Already? Looking good so far.

Its too early for me. I probably wont start until early February. I think Im going to grow hybrids this year and whatever survives the winter in the greenhouse.

Just the super hots. I wanted to give them a head start.

Wow that's an early start even with them being superhots. I did a few years ago, start in December and I just did not have the space or lighting to support the size of the pepper plants by the time they could go out. Keep us posted I like seeing seedlings and young plants kicking off the new growing season.

I'm going to start in later January but the seed ordering/planning has begun! My yearly ritual is to first conduct an inventory of all my seed varieties (data recorded on a spreadsheet with multiple tabs for different varieties) and then order away!

I wait until February. Usually the middle of Feb. Otherwise, I wind up with plants too big to deal with under lights. That gives me about 3 months of time indoors. Maybe a little more.

Usually I can start setting them out on the porch in March. I can plant frost tolerant garden plants in March for sure and usually by April the frost has past. Middle of April is when I can set the peppers out in the garden. The annuums I won't start until late January.

What'd ya plant? Nice start, looks like it is going well so far

Grow a few for me please!

I'm tempted to get started with my seeds. I have several two year old overwintered plants that I moved in and out in February last year, and some seeds saved from each. But I know by February I will regret having to care for both, while still having to consider buying plants.

I MUST have some "seasoning" peppers, and so far that is not a plant I can buy around here.

Ha I just wrote something about seasoning peppers too in the other thread about off types. They are addictive!

We built a little hobby greenhouse last spring to provide a transitional growing zone between my grow room and outside. With a little space heater for really cold nights it worked great!

If anyone is interested in the plans I could upload them- we have a simple homestead project book we got the plans from. It was a weekend project for 2 people with very poor building skills and it turned out perfectly for about $300 or so in materials.

I have reaper, chocolate ghost, regular ghost and caramel ghost going at the moment. 16 plants so far. I don't know how many will make the cut though. One or two of them looked a little funky when I transplanted them. The seed leaves grew together to form one large one and when the true leaves came out it made the plant look a little odd. Time will tell though.

Nice I started on Thanksgiving day and on Christmas day I transplanted and planted more. And planted even more on Jan 1st. Happy new year to my 150 super hots;) More lights and shelves soon.

12 days growth.

Very nice! I will be starting mine soon as well

7 more days growth.

Looking good. Those foil pans are a really good idea. Do you bottom water with those? If so, do you have issues with leftover water? I usually double cup and bottom water them one at a time. Mass watering with the pan would be good when the plant numbers get into the 100's.

Yes I bottom water with the pans. But I use a separate pan for that and I transfer the cups from pan to pan. No issues with leftover water that way (plus it gives me a chance to inspect each plant).

About a month under lights.

Nice and big already. Getting ready to start mine as well.

very good looking one month old plants

I think I'm going to have to start my annuums soon. Otherwise they will end up really leggy trying to reach the lights.

Here I go! First round of long seasons....

That's the "baggie method", right? Assuming they sprout at different rates, how do you pot up?

Once they start to sprout I place them each into 4 inch pots with sterile starter. I pretty much get 100% success from sprout to seedling this way, with newer seeds anyway.

I only do my longest season peppers this way, the rest I just plant directly into sterile starter trays and see who takes off.

I like this method for the long season ones so I can see how things are progressing. I've been burned before with dud seeds planted in starter, I waited too long for seeds that never came up and then I missed my window for the entire season.

Also the seeds sprout at different times which is great for having seedling backups. One year aphids got my seedlings but luckily I had backups ready to go in baggies. Saved me weeks.

I really like the baggie method myself. I can see when they sprout and can remove the sprouted ones with a pair of tweezers (this is to prevent the tap root from going through the paper towel and getting stuck often resulting in a broken tap root). Plus seem to get better results this way, often 100% germination rates in WAY less time.

I have experimented with the baggie method a couple of times and have less than acceptable results so I just go with direct seeding. It also requires one less step in the germination process which I like. I plant in 3.5" containers and plant 4 or 5 seeds in each container. Then as they sprout and grow, I trim them down in steps over a month or so until only one is left in each container. I never have containers that don't produce at least one or two sprouts and usually all 4 or 5 sprout giving me plenty of choices to cull out the weaker plants.