I have over 150 seedlings right now they are all roughly 3 weeks old. I also have a number of plants I will eventually transplant into 6" pots with blossums on them. I believe as long as you have lighting ( I go 14 hours a day) you should be ok to start anytime. I am in zone 5 I start hardening off in a 3 season room in late April. Outside temps usually 40-50, inside temps about 10 degrees warmer.

I start my C.chinese about 12 weeks and everyone else about 8 weeks before I plan to plant out.

Keep a fan blowing on them for several hours a day (I usually just turn the fan off and on with the lights) to help simulate wind. This will help beef up their stems.

I started in Feb last year and this year started in Jan. I have only 50 seedlings under lights at the moment. How are you hardening off your plants? I put mine first in partial shade/morning sun then work them to full morning sun. The only time I had issues was in my first year growing, tried to harden them off in afternoon sun and that burned the leaves and caused them to drop. I am in Zone 7.

here is a pic of a few of them

I would guess your problem was trying to harden them off too fast. If they are started under lights, you should never put them out in direct sun to start. Start with shade and indirect sun for just 1/2 hour to an hour per day. Bump that up a little each time. Then start letting them have a little direct sun each time and increase that a little also. Wind is also an issue. Like tsheets mentioned, running a fan on them while under lights indoors does two things. First as Tsheets mentioned, it simulates wind and helps to strengthen their trunk/stem. Also, it keeps air circulating and helps to prevent a number of problems such as mold, fungus and some insects. And like tsheets said, I have my lights on a timer and just hook the fan into the timer so they go on and off together. Simple. But the key is, EASE them into the harsh outdoor environment. I might also suggest you losely stake the plants when you start taking them outside. Last year, I had a couple get knocked over in the wind. A 10 mph wind is a hurricane to house peppers. After that, I staked the ones that toppled and they wound up coming back fine but it could have been worse. The transition to outside seems to be a very rough time for peppers if not done correctly.
Bruce

Yeah, you really gotta go slow on hardening off your plants, slower than you think you need to.

I have a carport that stays in full shade 24/7, I usually start putting my seedlings out under that during the day when its 70+ outside, bringing them in at night the first week. Then after that first week I start leaving them out all night (assuming temperatures stay high enough, naturally), do that for another week, then move them to my front porch where they get direct morning sun but afternoon shade for about a week, then they're usually ready to go.

Thanks for all the great advice! I did have a fan on last year, but I think I was too eager when hardening them off. Also, I think I waited to long to re-pot them from the small 6 packs, to a 4" pot. I thought I should wait until I had 2 sets of true leaves, like tomatoes, but that took a long time. When I did repot them, they grew much faster, but it was probably too late. How long do you wait until you repot them? And how many times do you repot them?

Personally, I go from starter cups to 4" to their final home (whether that's a larger pot outside or in the ground).

I don't have a specific trigger for moving from the starter cups to the 4" pots. Just when I have time and it feels right.

I start mine in March.
And I begin lightly fertilizing as soon as they have a pair of true leaves.
I re-pot when the seedlings have between 3 and 5 sets of true leaves. I bump them from
2-inch pots to 4-inch pots, and then to their final homes (in-ground or 5-gallon pots).

As the others have said, go slow on hardening them off. Even in shade, wind can be detrimental.
If you have a cardboard box, set your seedlings inside to protect them from the wind but still
allow ambient light.

Josh

Last week.

Yeah, its early, but I was bored and I have grow lights. =)

Starting right now in fact. I was interrupted by my parents with a computer question so that is why I am on the computer right now. But going right back up to finish seeding my starters.
Bruce

I started some on Jan 15th... This was my first year to start seeds indoors.

this past winter has been VERY mild here in central Texas. I think the temperature only dropped under freezing twice.

Our current temps have been a low of 40 and high of 70. I am sooo tempted to declare, "spring is here", and start planting outdoors.

In this picture are 12 pellets with ghost peppers and another 12 with various tomatoes.

