2018 Pepper Season Week Two Update

February 22, 2018 | Article Topics:

It’s just about two and a half weeks since I started my 2018 pepper season. The goal at the start of the year was to grow roughly 40 plants from 28 different varieties. So far I’ve got 56 baby pepper plants from 23 of those varieties. That’s a pretty good start thus far though I would love to see those other five plants start breaking through the dirt.

In preparation of that never happening, I started five new plants about a week ago — three as backups to what I had originally planted and two new varieties (Black Prince and a chocolate 7 Pot variant). The original seed starts have another week or so to show up before I replace them with transfers from other pots that are starting to get a bit crowded.

The below photos show just about all of the plants that I’ve got going so far. I have moved most of the sprouted plants into a single bin while the others are keeping the lazy seeds company.

pepper seedlings
pepper seedlings

As you can see in the photos above, I’ve got a range of plant heights. About a week after starting the season, I started to grow concerned with my lighting and opted to update it with some LEDs that I purchased online. And as a result, I’ve started to see more true leaf development on much shorter plants. This is ideally what I wanted to begin with as a stockier plant usually means a stronger and bushier one.

I’m not overly concerned about the taller one like the Sugar Rush Peach plants pictured in the following photos below. The plant will even out over time and I’ve got a fan running to put some pressure on the stems to strengthen them.

pepper seedlings
pepper seedlings

Ever since switching out the lighting, I’ve been seeing more and more plants with second leaves coming in earlier like these bhut jolokia seedlings In fact, just about every plant that has come up since the change over has done quite well with their development. I’m pleased that I had made the decision,
but wish I had done so a bit earlier.

pepper seedlings

All in all, the plants are doing quite well and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could, but I’m trying to be patient with the few that I have lagging behind. I’m sure some of them will pull through, especially the Bahamian Goats — I’m excited to get one of those going.