Yah, kind of strange time to be starting seeds in the northern hemisphere. Depending on your location, it might get a little rough in January February. Keep us posted with updates.

I do have a couple shop lights that I have on the ready for when the volume of plants increases. I am currently in the process of building shelves and grow boxes to accommodate the number of plants that I am starting, and keeping, indoors. Of the seeds that germinate, I plan on keeping half inside and the others will be hardened off and put in containers outside.

And my hardiness zone is 10b (Northern Orange County, CA) so I believe my growing season is pretty long. BUT, being so new to all of this, I just may have let my excitement get the better of me and made a poor decision in sowing these seeds this late. The plants I keep indoors will be fine, but if problems arise with the outdoor plants, I will do whatever is necessary to maintain the health of the plants. I will absolutely keep updating (I get too excited to not share and my wife is already sick of hearing about the plants hahaha!) .

Thanks guys!

-Randy

Yah, you have great growing condition there. However, as I always do, you will find that your space calculations for the plants under lights is going to be significantly bigger than you expect right now. But the time you will need them to be indoors under lights, they are going to be nearly full size plants if they grow normally. IMO, that is just not a good situation for the casual grower. You need several 4" shop lights just for the 5 seedlings you have now. You will need a 10x10 room for all the other seedlings you have in the starter tray now....that would be many banks of shop lights.

I am thinking in zone ten, you can probably just leave them outside all year long. If you don't get temps below 40 at night, I wouldn't even consider bringing them in.

That's a very good point! I do have the room currently outside to house all of the plants. Maybe it will be best to keep them all outside. I was mainly going to house some indoors as an experiment to see which conditions suited best for the plants in my area. Since I have yet to experience a winter, I was going to use this first year to experiment and record data for the years to come.

I know that I am taking on a tall task by starting my first year with this many plants. However, that's the kind of person I am. I tend to shoot for the stars in just about everything I do. Completely obsessive! And with the great advice and guidance I receive from this forum, I know that it'll all be ok!

Also, I'm finding that my annoying enthusiasm for this has been somewhat contagious. I have neighbors, family, friends, etc. that are all now starting to have a peaking interest in the pepper growing process. Many of which have asked for plants of their own, and as my current setup was made possible by the kindness of a fellow grower, I am just as excited to pay it forward and get others started with a plant or two from the crop as well ;)

Thanks again Esox, this is the kind of guidance I need!

-Randy

Sounds like you will have some extra plants to share with the neighbors and friends. hahaha

Anyway, I am sure you would find that trying to grow that many plants indoors is only realistic in a true indoor growing setup and would wind up being less hobby than a chore. You will be fine keeping them indoors for the next month or two however. Just introduce them to the outdoors with wind and sun slowly. Otherwise, you will sunburn them and the wind will decimate them. They won't be used to it. The slow introduction to the outdoors is called "hardening off".

Good luck with your grow and keep posting photos.

Here's a little update on the lil critters I already had sprouted, PLUS the first of the seeds to germinate, my first reaper. I have since my original post, more than doubled the amount of light I'm using on these young'ns - using 4, 6500K CFL's and 1 multi-spectrum LED (Red / Blue) on the far left plant, as an experiment. I potted up the plants from solo cups to #1 pots and they are loving the added space. I was getting worried about the Peter (Bottom Right) but he's taking off splendidly since my original post.

Anyhoo, I don't wanna take up much of anyone's time, just figured I'd throw a little update out there. Thanks for listening!

-Randy

Very nice looking little plants. Those pots should be good for a while.

With the growing zone you are in, you could have the pots outside in the real sunlight. No need for artificial lights. Is there are a reason you want to keep them indoors?

Thank you! I actually was going to start hardening them off in the next few days. I just wanted to make sure they didn't experience any shock from potting up. Especially since I changed potting mixes. But, so far, so good (knock on wood). If all stays as is and they look good, I'll start hardening them off VERY soon.

Wow your plants are looking very good! Looks like your lighting ststem is sufficient and the new soil is good for the plants. Once they hit the warm outdoors and get hardened off I bet they will take off in the sun. For your first time growing, your plants are doing amazingly well.

I've found that transplant shock really isn't that much of a problem unless you have two possible things happen: They were extremely root bound in the solo cups, or you disturbed the root ball. I'd say start hardening them off.

They'll love the sun and extra room you gave them. With hardening off, its not really about how long they're out. It's more that you have to be weary about how much direct strong sun they get, and how strong the wind is. Seeing that your seedlings aren't leggy, I'd say wind won't be your enemy. Although, the sun will. The first few years I grew plants from seed, I lost a good amount of seedlings to overwatering and sunburn. Good luck!

That's solid advice, thanks Tom! I actually started hardening them off this weekend. The first day they were in a shady spot with gentle breeze for 30 mins. All went well. Then yesterday I had them in the same spot, although the sun moved on me and the shade was gone. Something told me to go outside and check on them, and I'm glad I did. 30 mins in direct sun and they wilted something fierce. After my mini panic attack I brought them inside immediately, gave em a drink, and within an hour they were perky and full like nothing had happened. I'm going to purchase a shade cloth today so I can avoid this from happening again.

I'm sorry to post again so soon in here but I am excited and had to tell someone hahaha. This picture is a side by side of the pic I took for the last post, which was 7 days ago, and a pic I just took right now.

Today marks day 4 of the hardening off process for these lil buggers. Do you think that it is that little bit of natural sunlight each day that has sparked this growth spurt? Or is that just normal growth development at this stage in their lives?

With the weekend coming up, I'll be able to get them out for longer stretches, in more intense parts of the day and monitor them. But they seem to be pretty darn close to making their permanent homes outside.

Also, a question, is there still a need for the artificial light at this point or should I let them rest at this stage in the hardening off process?

Anyhoo, thanks for listening!

Yes, I think the exposure to true sunlight is helping them along. Real sun is almost always preferred to artificial. Even if they are doing well with a few hours of sunlight per day, they still need more than that. I would continue with the artificial until you get them outside permanently.

Awesome. Thank you Sir! that's exactly the info I needed.

Your plants are doing excellently well! Great job and nice to see that you are hardening them off properly and not sunburned the leaves. I agree natural sunlight is preferred to artificial, I only use artificial to start my seeds in February so my super hots have a chance to produce pods. I get them outsid as soon as weather permits.

Thanks Mark! I appreciate the kind words and all the advice. As of now, these plants have been outside for 48 hours straight with no problems. I have strategically placed them (for now) in an area that gets afternoon shade a bit earlier than my other outdoor plants. Things are going well and I'll have more pics to come!

- Randy

Time for another update! The 3 Scorpions and the Peter have now been fully hardened off. They have VERY rapidly shot up and are ready to be potted up to their final home in 5 gallon buckets. The 4th scorpion, the runt of the litter, I decided to throw into the same 27 gallon tote as my habs as a final shot at some growth. It seems to be enjoying it and actually grew a tad as well.

My Bhuts just keep coming and coming. I have about 16 pods currently on the plant as we speak.

My habanero plant is by far my best producer at the moment, currently holding upwards of 40 pods on the plant. It's hard to tell from the bad picture, but they're there.

And my newest addition to the "family," for my reaper seedling, I decided to take a shot at hydroponics. For no other reason than an opportunity to learn and explore something new. I have him in a simple, single site, 5 gallon DWC system. More updates to come on that road as well.

I apologize for another novel of an update, and thanks for listening!

-Randy