, there's still water left in the bottom of the properator, should I tip this away?

Good on you for growing from seed this year!
It is a bit more time intensive and you might lose a few along the way but it's also really fun (if anxiety inducing at times )

The coir pellets are likely saturated and can't absorb anymore water which is why there is some left in the bottom of the prop.
Given it has a lid and any evaporating water should be trapped and returning to the coir via condensation then you should have enough in there to achieve germination so you can pour it out if you want. Equally you could leave it and it would not be the end of the world as the coir can't absorb it and so the seeds are unlikely to get water logged and rot. Honestly I'm surprised each time I grow how robust seeds and seedlings can be so don't worry to much. Just let them do their thing

 

[rhysduck]

I would squeeze the coir plugs gently to remove excess water, I wouldn't personally keep them 100% saturated. And then tip away excess water in the tray.

 

[sarge78]

Why didn't I see this thread sooner! Gutted for Mercenary Keyboard Warrior about loosing the greenhouse

Here's my fav houseplant chillies (kept at 25-30cm in 2l pots)

(2 year old Razzmatazz, 4 year old Basket of Fire, 1 year old Apache a bit stunted from a garden centre sale)

The Basket of Fire always produces 2 small batches of fruit over winter with no additional light, amazing variety. I pick them just before they ripen for a super clean/crisp taste. Bumper summer crops are great for pickling.
Razzmatazz is another top dwarf Annuum. Not the most prolific but miles better than most ornamentals to eat, very sweet with a nice kick.
Wish I'd grown an Apache sooner, pods are great for cooking. Just harvested 10 pods grown over winter, not bad.

I use my 13w 4000k Phillips led bulb as a starter light to get my chilli plants growing and it works fine

Here's a good read for using LEDs.

https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guides/ppfd-test-of-household-bulbs-ikea-10w-grow-bulb-t5-cfl
https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guid...and-your-plants-ppfd-photoperiod-requirements

I've got both IKEA 10W strip and 10W bulb. The strip has fantastic build quality and provides better light coverage for seeds to 3-6 young plants in 1l pots. It's amazing what you can do with 10W, I sling it over a camera tripod.
The bulb has a bright centre spot that can burn young leaves but I find it very useful for lighting the dark sides of large plants.
The tech is getting a bit old now, don't think a large company has moved to Samsung LM301H diodes for small grow lights yet?

Doing a bunch of baccatum vanities this year after blackbirds ate most of my Lemon drops last year. They left me 1... nothing like Daytraders bumper crop.

 

[Daytrader]

Had around 400+ lemon drop chillis in the end, plant got to 10 feet as well, nice citrus chilli, but not hot enough, so wont grow anytime soon, plus i have bags full in freezer and a lot dried, and i dried a lot of seeds also.

 

[#Chri5#]

Here's a good read for using LEDs.

https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guides/ppfd-test-of-household-bulbs-ikea-10w-grow-bulb-t5-cfl
https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guid...and-your-plants-ppfd-photoperiod-requirements

I've got both IKEA 10W strip and 10W bulb. The strip has fantastic build quality and provides better light coverage for seeds to 3-6 young plants in 1l pots. It's amazing what you can do with 10W, I sling it over a camera tripod.
The bulb has a bright centre spot that can burn young leaves but I find it very useful for lighting the dark sides of large plants.
The tech is getting a bit old now, don't think a large company has moved to Samsung LM301H diodes for small grow lights yet?

Doing a bunch of baccatum vanities this year after blackbirds ate most of my Lemon drops last year. They left me 1... nothing like Daytraders bumper crop.

Very interesting links, thank you. I was thinking of ordering some of the Ikea Vaxer LED strips to help get my seeds going. They are quoted as producing 100 PPFD (umol/m2/s). The second link says seedlings need 5 to 8 or 6 to 10 DLI per day. I found some hand calculators on this link, including a reverse calculator (DLI to required PPFD)

https://ledgardener.com/understanding-daily-light-integral-dli/

8 DLI requires 159 PPFD for 14 hours a day, so the Ikea units whilst cheap aren't very strong. I'm tempted by this unit:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phlizon-Th...stable-Spectrum/dp/B0752CL6KJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

Quotes 255 PPFDs which is much better.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Very interesting links, thank you. I was thinking of ordering some of the Ikea Vaxer LED strips to help get my seeds going. They are quoted as producing 100 PPFD (umol/m2/s). The second link says seedlings need 5 to 8 or 6 to 10 DLI per day. I found some hand calculators on this link, including a reverse calculator (DLI to required PPFD)

https://ledgardener.com/understanding-daily-light-integral-dli/

8 DLI requires 159 PPFD for 14 hours a day, so the Ikea units whilst cheap aren't very strong. I'm tempted by this unit:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phlizon-Th...stable-Spectrum/dp/B0752CL6KJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

Quotes 255 PPFDs which is much better.

