First of all, make sure that the chile from which you take the seed is matured on the plant.....if it's not, seed may not be viable.

hi there i started an indoor garden this year and three kind of peppers baby bells started very fast about 5 days jalapanos started super slow nearly gave up finely coming in about 20 days the thia chilis only took 5 days i can start them i dont know about keeping them alive . i have an 8 foot 2 bulb flourecent light i started about 20 seeds each 18 bells came in ,4 jalapanos and 4 thia chilies seeds started in small peat pods in trays with clear covers to hold in moisture light is on 24/7 for now .water is important i use water from my fish tank great for plants or hit the nearest pet store for some drops to clear some of the not so plant friendly cemicals out eg chlorine hope this helps .

Hi Bougie, I sure hope this is of help. My experience is that true "Birds Eye" chilies are so named because they are actually eaten and passed through the digestion of small birds as part of their natural process and reproduction. They have a coating on the seeds that needs removal by a weak solution of potassium nitrate. I do this by mixing an eighth teaspoon tree stump remover (Grant's) to a quart of water (use gloves & safety glasses, very caustic stuff) and soaking the seeds for six to eight hours, then rinsing before germinating. This is not the case for serrano or the small Thai chili, but only for the true Bird's Eye if you are lucky enough to find them.

Another infrequent problem is that some growers use intentionally sterile (unfertile) seeds for their own protection. It happens. In that case, you may have to break down & buy the plants.

Good luck...hope this helps. Ours are just now starting their first batch of blooms indoors after a March start; about thirty per head, four or five heads per plant, four plants. I'm a very happy Daddy right now.

Goat

my bird's eye peppers are trying to grow. when i go fishing in the river here, i tend to find huge bushes filled with peppers. i usually pluck a few limbs and take the peppers home. the fifty or so peppers i dont use, i fold in a nakin and gently coax the skin off an extract the small seeds. dig a few trenches in a pot of dirt and spread. usuall get hundreds of seeds planted and if you're lucky a few plants. i hear bird's eyes are hard to grow, mocking birds do itthe best.

hi i have thai chili peppers in pots can i bring them indoors for the winter? if so will they grow?

Yes, they will.

Josh

thank you do i need any special lighting bob

To keep it alive...no

To produce fruit...maybe (don't know where you're at or how much light they will receive).

Most people that bring pepper plants in for the Winter are mainly interested in simply keeping them alive.

Tsheets is correct.

Josh

If you bring a plant inside for the winter you have to watch for things like aphids and spider mites. Inspect your plant, under the leaves and all on a regular basis. When you put it back out in spring, do so gradually like hardening off a seedling, not full sun the first day. Over-wintered plants sometimes have blooms and even fruit on them when you put them back out, if not they will in pretty short order.

I have two athai Chili Pepper plants, grown from seeds from Taiwan. They are looking tall and gangly and have just a few peppers. I want to bring them in during cooler temps (N. Ga.). Should I cut them back before bringing them and if so, how much? What kind of light do they prefer, as well?

don555: where did you get your Explosive Ember seeds from? they look nice, would be interested in growing some..

I have some pretty large thai chilli plants in my garden and I was wondering if it would be ok to dig them out and put them in pots inside for the winter. I was also thinking about cutting them down a bit before bringing them in but I didn't know how much damage that would do. Thanks for any help.

Wow, old thread revisited!

To answer redfire (2 yrs late): I think I got those Explosive Ember seeds from Vesey's Seeds in Prince Edward Island, Canada. But I'm only about 80% certain of that, they could also have been off a seed rack in a local store...

Gardenewb: Yes, you can bring plants indoors, but inspect them carefully for insects first, and treat them as a precaution. The few times I have brought plants from outside to inside in the Fall, I have encountered an aphid explosion within about 2 weeks.

Thanks don555. Any idea on how much I can cut them back without hurting them? They are about 4 ft high and a couple wide.

Terribly late response but gardenewb you dont have to be shy with pruning peppers; they respond very well to pruning. If you want to stimulate a strong new flush take off, say, the top 1/3rd of growth. When my peppers started out I waited till they got 2 or 3 sets of true leaves and pruned the main stem back down to the 1st set of true leaves. It made the plant branch out a lot lower down and it ended up way sturdier than normal ;)

I agree. Peppers have woody stems, more like trees and can be trimmed/pruned to shape like a shrub.

Seysonn

It's never a bad idea to answer questions 2 years late lol.... Because others will read the post and learn and it'll answer other peoples questions like mine. This is like a library, future chili growers will read this to learn how to grow hot peppers.

This is my first winter with a chili pepper plant indoors. I had my plant planted in ground outdoors and it still had a bunch of peppers and some flowers on them, so I brought them inside and they peppers seem to be ripening. Some peppers have turned from green to red indoors . I'm using an 11W LED grow light.

I also put a germinated Scotch bonnet seed and just transferred from paper towel to pot. Once it grows its first true leaves, I'll put the pot with my outdoor chili pepper and lemon trees which are all under the LED light and a medium window.

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