Scotty66: Are those from the Bhuts seeds that I sent you? How about a close up so I can see how my kids are doing? I like the saw horse in the living room idea. Practical but not real elegant. Also a trap thrower in the corner kind of completes the decor. I am guessing you dont have a female to do your interior decorating? Hahahaha.
Bruce

Heh, I take the opposite approach to my lights. I put them under shelves and then raise the trays up on books/cds/whatever is handy. As the plants grow, I just switch out for smaller books/less CDs/etc. Much easier than trying to adjust an entire light fixture.

I am getting so tempted. Sap is running, 50+ degrees today but I think I'm going to try to hold out another week. We could plant out Mother's Day - mid May but 2 years ago we had a freeze Mother's Day (after temps near 90 in April) so best not to tempt fate. Traditional planting date is Memorial Day for tender annuals, I'll start hardening off early May.

Where can you get the plastic flats? I looked in 2 different stores today, all I found were prefilled flats (I like to use my own starter) and the cardboard ones. I got 100 cardboard cells but I am a bit leery of them since I used some 4" pots made of the same stuff last year and they didn't seem to break down that well in the ground, even after I tore the bottoms off they seemed to constrict growth and I ended up losing some banana peppers. Also afraid they'll fall apart as often as I mist my seedlings.

I usually pick up a few seedlings for various things (basil, oregano, things that didn't germinate, etc..) at the local greenhouses / box stores and usually just grab the trays (and even ask around for empty little pots) then.

Thanks for all the great advice. I'm going to use the cardboard box suggestion from Greenman to protect from wind this year.

I get my flats and cells from my local nursery, I think most larger ones stock them. I use 2 trays, 1 tray with holes inside tray without holes so I can bottom water without taking all the cells out to drain, just lift the whole tray with holes out with cells in it.

Yeah, Scott66 that's some nice interior decorating :) Sorry, couldn't resist.

your babies are in there Bruce!

The house my wife and I are renting has a living room and a media room. we don't have the furniture (or need) for 2 living areas so we use the media room as storage.

My wife isn't thrilled about me putting that little setup in there. she thinks I'll get soil and mud everywhere (she's probably right).

a closeup of the bhut's I got from esox07! This picture is about 3 days old, today there were 8 sprouts and I can see more pushing up through the soil. I'm chomping at the bit to move these into pots, but I'll wait for the first true leaves.

Bruce (esox07),
I also have some of your "kids". I hope I'm not hijacking another thread here.
I started a few of your seeds in Jiffy Mix starter and all sprouted within 8-9 days. True leaves were showing in another week. Thank you again.

Nice guys. I am very happy to know the seeds are working out for you both and I really hope they produce like their father did. You guys should wind up with multiple crops off those plants with the early start and the long growing seasons you guys enjoy. Keep up the good work.
Bruce

I can't wait till my peppers pop up! Those are nice pics. If anybody has a picture of a pepper that is ready to be transplanted, that would really help me :)

michelelc:
This is a photo just after I transplanted from the starter to 3" pots. It was my first year growing so I was kind of winging it and looking back, I think maybe I would have waited a couple more days on some of them before transplanting. But the transplant went very well never the less. I don't think I lost any in the move. I would say that you should probably transplant them after they get their second set of leaves (their first set of true leaves) which most of mine had when I did the transplant.

{{gwi:1142608}}
Bruce

ajsmama:
Go to your local nursery and just flat out ask for some. Last when I went to the biggest nursery in town looking for a specific breed of grape vine they had just gotten in a shipment of flowers that came in awesome plastic trays. They were empty and stacked up on the side, so I just flat out asked "Do you have any of these I could buy?" "No, we don't really carry anything like that for sale..." "What about these empties? Do you need them, or could I just grab a couple of those?" "Let me ask my manager..." "Nah, we just send those back normally, let him have the whole pile if he'll take 'em away."

I thanked them and ran back to the car with a dozen trays with like 30-40 4" cells each before they could change their minds.

