Those pepper seeds from Walmart produce are most likely hybrids and likely will not grow true. I would buy some pepper seeds, or transplants. I always transplant my tomato seedlings to a larger container when they get their first true leaves.

Just a note on moving seedlings outside. Limit the exposure to partial sunlight 1 to 2 hours the first few days and gradually increase it up to 4 to 6 hours. If you place them outside in direct sunlight for the day you run the risk of damaging the seedlings. Stop by a grocery store and see if they have any boxes that you can have and place the seedlings in the box. Top sides of box should be about 4 in. above the seedlings. This will help them adjust to the wind.

George

You may just have to try different techniques for a few seasons to see which works best for you. I start from seed each year, but have never used a cold frame. I also grow mostly in containers. My seedlings go from cell packs to 8oz cups, to 16oz cups before being hardened off for a week or so, then into the ground or their final containers when the night temps stay above 50 degrees.
And, don't give up on your peppers until you see what you get. Some may grow true and some not, but you can save seed from the fruit you like best. If you're hoping for a particular variety, it is best to get the seed for that variety as mentioned. You may never get a proper ID on the ones you are growing, but if you like what you get it doesn't matter...just keep saving the seeds from the best fruit each year.
I purchased some extra large jalapenos from the local grocer last year, grew out some seed and they came true...at least they were also extra large jalapenos. If they were hybrids, they may have been stabilized. This year I will be starting some seed that I got from picking up a bag of dried peppers in the produce section of WM. The seeds fell out all over from the holes in the bag, so I pocketed a few...we'll see what grows from them. I also grew out seeds from "Ugly Ripe" toms from WM. They weren't great tasting, but all of my toms were bland from the weird weather we had, so I'll be growing the URs again to give them a second chance.
Good luck with your endeavor and let us know how your plants turn out.

@lisetn
I do have normal seeded peppers but the red/green/orange I just wanted to see if they would produce. Same with the jalapeno as its all a experiment. Cost me a total of $2.50 and a few hours of time to try this out.

@noinwi
I see well the cold frame idea was more of a leave it out in the daylight to get it more direct sun. My biggest worry is they will grow side ways and not get enough sunlight to grow strong.
So I should transfer to a larger container then say a 16oz just to give them more room? I have some great top soil (very dark). It spent years having leaves/etc compost down so I think it might be great for growing.

BTW I had a typo I currently use 8.5oz cups for my seedlings. When should I look to transplant them to a larger container? Also when is it best to start hardening them off and to plant them in the ground?

Thank you for your replies.

Nothing wrong at all with a cold frame, I've just never been able to have one(apartment dweller). I don't know much about them but I believe you do need to keep it vented so it doesn't get too hot and fry your seedlings.
Many growers don't pot up as much as I do. A lot of them plant out their toms from cell packs or the smaller cups. It depends on your zone and air/soil temps, so you don't necessarily need to use larger cups if you don't want to. I have one light set-up for starting my seeds, so quite a few get leggy reaching for the light even when I rotate plants. I'm sure it's because I start everything a bit too early. When it gets hard to keep the potting mix moist in the 8oz cups, I pot up to the 16oz cups and plant the toms deep. Not very scientific, but it's all I can do with the room and light that I have.
In this(cold)zone, I can't plant out until late May - early June, but I start hardening plants off about mid-May, using baskets and bins to put them out in the shade first then bring them in at night, giving them more sun a little at a time over a week's time, and then leaving them out overnight unless there's danger of nighttime frost.
There's a whole lotta growers on this forum that can give you more(and no doubt better)information, so keep asking questions and perusing the threads. This is just one person's method...hope it helps a little.

Hi therian,

It is a common practice to transplant tomato seedlings when they have their first true leaves (or shortly after they get them.) If you go to the top of the page, there is an excellent page on starting tomatoes from seeds that will probably answer many of the questions you have asked.

One thing you might want to do is to edit your profile show that it shows what zone you are in. That way we can taylor our answers to fit your zone, or you may have someone answer that lives in a similar zone.

For instance, I live in zone 5A and if someone from zone 11 asks a question, I will usually wait to see if they get an answer before I volunteer one since I have never grown tomatoes in a "hot" zone and my answers would be rather general and might not be very useful in that case.

I have linked an excellent article below that explains what happens to a baby mater during hardening off.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardening Off and Physiological Changes

I see thank you for the link and the guide I actually did read myself. It is how I found the forum actually but I wanted to make sure as Id love for this to succeed for future years.
I believe I am zone 6. I live in Springfield Missouri , so unless I didn't read the map right here - http://www.springvalleyroses.com/learn/zonemap.html I should be 6 as Springfield is southern Missouri.

I forgot to mention on the FAQ I saw this "You can plant lots of seeds close together because the resulting seedlings will be moved to larger containers after germination (when the first true leaves appear)."

Well currently all my plants have those leaves popping out. Some are as large as a quarter of a inch. Would now be a proper time to transplant or do I wait for the full leave to mature?

Here are my Everglades. I started them in mass and transplanted them as soon as possible. They seem to have survived nicely.

Therian,

If your tomatoes have their true leaves, you can certainly transplant them.

As you can see (if you look closely) Garf's Everglades were just starting to break some true leaves and he has already transplanted them. Personally, I would have waited until the true leaves were as large or larger than the cotyledon leaves, but Garf does a lot of experimenting and has plenty of seedlings, so he probably isn't too concerned about lower survival rates.

When I plant tomato seeds, I will usually plant 3-5 seeds expecting to get 2-3 viable plants by 6-8 weeks, which is the time they will be transplanted into the garden. So to give them a better chance of survival, I wait until the first set of true leaves have some substaintial growth on them so that the baby maters have more to draw on than just the energy stored or manufactured in the cotyledon leaves.

