Can you post pics so we can make recommendations? I start my hot peppers early too and the hotter the pepper the sooner I start them. Some of my pepper plants have flower buds going also, those usually fall after flowering indoors, which is fine. I have decent sized tomato plants maybe 6" to a foot tall, those I started later than my peppers. Do you use any kind of lighting? What zone are you in?

Have not a clue about where you are. If protected from frost, those plants can pretty much go out immediately. They won't grow much until it gets warm, but they'll be OK. Very surprised that small peppers are starting to flower. They're usually smart enough to wait until the plant is mature and conditions are right. No sense in repotting for just a couple of weeks. But, what size pot are they in now? How big are they now? Some specific info would help a lot.

Please let us know your location. It should be part of your user name and every post. Otherwise it is all just guess work on our part.

Based on your info, flowering peppers are not an issue but with more than a month to go, plus they will have to be hardened off first so that adds more time, they likely will need to go into 6" pots. Assuming they are good and stocky and not leggy, just transplant them at the same level into the bigger pots filled with fresh mix and make sure they get sufficient light. If they are stretched and leggy then you can bury part of the weak stem.

But it would really help to see a pic of them.

Dave

Whoops! What can I say, I meant to attach a photo and more details this morning but it was early - I guess my brain wasn't up yet.

Photo of one of the tomatoes is attached. They're all generally about this high - about 10". As mentioned in my original post (so my brain was mildly functioning, I guess) those pots are about 3". I feel like they're a bit leggy but hopefully not. But they've definitely been getting plenty of light - 16 hours a day. Though this week I did move them to a south-facing window.

Thanks to Dave's helpful comment, I'm less concerned about the peppers now.

I'm in zone 5a.

Thanks again.

Yeah sorry but those are definitely leggy plants and haven't gotten nearly enough light. Hopefully the pepper plants aren't that tall.

The only thing you can do with leggy plants is to keep transplanting then deeper and deeper and burying at least 1/2 that stem. And then you'll have to trench-plant them into the garden. It's going to be difficult to find something deep enough to move those into. Maybe 1 liter pop bottles with just the tops cut off or something

Personally with 3 weeks to a month to go if they were mine I'd cut 6" cuttings off the top and root those cuttings to use for my plants for the garden. But the choice is yours.

Plenty of info on the Tomatoes forum about how to root cuttings. Make a note for next year not to start your tomato plants until 6-7 weeks before plant out time.

Dave

Och. Yes, those are leggy and also rootbound. I would just plant them outside, deep, and protect from frost, asap. That's a lot easier than repotting.

Hi there,

I wrote on this topic a week or two ago, and couldn't post photos. A follow-up question, if I may.

I hardened off my tomatoes on the porch all last week. By the time I wanted to move them into the yard, for sun, it was raining.

The coming week calls for a full week of overcast skies and rain, so they still won't get sun. But they need to get into the ground.

I can't transplant them this week, in these overcast conditions, correct? They still need sun exposure?

I think it is a mistaken belief that plants hardened off in shady conditions don't get sufficient sun exposure. It's like saying you can't get a sunburn on a cloudy day when we all know some of the worst sunburns happen on cloudy and overcast days.

And transplanting on cloudy overcast days is considered by many to be the ideal conditions. Don't necessarily want to do it in the rain. Not only do you get all wet but hard rains can do more damage to young plants than sunburn or wind. But cloudy overcast isn't any threat to them.

Dave

Thanks, Dave. For future reference, how much more than 16 hours of light should I be giving my plants? Until just this week, that's what they were getting. The lights were as close to the plants as I could safely put them.

I actually prefer to plant on a foggy or cloudy day. Or if I plant on a sunny day, I usually shade my plants for a couple of days. Nancy

I agree that overcast conditions are the better times to either start gardening off plants or transplanting but dispute what Dave said there are conditions when plants need to be rehardened after a prolonged period of overcast weather or they can be severely sunburned once exposed to strong sun. The new growth can be more tender on younger plants so one can't assume that since they made it through a week of gardening off that they will be fine afterward.