600W vs 10W

i have 3 ikea bulbs on the go at the same time = 30W which is still 20 times less and likely cheaper to buy as well. however i just paid £23 for a lamp from b and q for one of them but it's a fully adjustable stand so i can move it higher as the plant grows.

 

[Daytrader]

Just pinched off loads of chilli buds from my two overwintered plants, way to early to be producing.

 

[Street]

I potted my Basket of Fire and Turkish Pickling chillis on over the weekend. They seem to be doing well so far, just need it to start warming up a bit.


My Ghosts have started to show their heads this week too, they're a little bit behind the others as they took longer to germinate.

 

[Rathian]

@sarge78 & @Psycho Sonny Thanks for the info on the LED technologies. I think that will really help in my decision making on what I go for.
At the moment I'm leaning towards a budget single panel LED Chinese offering on Amazon. This should give me something a bit more than the standard grow bulb / CFL setup without totally breaking the bank.
I'm not expecting wonders and am not intending on only using lights for my platns just to supplement natural daylight.

@#Chri5# If you got for that one on Amazon you were looking at then I'd be really keen to see how it works out!

@sarge78 I might have to get some over wintering tips from you, I have never managed to get a plant to last more than a season.
What approach do you take for your plants? @Daytrader I know you have had great success with over wintering too so i'd appreciate your pearls of wisdom too if you get 5

 

[Rathian]

A few pics of how I am getting on

80% germination rate


Coldframe in place awaiting better weather and adolescent plants

 

[Daytrader]

@Rathian I just cut back plant to like 8 to 10 inches, leaving 2 V stems, then pull all leaves off, trim like third of roots, and put in a smaller pot, or just keep chilli plant in the same pot if you have room, but just google over wintering chilli plants, your see articles and videos on it, thats what i done.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

@Rathian I just cut back plant to like 8 to 10 inches, leaving 2 V stems, then pull all leaves off, trim like third of roots, and put in a smaller pot, or just keep chilli plant in the same pot if you have room, but just google over wintering chilli plants, your see articles and videos on it, thats what i done.

I've overwintered three and they all seem dead.

I'm in Scotland though so temps in winter are rough here.

Showing no signs of life I was hoping for some new growth or leaves but nothing.

I cut mine back but didn't touch the roots.

 

[Daytrader]

Yeh, i only trimmed roots so they would fit in the smaller overwinter pots, no need to if there fit in pot, or your leaving them in original pot, i keep mine in kitchen, so never goes below like 20c, trouble is there growing all the time, and i dont want that until at least spring.

 

[DarrenM343]

Moved my four scotch bonnets from 9cm pots to 15cm pots today. Despite the pots looking big(vs 9cm) it didn't feel like a large enough move up as I repotted the plants into their new pots. I think it was a little premature as the root structures of even the most develop plants didn't look as crazy as some of those I see in youtube vids, even though there were a few roots coming out the holes in the bottom. I've left my 2 reepers and another one of unknown variety in their 9cm pots for now, I think they'll be good there for at least another 2-3 weeks. I will be tempted to replant these straight into 7.5litre pots rather than the intermediate 1.5 litre pots I've moved the bonnets into, when the time comes.
Was a rubbish day weather wise but I managed to get to the shed to mix up some John Innes repotting compost with some other compost and chucked in some perlite and vermiculite and then repotted. Definately prefer the John innes repotting compost over the fluffy but lumpy all purpose compost I bought from homebase and just mixed the two together about 50/50 to try to use up the all-purpose compost.

Tempted to sow a few more seeds to experiment with from packets of seeds I bought even though I have enough already and probably going to end up with more chillies than I can use.

 

[Rathian]

Feels like things are going really slowly!
Seedlings are doing ok just growing very slow. I think they are really feeling the lack of warmth and light.
No second sets of leaves yet. Had to put a bit more soil in a couple of the pots as the seedlings were getting leggy.
I'm going to start getting them under the LED in the evenings for a few hours I think to try and move them on a bit.

 

[Street]

Mine are in a similar boat, the second leaves are just starting to show on two of my varieties. The Ghosts need potting on this weekend though. It's still early days though and at least I've not had any dramas this year like cats knocking my seed trays over or me cooking my seedlings!

 

[Rathian]

@Street Haha you're right, I shouldn't complain about slow and steady!
No dramas this end either although I don't have a cat to contend with