This is a process known to gardeners as hardening off plants. But be sure to acclimatize them to their new outdoor home first, or you’ll risk losing your plants and wasting all that hard work. Planting the seedlings you’ve raised carefully indoors is a proud moment. Home Organization News, Blog, & Articles.Energy Efficiency News, Blog, & Articles.On average, a 50-cell or 72-cell tray is a good choice for pepper seedlings that will be grown for 8–10 weeks before being transplanted. You also have to make the most of your greenhouse or other indoor protected growing space, so you don't want to grow your transplants to an unnecessarily large size. An oversized, rootbound transplant will be significantly stressed and result in a compromised crop. On the other, you don't want the plants to become rootbound, especially if poor weather delays planting. See our Guide to Choosing a Grow Light for information on light quality and choosing a unit suited to your needs.Ībout 2 weeks after germination, when the first true leaves begin to form, carefully separate the seedlings and transplant them into cell trays or pots.Ĭhoosing the correct cell size for peppers involves another balancing act: On the one hand, you want the pepper seedling's roots to fill the cell so that the root ball holds together when you transplant it outside. At many latitudes at the seedling-starting time of the year, window light is insufficient, and some grow lights are inadequate to the task as well. Once germinated, pepper seedlings need light - ample, full-spectrum wavelength light.
In such cases, early yield may be reduced but the plants will continue growing vegetatively until conditions are right to resume fruit set. When high temperatures arrive earlier than usual, for example, they can disrupt the timing and size of the harvest. Of course, weather is beyond a grower's control, and the ideal conditions may not occur in some locations and some years. The best scenario is to get peppers transplanted as soon as the weather is warm and settled, so that fruit set occurs when temperatures are between 65☏ (18☌) and 85☏ (29.4☌). At the high end of their range, very little fruit set occurs above 90☏ (32☌), especially with bell peppers. They are a warm-season fruiting crop, like tomatoes and eggplants, and will not thrive when temperatures are below 60☏ (16☌). Timing is everything with peppers because they perform best within an approximately 30-degree temperature range. Here are some tips for getting your pepper seedlings off to a healthy start. And because yield can be affected by the quality of the transplants, you will want to pay special attention to your young pepper plants' needs. Pepper seedlings are not hard to start, but they are somewhat picky.
#Hardening off seedlings images full#
To take full advantage of all the pepper possibilities, you have to grow your own transplants. You may even tap into entirely new markets by growing hot or sweet specialty peppers used in ethnic cuisines.
You can price them by the piece or sell the lunchbox types in containers or bagged. You can market them fresh, dried (bagged or in ristras), pickled, and, with the proper equipment, roasted. Peppers encompass dozens of types, in many colors, shapes, and flavors that run the gamut from sweet bells to pungent habanero.Īlong with diversity, peppers have versatility: harvest them green or let them ripen to their mature color - providing you with a longer harvest window as well as the opportunity for stunning multicolor market displays. Watering, Fertilizing, & Disease Preventionįor many growers, peppers are among the most strikingly diverse and profitable of vegetable crops.
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