Edyminion: awesome. Good for you, good for the environment too. I am going to keep my eyes open this spring. I imagine those things only cost a penny to produce and that is why they are considered disposable by the garden centers. I doubt that most of them ever reuse them. Probably a good source for the bigger 1 gallon and bigger pots too. Just have to find the place that doesn't feel like they are giving something away for free.
Bruce

This is the size when I first pot them up into a bigger container. These
ones are in peat pellets.

This is the size I planted out into the garden last year. A little leggy but
they were strong plants.

Harding off is the hardest part for me. I always burn some of my plants.
Why? Because I forget they are outside. This year I'm going to really
keep any eye on them.

Yes, I got sunburn last year too. They rebounded well though. I am going to start with just shade for a few days, then to an area the gets filtered light like under one of the many oak trees here that still have leaves, then after a few days they will get some time in straight sun and I will increase that time as appropriate.
Bruce

They seem a little big for those 8oz cups?

At half that height some of mine had enough roots that I needed to be really gentle, or else allow for the cup shaped root ball when planting them in the ground last week.

I guess its hard to say though without some sense of scale :)

perhaps those are 12 or 16 oz cups.

Scotty66, how about a small tarp under those babies, it would solve the soil and water everywhere problem and yet go with the whole construction motif. ;)

I think they were in 16 oz. cups. They were ready to go into garden.
The roots were nice and loose, not root bound at all.

Wow, Roper2008 those are nice looking, how many weeks were they when you transplanted, and did you fertilize at all? Mine never got that big last year before they went out. I had a few seedlings sprout up today, I'm excited about that!

Hi Michelelc. I don't remember exactly how many weeks, but I
usually start my regular peppers 8 weeks before planting out.
Our last frost date here is around April 21st, so I plant my peppers
May 1st. I like them to be kinda big when I put them out, just
my preference. I fertilized them with a diluted liquid fish fertilizer.

Thanks Roper2008! How soon after they sprouted did you start fertilizing? I didn't fertilize last year, and I want to fertilize this year, but am not sure when to start and how often to fertilize.

You can start fertilizing after 2nd set of true leaves. Depends on what
your growing them in. Some potting mixes have a little bit of fertilizer
in them. If so, you can start fertilizing them after 1 month. Make sure
your fertilizer is diluted, about 1/4th strength. Once they get older you
can do 1/2 strength, and gradually switch to the normal feeding dose.
I fertilized about every 2 weeks before going into garden.

Great info, very helpful Roper2008! I'm growing in promix, which I don't think has any fertilizer in it.

Hi Michelelc,

I see you're fairly near me. I'm in southerastern CT, about 15 minutes north of the Foxwoods casino if you know where that is. I'm one of the more conservative here on this forum, as I start them later. I usually start the annuum varieties around April 1 and the chinense varieties two weeks earlier, about March 15. I start to harden them off when the weather gets real nice, about the second week of May, and transplant around Memorial Day every year. I usually get good fruits starting in late July, and the chinense are even later, usually late August up till frost. I've had some bad luck in the past with setting out too early, where they get cold feet and refuse to grow for a few weeks. That experience has left me a little bit timid about setting out too early. Others here have had good results setting out much earlier, so I could probably get away with it too, but in truth, I'm pretty busy before Memorial Day anyway (I'm a teacher), so it works well for me. Here's an old photo of my peppers about two weeks before transplanting them. This was just before I began to harden them off. It was a good year.

Hey PrestonFarmer, nice to meet you! We're maybe closer neighbors, though I'm in NW CT right on the edge of zone 5/6. We traditionally plant Mem Day too. I started my peppers (all annums I think) March 24 last year and they were really small even by June 15 when I could finally plant them out (too wet) after more than a month of hardening! So I'm going to start them early this year, thinking some even this weekend.

We used to live in Salem, Norwich, and Niantic when we worked in New London (b4 NUWC moved to RI) so I know where Preston is!