Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello, is anyone daring to sow any chilli seeds this month? Or is everyone waiting for February? I've just got myself a heated vitopod propogator so I thought I would give it a try but just a little worried about lack of light once they have germinated. Is anyone sowing anything else this month?

Bit early for me here, but I know a lot fo people start them off early. Usually the beginning of February for me, with tomatoes and a couple of other things. Light is the problem.

I have put a couple in the propagator just as an
experiment but I have a light as well. The packet
said January on it but I will probably do a backup
lot next month as a precaution. Just coming through
now.

I dug up my chilli plants from lottie and they are in
a cold greenhouse and still growing (surviving). I
let them get pretty dry between watering and have
found that the green chillis that were on them have
been going red. Only noticible difference is the seeds
inside are much bigger. As I pick them I shorten the
stem a bit - another experiment but success will be
surviving the winter.

Westi

I've always had disappointing results trying to sow seedlings inside in January with the low light level, especially with conditions as they are currently with even lower light levels because of falling snow. I'd be tempted to wait a little but if you're planning to sow more later, then it probably doesn't matter if you lose some. I've currently got a chilli plant I grew outdoors on my lounge window sill. After cropping I pruned it back. It flowered again late last autumn and is now bearing a second small crop of chillis.

I think sowing in January depends on your situation i.e. where will you keep the seedlings. I have started off chillies in January and then grown them on in a very bright, well lit bedroom window. To try to overcome the problem of the seedlings being drawn, I prop up a mirror behind the seedlings so that light is reflected from their rear. It works for me, though I wait until the end of January.
It's a real labour intensive affair as you need to switch heating equipment on/off to avoid over heating during the day or freezing at night, curtains get in the way, mirror wants to overbalance etc. etc.
It all sounds a bit obsessive doesn't it!

I agree with Marken. I don't have the equipment for successful early sowing. I once sowed toms and peppers in Jan, but this involved too much work when I didn't have the time.But maybe I've not tried everything yet. perhaps if I sowed just one or two seeds of each variety I might manage with my small windowsill space. It is a shame that we have no south-facing windows. I think your mirror idea, Marken, is excellent and I'll try it.

Throughout my gardening life I have always found it better to be a tad late than a tad early. If you sow too early you run the risk of running into all manner of problems but a touch on the late side and everything seems to work well and any lateness is very soon overcome.
Every year we get distress calls from contributors saying 'what should I do now' when they have sown too early. Unless you have all the necessary equipment to see your plant through then hold off sowing until your plants future is assured.
JB.

We never really start sowing anything until March and find that things catch up with sowings made early by others and often overtake the earlier sown seeds. I think maybe earlier sowings suffer a bit of a setback at some point in their growth which is why the later ones pass them by. We've tried the window sill method and putting reflective foil to reflect light back to the seeds from the room side but the seedlings still seem to end up drawn and rather weak. I suppose another problem is that daylight hours are shorter and unless you have a special natural light bulb artificial light isn't the same. The other problem is that you need somewhere where you can put them after being pricked out - otherwise they end up just hanging around in the seed tray waiting.

Yes, everything you have said applies to me. However, yesterday I sowed just a few cayenne pepper and scotch bonnet seeds which I had saved from the summer and also 8 sweet pepper seeds from Johnson's Cook's choice which are available from Sainsbury's. I will sow a few tomato seeds at the end of this month and then make my main sowings in bulk at the end of February. With any luck, that means that I'll be able to stagger the pricking out so that by the time I'm putting the majority sowings into small pots I'll be able to keep everything in the unheated greenhouse during the day, bringing them in at night. I may be lucky and get a small early crop of peppers and toms, or maybe the others will simply catch up. We'll see.

Hi al

In my mind there are two parts to this.

First is its our hobby and we want to get on and get our hands dirty after the winter and its fun to experiment and see what you can get away with.

Second there is great homegrown tasty food from strong healthy plants. You get the best of that from being patient and growing your food in warm, light, well fertilised conditions. Plants sown in warm spring sunshine and looked after through the summer to a glorious harvest are what you should be aiming for.

So have a go and have fun but don't expect your cold, stretched, starving winter sown waifs to win any medals.

To your success

David

Hi David,
The art of gardening is something learned by the school of hard knocks.
If you sow too early and your plant has started to stretch or has too much top growth and is therefore floppy you must prepared to cull that plant and resow. Only too often do we hear that the sick plant must be kept at all costs. That is bad gardening! You must always be prepared to cull bad plants however distasteful you may find it.
We all have to take our chances with the weather but the ideal plants are those that take the least amount of growing time to planting out in the final growing position.
Sow seed and await germination. The seed germinates and is tended until it can be potted on. Grow on until pot is full of roots and either plant out at this stage or pot on again if the weather is not right simply try hard to make it so there is no checks in the growth pattern. The sooner you can get your plant into it's final position the better. This way there is no check in the growth pattern. Now this needs some very careful planning.
Unless you are assured of planting out in a reasonable time do not sow the seed! Simply hold fire for a week or so.
I plant out brassicas not on top growth alone but by root growth and find that a very small amount of super phosphate in the potting on compost assures good root growth. Too much Nitrogen will give you plenty of top growth which is out proportion to the root growth and with all brassicas this is the begining of a bad crop. Root growth is very very important.
When planting out root growth is far more important than top growth.
It is no good planting out something which doesn't have the means of supporting itself. With a superior root system plants will grow away like a rocket
JB.

Hi

I started some Thai chillies on Boxing Day and they seem to be doing well if a little slow due to the lack of heat/light. Growing them on the kitchen windowsill. Did this to try and get a longer growing season.

They are from seed saved from last years crop (sown in late Feb). I got 4 ripe red chillies for drying from 2 plants. Gave all the green ones to someone who would appreciate them.

Cheers

My Cayenne [saved seed] and sweet pepper selection came up nicely, but there's no sign of the Scotch Bonnet [saved seed] sown at the same time. It's now time to get out the mirror as per Marken's suggestion.