The 2015 Chilli Thread

Loli , I have always soaked my chilli seed for 24 hours in luke warm cold weak tea . I have always done it this way as this was the advice I got from a Chilli forum . I sow the seeds on the surface of seed compost and lightly cover with vermiculite . Lots of sites say plant 5mm , 1/4" deep , I have never tried that . Also they reckon its best to get the temp over 25°c , so into the airing cupboard they go . I seem to get good germination on the types I sow

 

Sowed my 'Joes Long' today in the propagator, my first seed sowing of any kind this year. The season is underway!

 

Just checked mine , one sowing has about 50% germination . The second Tokyo Hot just one showing today . Sowed them last Sunday , I'll move them into the light box first half of this week

 

I'm going to have a go at some chillies this year I'm going for
Smoking eds Carolina reaper
Yellow seven pot and chocolate douglah. Also got a habanero plant I've over wintered on my kitchen windowcill that is still flowering and fruiting

 

Ive just replaced a failed LED in my home made grow light & thought I should share a piccie of the chillies which are sitting under it

In no particular order,
Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia)
Yellow Habanero
White Habanero
Texas Cayenne
Monster Jalapeno
Lemon drop
Peperocini

I started those at the end of December - Im getting about 75% germination & theres still the odd one coming thru

Peperocini & the yellow hab are particularly vigorous ; Ive lots of seed left for those if anyone wants some - peperocini is the sweet kebab-shop chilli I think, its new to me this year.

 

I inadvertently let some of my peppers dry out, so have probably been unconsciously overwatering them for a few days, but now they seem to have developed edema. A bit of a shame as quite a few already have their first flower buds.

 

Can they not be saved?

 

I hope so as they're only small and new growth hopefully new growth will soon dwarf the affected leaves. I'll put them into larger pots, reduce the watering, be careful to keep them out of propagators set to higher temperatures for germinating seeds and hopefully that will reduce the rate of transpiration that caused the problem. Burying them in the deepest pots of the next size up will help lose some damaged leaves.

 

So the causes of Edema , are erratic watering and over watering ? Will they not just grow out of this as you get their watering regime back on track ?

 

Excessive transpiration, more than the leaves can cope with, so they've been damaged and I'm hoping for new growth ASAP before I lose the damaged ones. Hopefully my plan of having some mini peppers and mini chillies (plus mini tomatoes) all with fruits on for my daughter to take back to Uni after Easter hols is still on track.

 

Everything so far (germinating seeds went back in a propagator after that photo opportunity):

 

A bit of a disaster for me. I checked the propagator and it seems to have tripped out. Hadn't checked for a couple of days Lowest recorded temp was 4c. It's working again now, fingers crossed I guess.

 

Hi I have sown brazilian starfish chillies this year and they have not germinated yet. I look forward to them growing.
Any tips or advice would be appreciated

 

They still ain't up (sown on the 8th)