My pepper 2013 season has begun!

[Tania]

Good luck to you too!!!
I hope you will never see aphids on your pepper plants. These are nasty. The rest is all do-able!

[Tracydr]

Tania, I do a similar idea, in reverse. I start peppers after tomatoes, set them out late knowing they can survive our summers more easily than tomatoes. So, basically, I'm growing them from seed in Feb, set out April-May, fruiting in Sept-Dec.
I may or may not get them to survive outside for winter.
The idea is to start earlier, set outside at with enough time to fruit. It wouldn't be easy here to grow peppers on a tomato schedule, either. They stop fruiting all summer, anyway. If I start too early, I have huge plants indoors and nowhere to put them.

[Tania]

Tracy,

It is so interesting how different it is in different geographical regions! Yours is challenging in a very different way.

My challenge is to get pepper plants to grow as large as possible before July when they'll start blooming and setting fruit. But it is too cold here before July and very little sunshine. September is already too cool, and October is the end of the season.

So I try to start them earlier.

So far it is looking good - as I did not bring my 2012 pepper plants inside the house (only a few are in the basement), the new pepper seedlings are growing well and have not got any aphids. I hope they'll stay healthy!

I have these little things growing so far:

De Bresse
Scotch Bonnet Red
Aji Red
Trinidad Scorpion
Orchid (Aji Flor)
Grandpa's Siberian Home
Manzano (Rocoto) Yellow
Bhavnagari Long

And I started these on Jan 25:
Hot:
Cayenne Large Red Thick
Conquistador
Cserko
Docturne
Faludi
Japanese Shi-s-h-i-t-ou
Navaho
Pelso
Petit Marseillais
Purple Jalapeno
Salsa
Sigaretta Di Bergamo
Sucette de Provence

Sweet:
Ta Tong
Super Sheperd
Golden Treasure
Mauve Lilac
Alla's Yellow
Zolotoy Dozhd
Mamontenok
Sibirskiy Knyaz
Buran
Chinese Giant
Earliest Red Sweet
Karmen
Liebesapfel
Shchyogol
Sweet Apple
Sweet Cayenne
Sweet Tooth
Tolli's Sweet
Zolotistyi

[Tracydr]

Tania, do you eat all those peppers or just grow for seed?
I need to make a pepper seed order for me.

[Tania]

Tracy, I do both - eat them (I love hot peppers, and my DH loves stuffed sweet peppers) and save seeds (if everything goes well). Lots of hot peppers end up in adjika sauce or ketchup.

I do not grow too many pepper plants - only somewhere around 300-600.

[delltraveller]

Originally Posted by Tania

I do not grow too many pepper plants - only somewhere around 300-600.

That's right, she doesn't grow too many pepper plants---ONLY 300-600!!!

[Tania]

well... compared to tomatoes, I mean

I feel that my poor peppers do not get as much love from me as my tomatoes do. So I decided to do things a bit differently this year, start my peppers now, give them lots of attention. And start tomatoes later this year - in late February.

I hope it will work and I finally will get a huge pepper crop like I had in 2009-2010 (and never since)

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Tania, I do a similar idea, in reverse. I start peppers after tomatoes, set them out late knowing they can survive our summers more easily than tomatoes. So, basically, I'm growing them from seed in Feb, set out April-May, fruiting in Sept-Dec.
I may or may not get them to survive outside for winter.
The idea is to start earlier, set outside at with enough time to fruit. It wouldn't be easy here to grow peppers on a tomato schedule, either. They stop fruiting all summer, anyway. If I start too early, I have huge plants indoors and nowhere to put them.

This thread has me thoroughly confused, not hard to do Last year I germinated my hot peppers in April and they were potted up outside by mid May.
I was harvesting red chilis , thai hot, aji crystal and a few others by Aug 3 but by mid Aug it was in full swing. The temps average between 65-75 for Apr-Jul so I thought that since the temps stay low I needed to plant later. But you folks are up in BC which i would assume would be colder later and earlier so how do you start them in December and not have them go into hibernate mode out in the cold weather.

[Tania]

They do not go into hibernation because the seedlings are growing under lights indoors.

We do not get 65-72F temps until early July. It stays around 52-56F in spring, so the plants need to be inside.

[Crandrew]

Ok, thats what I was missing. Thanks for the clarification, Tania.

[Tania]

Crandrew, you have such nice summer temps, that explains why your peppers are growing so quickly!

Mine are always struggling with cold weather, and grow slowly, even if they are under plastic. But I am not giving up

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by Tania

Crandrew, you have such nice summer temps, that explains why your peppers are growing so quickly!

Mine are always struggling with cold weather, and grow slowly, even if they are under plastic. But I am not giving up

And I would NEVER expect you to give up keep up the good work. Im looking forward to watching the progress.



P.S. I appreciate the "google noob" emoticon.

[armac]

I have superhots growing in the ground right now. Our climate is quite different.

[pdxwindjammer]

I was just thinking that I need to get my peppers started earlier this year! Looks like I will be doing that over the next few days! Or maybe starting them tonight even.

[shelleybean]

I'm not starting my pepper seeds until next week but this is putting me in the mood for it! I will have:

Serrano
Hot Cherry
TAM Jalapeño
Poblano
Sweet Banana
Ashe County Pimento
Doe Hill
Golden Treasure

this year. Can't wait to get started!