Willinator said:Well, I got the response and it appears that I messed up when I tried to submit an order
in late February/early March and so I had to resubmit my order with substitutions
So I can now expect my chili pepper plants to ship in the week of April 27th 2020
That means that as soon as the chili's arrive I will need to get them planted in pots.
Hey man, I'm more or less a newbie at growing stuff. No, wait a minute. I'm probably less than a newbie.
Anyhow, you might want to look around and purchase some pepper seeds, they're cheap...by extra. You can get a BIG variety of pepper seeds, too...much larger variety than you can get of plants. If you can grow in pots 'ok' you can sprout and grow up your on plants!
Of course it takes up a little room and you will need at least a couple of twin-tube shoplights for the number of plants that you're talking about. Other stuff you need is some styrofoam cups (poke three holes in the bottom of the sides), potting soil, some plastic containers to house them, some plastic sheeting to loosely lay over the top of the containers and cups to keep the environment moist, and a warm temperature (if you're comfortable it'll work, a little warmer is better/faster).
As soon as you see a sprout coming up take it out from beneath the plastic it under the lights in a plastic container (no top). The container will catch water that drains out of the cups and also give the cups some stability when you move them around. In lieu of using lights you can use a sunny area outside if your climate is good where your located...maybe a small hot box or miniature greenhouse if you need to protect them from the cold (a frame with some plastic sheeting stretched over it). Peppers usually take a few days longer than tomatoes to germinate, but given time they come on up provided the conditions are right. Naturally you get a dud every once in a while.
You could start some now and still make some peppers late. That would give you some experience and next year you could start early. Maybe order only half the live plants and plan on germinating and grow out seedlings for the other half. That'd give you a little insurance since you're doing something new.
Trust me, if I can do it, I'm sure you can. It's amazing that a seed half the size of a fruit fly can grow a plant that will give you pounds of produce! Plus, it's fun! :thumbsup:
Anyhow, just wanted to throw that out at ya. Best wishes on your pepper!!
Ed
