Congrats on your new baby pepper. I still have 5 or 6 weeks yet to wait before starting peppers. I am trying sugar rush peach and Brazilian starfish for the first time. SRP is as hot as I need to go. Yes I am a pepper wimp!

I have grown Sugar Rush Peach for the past couple of years with great success, they are prolific and easy to grow, and I make a relish that my family loves. And, if I grind them in the food processor they really do smell just like peaches. Don't take a deep breath, you'll gas yourself. Ask me how I know. (grin)

This year my new experiment is something called "Death Spiral", although why anyone would want to eat something like that is beyond my comprehension. My husband actually LIKES those super hot peppers, so it's all his, I'm a coward!

I'm also going to grow Hungarian Black, chocolate habanero, a new jalapeno called Dieghito from Baker Creek Seeds, some Filius Blue, poblanos, the Sugar Rush Peach and maybe a Reaper. Then again, we still have jars of pickled Carolina Reaper on the shelf, so it's kind of a waste...

I also love that little thread of a loop, and always get excited when my plants come up, no matter how many times I've watched.

Annie

I had 4 Sugar Rush Peach plants last year (overwintering two of them) and can't wait to grow more! They are fantastic! I'm also a pepper wimp, but hoping to get to at least medium heat someday... I'm trying Peach-a-dew pepper this year among other varieties, we'll see if there is even peachier pepper than Sugar Rush Peach! My husband discovered The Hot Ones show this fall and I finally have an excuse to grow some hot peppers - to make hot sause! No super-hots for now, taking it easy!

I'm probably starting my peppers very early, because I want them to hit the ground running, so last year my first pepper pod was coincidentally Sugar Rush Peach, and it developed before plant-out! I usually snip all the flowers until it's time to plant outside, but I just couldn't wait to try this variety!

It’s 10 days later and almost all my pepper varieties have sprouted and some of them are already showing first true leaves! The only one that failed is sweet cherry, but I can live without it :) I have 53 varieties of peppers this year! I am so excited!

OP do you re-pot them up as they grow ? I'm debating starting mine in 4inch plastic pots to avoid having to do so much repotting. And, I'm a pepper wimp so most of mine are much lower on the scale !

I'm still in the waiting phase....I sowed seeds on February 7th, so even the fastest (Thai chile and Hungarian Wax) still have a day or two to break soil. The superhots will be a while longer. It is nice, though, to have them started and know that the season has officially begun.

Josh

Every year when I start my seeds I think “this year it’s going to be perfect! I‘ve learned from my mistakes last year, nothing can go wrong this time around.” And every year there’s something new! Most of my pepper seedlings look pathetic! After a great start at some point they just stopped growing. Honestly, when we left for a week in the middle of February I took a picture and some of them still look almost the same, and it's been more than a month! I have one tray with kinda sorta normal looking seedlings, and the only difference between those and the small ones is that I added some worm castings to the soil before planting. I didn't add any fertilizer (I know, I know, huge mistake!) and when I realized that I started watering them with water-soluble Jobes fertilizer. It helped a little, but there's still something seriously wrong. Oh well! Maybe next year (or in ten years...) I'll also have beautiful dark-green peppers with wide and shiny leaves!

Today I decided to amend the soil by adding some compost and fertilizer and replacing the soil and discovered the only hope I've got: their root systems are huge! I've had a few stagnant peppers in previous years, and when I gave up and uprooted them they didn't have much roots, which explained why they didn't grow. But these things have roots 2-3 times longer than the seedling and branching like crazy. So there's still hope for me!

I mean, look at it! There is still hope, right?

I'd say there plenty of hope in that root-system.

Did you repot into a well-draining soil? After up-potting my seedlings, I waited about 5 days to fertilize again.

Josh

yes, the soil has good drainage and I’m going to wait to fertilize for it to dry properly between waterings.

Well when I say soil, it doesn’t really mean soil, it’s a soil-less mix of coco coir, peat, perlite and vermiculite. So it’s all very draining and container-friendly. Now there’s also a bit of compost and vermicompost along with some organic fertilizer and dolomite lime. It worked great in my 5 gallon and 18 gallon containers, but now I have raised beds, so I get to use this mix just for the seedlings.

Sounds very moisture retentive...every ingredient other than Perlite holds a LOT of moisture.

Josh

I guess it’s true, that it is more retaining than draining. But I don’t water until it is dry and the roots are all white and look healthy.

It worked! this Whole week I’ve been watching EXPLOSIVE growth of my peppers (along with eggplants and tomatoes). I’m so excited!

March 29th:

April 5th:

These are the ones that were bigger from the start March 29th:

April 5th:

Nice! Good to see the improvement!

Josh

First time outside. In the shade for a couple of hours. It looks like warm weather is here to stay, so I decided to start slowly hardening them off.

Planted everything in beds. I’m covering them with plastic at night, and it stays above 50F mostly. Since we’ll have same night temperatures till July I don’t see any reason to wait any longer to plant everything out. Last year I had first peppers in May, we’ll see how it goes this year. I didn’t think I’d be able to find place for all of my peppers, but I did! I left some twins together as an experiment (and to avoid having to kill off extra plants). 199 peppers (127 planting holes), that’s a lot to plant!

Wow! You have blooms already?? What area are you in, if you don't mind...

That's awesome!

I'm going to pick up some Hungarian Wax seedlings today, then get them potted by the weekend. The weather has been very warm here, so we all got a nice headstart on the season.

Josh

gawdinfever Z6 I’m in Seattle area.

puskay: I'm so silly, I was going to ask when you started them, then saw that you started three months ago. Mine are only 35 days old today. I was really questioning mine and myself for a bit! lol

We're enjoying unexpected hot weather here, usually we don't get to the temperatures in the 80's till July, but here we are. My peppers (and other plants!) are loving it! I already have quite a few pods, and everything is growing fast!

Here is my Tequila Sunrise

Aji Habanero

And Healthy pepper. Correct translation of this variety would be Health, and this one is really tricky to research online, since all you get are the articles about healthy peppers =)