Watering:
When you water your young seedlings you need to be as gentle as possible. I recommend picking up a typical spray bottle, of course do not reuse one that has had cleaning products or any chemicals as this will probably kill your plants no matter how much you have cleaned it out. Set the sprayer to a mist and gently apply the water to the plants in such a gentle manner that you don’t “blow” the plants over with a heavy spray. I apply a good soaking via misting daily when they are young. If you are using a heat mat to help the germination phase the soil can dry very quickly and the seedling can die very quickly. Keep the soil moist at all times at this stage. If you start to notice any mold or fungus then it is ok to let the soil dry a bit, but keep a good eye on the seedlings, it can turn ugly very quickly.
Thinning:
If you have chosen the safer, but more expensive approach of planting more than one seed per cell in your seed trays, you will soon reach the time of making a difficult decision. That decision would be to thin your seedlings to the strongest, healthiest one. Our ultimate goal here is to encourage more root growth and to give our strongest seedling the most nutrients possible that is remaining in the soil. To thin your seedlings down to one per cell, take a pair of small scissors and clip the weaker seedlings at the base, as close to the soil line as possible.
Do not pull them out of the soil as the roots might and probably are inter-twined with the good seedling and you could kill it very easily
Another method is to simply us your fingernails and give it a pinch near the base. It is very important to not disturb the young seedlings that you
Transplanting:
I am going to do a whole article on transplanting but I have seen a few questions in the comments wondering when the best time is to transplant. It is time to transplant when your seedling has outgrown the container it is in. I wouldn’t recommend transplanting until you start to see roots growing out of the bottom of the container through those little holes. You never want to disturb the plant until you have too and you never want to try to move a very young seedling as the process can kill it.
–Jay
Written by Jay
Nick Lindauer founded Hot Sauce Blog in 2004, making it one of the internet's very first hot sauce review sites. After 20+ years of tasting, reviewing, and attending every major fiery foods event in the country, he's back behind the keyboard covering the hot sauce world he helped build.
5 responses to “Makin’ Habaneros – Part IX – Tips”
Im finding that the $20 plant light that I put in my regular old lamp fixture is more effective than sun thru the window for now. My seedlings are 1-2″ tall, and then sun from the outside makes them bend toward the light. With the plant light, the seedlings stretch straight up.
Jay, its been 1.5 months and the peppers are doing well but since its my first time, i have nothing to compare to. My habs stems are kinda thin as compared to their cayenne counterparts. They tend to blow over in the breeze when I have them outside to harden off. They do not seem to be hurt by it but I dont like seeming them tilted like that. Also, they still seem to tilt toward the sun. When will they stop being so sensitive to the light?
One other question.. a dull white color is appearing on my older leaves (the first non-seed leaves). The leaves are not as dark green as they used to be. Is this simply the life cycle of the leaf ending or do I have a fungus problem? I dont over-water.
Or maybe the soil us out of nutrients?
Pepper Guy, sorry for not seeing these questions, My notify hasn’t worked in sometime, need to talk to Nick about it. The stems will thicken as needed. If your plants are getting leggy, then try moving the light source closer so they dont need to stretch.
I am not really sure about the leaf problem, maybe they aren’t getting as much light as they used to when they were the sole leaves. Maybe it just isn’t enought clorophyl to go around.
Keep an eye on it, if it starts too look like an fungus problem, you can snip off the leaves, very gently of course as to not disturb the rest of the plant.
Good Luck!
–Jay
Pepper Guy, another way to thicken the stems is by giving the seedlings a workout. Try turning on an oscillating fan on medium about 5 – 10 feet away, this will gently sway the plants and will help beef up the stalks.
–Jay