Starting peppers indoors
March 5, 2024 6:46 PM Subscribe
I've done that! And now they've sprouted, but it's still too cold for me to transplant them outside, and I could use some advice on the best course of action until it warms up enough.
I have pepper seedling growing! They are under my gerry-rigged growing setup, sitting on a warmer and covered by a cambro. I'm excited they are coming in but don't think it is warm enough overnight yet for me to plant them outside as the lows are still in the 40s.
I'm trying to think of what are the best options here to keep them alive and growing for the next few weeks. Right now my options are:
1. Keep them covered and on the heating mat
2. Move them to a windowsill (I have 2, neither get full light all day, but do get partial light for most)
3. Move them outside during the day on the heating mat covered
4. Move them outside during the day on the heating mat uncovered
I don't currently have a grow light, and not sure if that would make sense.
Otherwise any thoughts on which might be best and options I haven't considered?
I have pepper seedling growing! They are under my gerry-rigged growing setup, sitting on a warmer and covered by a cambro. I'm excited they are coming in but don't think it is warm enough overnight yet for me to plant them outside as the lows are still in the 40s.
I'm trying to think of what are the best options here to keep them alive and growing for the next few weeks. Right now my options are:
1. Keep them covered and on the heating mat
2. Move them to a windowsill (I have 2, neither get full light all day, but do get partial light for most)
3. Move them outside during the day on the heating mat covered
4. Move them outside during the day on the heating mat uncovered
I don't currently have a grow light, and not sure if that would make sense.
Otherwise any thoughts on which might be best and options I haven't considered?
Best answer: The danger now is that they will grow taller trying to get more light and become "leggy" with too much tall stem, which is fragile and will break when outside in the wind, and not enough leaves to provide healthy growth.
If you can get a fluorescent light and put it really, really close to the plants that will help give them the light they need - but put it beside them so they grow towards it rather than upward. Turn the plants every day so the light is on a different side every day, so that they won't grow in one direction. Rotating them every day is important to they don't grow lopsided.
To partially harden them off in the house use an ordinary room fan to create a little bit of a breeze - this will help the stems grow stronger. It should be a very gentle intermittent breeze, not a steady strong blast.
They can also be moved to a sunny window sill when there is enough sun, and then back to under whatever lamps or lights you can use. Any light is better than none. Sunlight can kill them if they never get exposed to any sun, so if there is any sun at all, you can begin the process of getting they used to the ultraviolet inside.
Keep in mind that pepper plants are a magnet for many types of insect pests, and they will come into your house through wide mesh screens or un-screened windows. When I started peppers in the house they attracted spider mites through the open window, which then spread into my ordinary house plants. You will need to keep an eye out for them developing pests as soon as they are exposed to the outside air at all.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:45 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]
If you can get a fluorescent light and put it really, really close to the plants that will help give them the light they need - but put it beside them so they grow towards it rather than upward. Turn the plants every day so the light is on a different side every day, so that they won't grow in one direction. Rotating them every day is important to they don't grow lopsided.
To partially harden them off in the house use an ordinary room fan to create a little bit of a breeze - this will help the stems grow stronger. It should be a very gentle intermittent breeze, not a steady strong blast.
They can also be moved to a sunny window sill when there is enough sun, and then back to under whatever lamps or lights you can use. Any light is better than none. Sunlight can kill them if they never get exposed to any sun, so if there is any sun at all, you can begin the process of getting they used to the ultraviolet inside.
Keep in mind that pepper plants are a magnet for many types of insect pests, and they will come into your house through wide mesh screens or un-screened windows. When I started peppers in the house they attracted spider mites through the open window, which then spread into my ordinary house plants. You will need to keep an eye out for them developing pests as soon as they are exposed to the outside air at all.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:45 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Once most of the pepper plants have sprouted, you'll want to take the plants off the heated mat, that part is just to help with germination and could cause them to get leggy if they stay on.
Pepper seedlings need lots of sun once they sprout, around 12-16 hours, so a grow light would be better than a window. If you do need to use a window, choose a south-facing one with nothing shading the window if possible.
When you do harden them off later on by taking them on field trips outside, start when it's at least 55F outside, start in the shade, and start with low wind. Gradually increase the time you leave them out, but at first an hour will be enough.
posted by Eyelash at 4:05 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Pepper seedlings need lots of sun once they sprout, around 12-16 hours, so a grow light would be better than a window. If you do need to use a window, choose a south-facing one with nothing shading the window if possible.
When you do harden them off later on by taking them on field trips outside, start when it's at least 55F outside, start in the shade, and start with low wind. Gradually increase the time you leave them out, but at first an hour will be enough.
posted by Eyelash at 4:05 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you can get a fluorescent light and put it really, really close to the plants that will help give them the light they need
These cheap generic eBay LED panels make heaps of plant-usable light at very low energy cost. I have the "multiple colour" version with a mix of blue, red, orange and white LEDs and my young plants do well under it.