Betsy

I see thank you very much. I actually transplanted one yesterday (a weaker candidate) and it looked bad for a few hours but this morning its straight and looks good. I am using a compost soil I imagine...got it out back under some brush that spent years breaking down into the dirt. Dark color and I am hoping will work great.

My last question is I have sun issues and I notice the more cloudy days I get the more leggy the plants want to become. I decided to buy some cheap lights and was curious what type of bulb / wattage would I need?
I was looking at these.
http://springfield.craigslist.org/hsh/2238092953.html
Not a bad deal and if all goes well this year I will invest more next year into the plants. (growing room / heat lamps etc)

Blast....is there a edit function? I can't see to find it. Anyways my old man actually found some cheap lights today as some weed dealers got evicted/arrested from his complex today and they left some light fixtures.

Sadly no lights as they weren't growing (imagine $1000 bulbs :P ) but he bought some Sunshine 40 bulbs. Specs are
Light Output 2250
Energy Used 40watts
Color Temp 5000k
Cri 90
Would these work and what is the spacing on them? I read some say "1-2 inches from plant" while others suggest 8-12 inches. I am worried about burning/drying the plants too much so thought id ask.

I think he is getting pumped up as well.

therian,

2-3" is for the flourescents. If the bulbs are hotter, you will want to have the plants further away so you don't wind up with crispy critters. The lights will help prevent the legginess, itis a sign of them reaching for more light. Also if you can, it's a good idea to have a fan blow on them for a while each day because that will help strengthen the stems too.

I have a timer on my fans for my plants, and it runs for 30 minutes every two hours or so.

Betsy

Thank you bets...sadly no timer yet but I do have a fan constantly run over my plants as it is. (about 4 feet enough to wiggle their leaves) I also transplanted all my tomatoes to 16oz cups with a better dirt today as well. I buried them up to their leaves (about quarter inch of stem out).

Could you be so kind as to explain the difference between florescent and Sunshine 40 Bulbs? I think its your "basic" fluorescent but want to make sure. My worry is I get to close and burn the plants and kill them. ATM I have it at 10 inches from my plants.
Link
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=147989-371-12224&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=1136643&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1
I currently only use 1 bulb as it seems to cover the plants without issue. I have another bulb if needed but don't want to waste power if its not needed.

Mind you I have not used these lights yet...tomorrow will be my first day of using them. I put them in my closet as I can keep it @ perfect temps and its safe for them. (Papillion/Maltese would eat the plants)

The only thing I know about the bulb you posted a link to is that it is supposed to be balanced more to the daylight spectrum. I also think it is more expensive than the other bulbs. Over the years I have used daylight balanced bulb and the cheaper flourescent ones and saw no difference at 6-10 weeks between the plants raised under them. So now I save the money for seeds or other supplies and buy the cheapest ones I can find.

BTW, until you plant your tomatoes in the garden, it is best to use a soiless growing medium. It drains better than dirt, is free from pathogens that could kill your baby maters (such as damping off disease). I know what you are thinking, "But when I put them in the garden, they will be in dirt...."

Well, yes. But they will have the whole earth under them to buffer the water supply, and the plants will be able to better withstand those pathogens when they get older.

Good luck with your mater babies!

Betsy

Have never planted much but I LOVE gardening so I figured I'd be over zealous this year and started some veggie seeds inside. I live in zone 5b (southern WI) and have some concerns I was hoping to get feedback on.

I just planted my red cherry tomatoes on the 17th. The seed packet says they should sprout in 7-15 days... well it's 5 days later and they have all come up. They look skinny and the stems are long.. like almost 3 inches with the cotyledons at the top. This doesn't look like any of the pictures I've seen so I think I've done something wrong :(
I used a seed starter mix soil blend and they are in containers with a plastic dome on top. At the plant store they told me that tomatoes like "warm" and to use a heating pad... so I did. I bought a "germinating heating pad." Since I've never done this before, I asked a ton of questions and was advised to not water them with tons of water but to spritz them with water- which I do once a day. I'm not sure if what is happening is okay, or if something is going terribly wrong.

Am I over-watering them?
Are they not getting enough light? (they're in a window)
Is the heating pad causing this?
Should I take the plastic domes off?
Do I need to start over?

HELP!!! I am determined and motivated to make this work :)

Kutala3 You dont need the heating pad or the dome cover after they sprout.after they get real leaves you can trantplant them into taller containers and plant them deeper ,If you look around on this site by doing a search you will find more than suffecient info

Definitely use a soiless mix...

Welcome to our world!!!

@Betsy
I will try that next year. Sadly I didn't have the stuff to make it this year and paying premium for some soil was my draw line.

However so far I have had wonderful luck with normal compost soil. Only 4 seeds failed to germinate and so far all plants are doing great with water every 2-4 days. Will see if they survive the next few weeks but so far it looks good.

Thank you for all the help I appreciate it :)

@ Therian,

You are welcome. I understand about paying a premium. More than 50 years ago, my mom used to bake garden soil to sterilize it and grow her tomato and pepper transplants. I'm sure she had to be very diligent about the watering and compaction. I do remember that she sometimes had to replant, but I was a kid and don't remember why... I do know that I have had plants given to me that were in dirt, and they didn't do well until I transplanted them into soilless growing medium.

@Kutala3,

Get them off the heat and out of the dome, and when they get true leaves, transplant them deeper as dickiefickle says. If you can put a fan on them for an hour or so a couple of times a day, that will help because it will make the stem thicken (grow slower and stronger).

Most windows do not allow enough light on seedlings, but being in a window is better than being across the room from the window. Many of us use flourescent lights to grow our seedlings and keep them 1-3" from the top leaves.

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: How do I start tomatoes from seed?