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naturegirl_2007

Germination Test....Do I have a disease?

Way back in early December I set out to see if my first attempts at seed saving were done correctly. The germination test and all signs of it were to be gone before holiday visitors came. See if they sprout and toss 'em out. Simple, easy, no problem.

Well......that didn't quite happen. This is the "test" today.



Wenks Yellow Hots Peppers

Not only was there successful germination, but it appears the seed is not crossed either. And those plants are in 3 inch and 4 inch pots...amazing to me that they will grow so well like that. Since January, several other "tests" have taken over the house, also. I'm afraid to think what may happen by next winter if this pepper growing disease progresses further.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another sign of a growing addiction?

Comments (6)

  • 18 years ago

    What incredibly great looking plants & your light tower cracks me up!

    And possibly a good example of a benefit to growing root-bound plants. Early blossoms and fruit set. The # of pods surprises me though. I've not grown Wenks though so no clue as to what they do 'normally'.

    How many hours of lighting per day and what kind of tubes are you using?

    You done good!

  • 18 years ago

    They're a good example of how durable peppers are cause I do not fuss over them or do everything "right" by any means. For the first months they were under 1 new T8 Cool White and 1 extremely old (and dim) grow light tube of unknown make. At first the plants probably got 12 hours of light per day.....whenever I happened to remember. About 2 months later I hooked up a timer and went to 16 hours on, 8 hours off. Much better for me and the plants: should have thought of that sooner :) They flowered and I tickled the flowers with a small paint brush and tapped the branches. Lots of flowers fell off, but some developed into pods. One pod fell off when it was small. None of the other fell even though I moved the plants around alot.

    When the plants got bigger and were beginning to get leaf damage from touching lights or fixtures I moved them to a west facing window not blocked at all by trees or houses. I think the move was good for the plants because not alot of light had been reaching the lower leaves under the lights. They have been by the window for at least a month. The pods seemed to turn red quicker than I remember them turning in the garden. They are also smaller than the early pods from garden plants. They are larger than pods that formed late in the outdoor season, though.

    Last year was the first time I grew more than a couple hot peppers. And this is my first time growing them inside. It is really just a lucky fluke that all of my shuffling around resulted in ripe peppers during the winter/spring. I wasn't expecting them because I'm likely to do whatever happens to come to mind each day and it might not include pepper care.

    I planted alot of other varieties of peppers on Feb. 14 with similar lighting. Some of them are now flowering and setting pods, also. Some are still under lights, some are in the windows...kinda taking over the whole place. Yikes! I think it is a disease, pepper mania, or some such thing.

    The tower was a make do solution when one of my more normal fixtures broke and I didn't have time to replace it or troubleshoot. It makes everyone around here laugh and we hope it doesn't topple over. It holds more than 30 varieties of OP tomatoes. Guess I should fix the broken lights before everything crashes :)

  • 18 years ago

    I usually water with 1/4 teas generic Miracle Grow powder in 1 gallon of water. I started using that when the plants were small and were looking kinda yellow. When I'm too lazy to mix more they get plain tap water for a few days. I'm thinking at some point they'll lack some micronutrients. Maybe when they go outside I'll try some more complete food, maybe some fishy smelling kind.

  • 18 years ago

    Mirical grow is almost a complete food missing calcium and magnesium add some crushed eggshells and 1 tbsp of epsom salts in a gal of water.

    Transplant to 12" pots for better plant outs

  • 18 years ago

    fish emulsion will work for all your pepper needs i was turned onto it last year and i swear i will never use another chemical fertilizer again just my honest opinion

  • 18 years ago

    Fish emultion is mostly Nitrogen.
    I use it with Seaweed extract,it has all the other stuff in it.
    I put Dolomite lime and bone meal in my soil before I pot things up too.
    I've read that a lot of peppers need a lot of calcium to fruit and hold buds better.
    Lime seems to do the trick.

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