growing fatali peppers over the winter in connecticut

[tjg911]

if you want to follow my progress it is at this thread

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/26...70#entry525970

if you are new to growing peppers from seed as i am this may help get an idea of what to expect when you seed yours. or if you wanted to grow plants over the winter for a head start come summer this is what i'm experiencing.

tom

[tjg911]

it may be better to copy and paste the updates here vs forcing you to go to the hot pepper so....


i have grown all types of vegetables from seed for 20 years but never peppers preferring to just buy sweet pepper plants at local greenhouses. but this summer i decided to start growing peppers for 2 reasons. first, i can't find the varieties of sweet peppers i used to grow when the local greenhouses don't have them year after year. second, after being bitten by the hot pepper bug and when 2 of the 3 hot pepper varieties i bought in the spring were incorrect i decided i needed to rely on me rather than "them".

the fatali plant i bought was a fatali so i saved seeds. when i started to read about starting hot peppers from seed it sounded like a really hard thing to do vs all the other vegetables i have grown. so i decided to start some seeds in late september to test for germination vs waiting until late january and being under the gun timewise if things went bad. i assume sweet peppers are as difficult as hot peppers but that's an assumption. much to my surprise the fatalis germinated and grew pretty easily so i kept it going to see what kind of results i'd get. now i can't bring myself to toss them so i decided to grow them over the winter.

• 9/25/2011 started 10 fatali seeds in 1 cell of a 6 pack using promix lightly moistened. they were placed in a south window. i would water just enough to keep the promix damp not wet.

• 10/5 4 hooks appeared

• 10/6 2 more hooks

• 10/7 2 more hooks

• 10/13 1st true leaves appear

• 10/17 transplanted 6 seedlings, 1 plant per cell into a 6 pack. watered to keep the promix damp not wet.

• 10/24 2nd set of leaves appear

• 11/1 3rd set of leaves appear

• 11/5 all 6 plants have 3 sets of leaves

• 11/9 largest plant has 4th set of leaves. 2 plants are the largest and the same size, 3 are a tiny bit smaller, 1 is 1/2 the size of the largest.

• 11/14 transplanted the 4 largest into 4" X 4" X 4 1/2" (deep) pots with promix and put them under a 4' shop light, 2 cool T8 tubes. set the timer for 16 hours on 8 off. the lights are 2" to 1 1/2 from the top of the shortest plant to the tallest 3 plants respectively, i watered lightly. none of these plants have been fertilized to date.

• 11/22/2011 today i see that all 4 plants have their 5th set of leaves and these probably emerged a few days ago as some are 1/4" long. also the plants have grown and are now just 1/2" - 3/8" below the lights. i moved the light up 1/2 link, now they are 1" - 3/4" below the lights shortest to tallest respectively.
• 11/25/2011 all 4 plants have their 6th set of leaves. since the plants are producing new leaves quickly now i don't see any reason to keep reporting it since it is not unusual to see new leaves.
• 11/26/2011 the plants are arranged with the shortest on the left and the tallest on the right. there is very little difference in height but on saturday i noticed the far right plant's leaves were starting to touch the tubes. i raised the right side 1 link.
• 11/29/2011 i'm surprised at how fast these plants are growing. i had to raise the shop light so it is 1 1/2" above the plants, it was < 1/2". also the plants are getting wide enough that i have to leave space between the pots vs butting them all together since their leaves are touching.
• 12/25/2011 over the past 9-10 days i have noticed the leaves on all 4 plants have been losing their deep green color and getting yellowish. today only the top 3 sets of leaves are really green, the rest are more yellow than green. they are very dry not having gotten any water since 12/18. this may be the end unless the fertilizer pulls them thru. i have no choice but to fertilize them as they are in promix and never have had any nutrients other than what they have gotten from the promix and have made via their leaves. each plant got 2/3 of a cup of water with a small amount of neptune's harvest fish and seaweed emulsion and i drizzled some on the leaves.
• 12/29/2011 apparently fertilizing the plants has made quite a difference! it was very apparent they needed nutrients even tho i was trying to not fertilize them and in just 4 days it's made quite noticeable. the top 3 leaf sets are dark green again and the rest of the leaves are much greener losing that yellowish cast. all the plants have tiny new leaves forming at the top and they have grown from being about 1 1/2" from the lights to now being just 1/2".
• 1/25/2012 it's been almost a month since my last update. on all 4 plants all of the leaves from the bottom to 3/4 of the way to the top of each plant are very yellow. even the top 1" of the plants those upper sets of leaves that grew after the fertilizing are losing their green color and i suspect i'm going to need to give them another dose of fertilizer. i've moved the lights up a few times during the past month. i have had them under the shop light and have not put them in the window/sun since early december. as the sun gets stronger i will shift them to the window sill on sunny days starting around mid february. if anyone is reading this please post and tell me otherwise i'll assume no one cares and this will be the last update.
• 1/29/2012 fertilized
• 2/29/2012 fertilized. on the 3 taller plants i cut the stalk to remove the branching, all 4 are now the same height.

[tjg911]

some observations -

i have watered from the top but sparingly, very sparingly. i only water on sunday and thursday. today i upped the water for each plant from 1/4 cup of water to 3/8 cup (1/4 cup + half of another 1/4 cup). plants are a very healthy green and look amazing, if it was late april i'd be all set. no fertilizer has been used and none will be until april or may.

this is an interesting experiment and frankly fun to be nurturing small plants that look almost ready for the garden in late nov/early dec! i never grow vegetables at this time of year, the last seeds were started back in early august for fall harvest of cabbages. i don't have any plants seeded until early feb when i start onions. by mid feb i them in the windowsill and by the 3rd week they are in the basement under a shop light so this is really weird to have these peppers not to mention i have never started peppers from seed. when i buy my sweet and hot peppers in mid may they are already for the garden so i don't see them growing.

i am also surprised at how different hot pepper plants look so different from sweet pepper plants. sweets are taller with leaves spread out not closely spaced on the stem whereas hots are short and squat with dense leaves closely spaced on the stem. when i bought my fatali and hab last may i thought the leaves looked evil, crinkled and wrinkled! they made me think of poison ivy even tho poison ivy leaves don't look like hot pepper leaves but there's that evil look they have!

tom