Wissaboo, you have a few chalenges with your tomatoes but by potting into bigger pots and moving them out for days to get sun you should be fine. You'll need a good support stake very soon. For your pepper plants you could also pot-up but I would just get them under shoplights foe the next few weeks. They can not only set fruit inside but peppers relesh the low-70s F day and night. I've had hundreds of ornamental peppers load up with colored peppers right in my living room under shoplights. Hundreds more of sweet and hot peppers were blooming when I Planted them in a high tunnel a few weeks ago and peppers are now forming in those.

The tomatoes don't look that bad to me at all. They are a bit leggy but otherwise they look healthy, have a decent sized stem, and they should transplant fine... if it was time to transplant that is. When exactly is your last frost date? What does your forecast look like? Why do you have to wait? Tomatoes are pretty forgiving and resilient.

Those pots on the other hand are way too small and one way or another you should transplant ASAP.

You could try "topping" the peppers, but they still should be potted up into big pots. Plenty of videos on YouTube. You could try doing this with the tomatoes too, they will make large "sucker" branches to replace the main stem. You won't even know the difference, at least IME (I had a groundhog top a couple plants for me last year

)... at least for indeterminates.

"Thanks, Dave. For future reference, how much more than 16 hours of light
should I be giving my plants? Until just this week, that's what they
were getting. The lights were as close to the plants as I could safely
put them."

It isn't more hours wissaboo but more intensity, more lumens of light, and as close as possible. For those that use fluorescent shop fixtures that means no more than 1 to 1.5" above the top of the plant. . Don't know what type of lights/bulbs you were using but the needed intensity wasn't there.

"there are conditions when plants need to be rehardened after a prolonged
period of overcast weather or they can be severely sunburned once
exposed to strong sun."

I agree completely but we were talking about hardening them off in shade, not overcast. Cloudy overcast conditions block a different light spectrum than just shade on a sunny day will. But yes, once planted in the garden under heavy overcast conditions sudden exposure to full sun days later can do some damage. It is one of those things you have to choose between - risking some minor sun burn vs, delaying planting even longer. Or you plant them and rig some temporary shading of some sort.

Dave

I should have added that I have about 200 tomato plants right now that are at least as tall as yours that I plan to sell over the next few weeks, starting Tues. A 15" plants sells better than a 5" plant any day. I insert thin bamboo rods into pots and clip stems to rods for support. I may not sell all that I have and then I'll resort to propagation as Dave mentioned but I would advise against topping tomato plants. Once I cut tip off to propagate the remaining plant is trashed. But also propagation causes a 4 week delay which will put you behind schedule. Just ride the weather, strive to get plants in ground slightly early with protection and you could be in great shape.

"It isn't more hours wissaboo but more intensity, more lumens of light,
and as close as possible. For those that use fluorescent shop fixtures
that means no more than 1 to 1.5" above the top of the plant. . Don't
know what type of lights/bulbs you were using but the needed intensity
wasn't there."

Really? Because I've always used Sunblaster brand T5 full-spectrum lights. And as you recommend, the lights were never more than 1.5" above the top of the plants.

How old are the lights? The bulbs lose their intensity. I'm seeing a big difference just from year 1 to year 2 for mine. But they were on last summer and since January. I need to replace the bulb for next year.

Another option would be growing in containers, you can bring them indoors at night as needed.

Really? Because I've always used Sunblaster brand T5 full-spectrum
lights. And as you recommend, the lights were never more than 1.5" above
the top of the plants.

And they still ended up that tall and leggy? Then something else is wrong. All I can guess is either old bulbs as Peter suggested or overly warm growing environment or maybe over-fertilization or maybe plants were kept out at the ends of the bulbs where the light is much weaker, or etc. but that appearance isn't normal.

Dave

I'll take them off your hands, ; )

Maybe you could start my peppers next year for me. haha, mine are runts.

All said, i agree they should go in bigger pots or out in the garden planted deep or trenched. Next time if they get away from you, pot up.

I don't like planting out with a full week of heavy rain ahead in the forecast, but if it is on and off showers and cloudy i prefer that over hot, dry and sunny.

Tomatoes in th pictur look fine. If you have a 6 inch pot to put um in that would be ideal to repot and bury about 4 inches of that stem. I had that happen once and I bought kids sand buckets from dollar tree and drilled 4 holes in the bottoms to keep the tomatoes healthy.

Excellent