Pay no attention to the "1000W" rating, which I gather is intended as a guide to how bright an incandescent bulb would be needed to match this thing; the actual LED panel's power consumption is under 50 watts and it runs cool enough not to burn plants even if they grow into accidental contact with it.
If you hang this thing above your little green bebbes, run it on a timer to create a springtime daily photoperiod, surround them with flat white panels to concentrate the light a little, give their roots a bit of room, and set up a low-noise PC case fan powered from a 12V plugpack to blow continuously on them so they get some exercise, I think you'll be pleased by how they respond.
Get them to maybe a foot tall indoors and they should be big enough not to succumb immediately to the overnight snail onslaught after being moved outside.
posted by flabdablet at 5:57 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
These cheap generic eBay LED panels make heaps of plant-usable light at very low energy cost. I have the "multiple colour" version with a mix of blue, red, orange and white LEDs and my young plants do well under it.
Pay no attention to the "1000W" rating, which I gather is intended as a guide to how bright an incandescent bulb would be needed to match this thing; the actual LED panel's power consumption is under 50 watts and it runs cool enough not to burn plants even if they grow into accidental contact with it.
If you hang this thing above your little green bebbes, run it on a timer to create a springtime daily photoperiod, surround them with flat white panels to concentrate the light a little, give their roots a bit of room, and set up a low-noise PC case fan powered from a 12V plugpack to blow continuously on them so they get some exercise, I think you'll be pleased by how they respond.
Get them to maybe a foot tall indoors and they should be big enough not to succumb immediately to the overnight snail onslaught after being moved outside.
posted by flabdablet at 5:57 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: It is difficult to underestimate how much light indoor seedlings need, both to avoid becoming etiolated (leggy) and to reduce the chances that you'll accidentally sunburn them when you move them outside. Plants make "sunblock" compounds that allow their leaves to stand up to harsh solar radiation without damage but they won't do it unless they're already being exposed to a fair amount of light. You'll still need to harden them off when you're moving them outside, but if they've been grown with a lot of indoor light the process will be easier and more error tolerant (it will be harder to accidentally fry them by leaving them in a sunny spot for too long).
I think you really need to set up a light of some sort. Unless it's large, has unobstructed southern exposure, and it's sunny where you are a lot of the time, a window won't cut it.
The light doesn't necessarily need to be a full-spectrum "grow light" (they'll be outside in the real sun soon enough) but it should be bright and as close to the peppers as you can get it without burning them. I've used a shop light-type fluorescent fixture hung from a frame or the underside of a shelf for this, and can be as close as 4-6" from the seedlings. Set up so you can adjust it upwards as they grow. This sort of thing is what you're shooting for. People also make frames to hang their lights from. If you don't already own a fixture/shelf/etc. that can be repurposed, check Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Point a fan at them too, carefully at first. A bit of air movement will encourage them to grow study stems and discourages mold and pests. Make sure it's not drying them out too much, though.
posted by pullayup at 6:14 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]
I think you really need to set up a light of some sort. Unless it's large, has unobstructed southern exposure, and it's sunny where you are a lot of the time, a window won't cut it.
The light doesn't necessarily need to be a full-spectrum "grow light" (they'll be outside in the real sun soon enough) but it should be bright and as close to the peppers as you can get it without burning them. I've used a shop light-type fluorescent fixture hung from a frame or the underside of a shelf for this, and can be as close as 4-6" from the seedlings. Set up so you can adjust it upwards as they grow. This sort of thing is what you're shooting for. People also make frames to hang their lights from. If you don't already own a fixture/shelf/etc. that can be repurposed, check Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Point a fan at them too, carefully at first. A bit of air movement will encourage them to grow study stems and discourages mold and pests. Make sure it's not drying them out too much, though.
posted by pullayup at 6:14 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]
Honestly, I’d start another batch of pepper seeds. It sounds like you have time before it will be warm enough to transplant and your seedlings are going to get leggy indoors and possibly sunburn when they move outside. Killing your darlings is, sadly, a part of gardening, especially with limited space. The good news is that your seedling growing setup works!
Do you have a planting calendar for your area? You can try a local nursery, Master Garderners for your county, or the USDA hardiness zones (in the US).
posted by momus_window at 7:02 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Do you have a planting calendar for your area? You can try a local nursery, Master Garderners for your county, or the USDA hardiness zones (in the US).
posted by momus_window at 7:02 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I just started some pepper seeds this past weekend too!
What you do next strongly depends on where you are, as that impacts your growing zone - your growing zone is just a way to track where, on average, the last date of an expected frost would be. For instance - I am in zone 7B, and it says the last frost date for 7B is April 20th. The seed packet should tell you about when to start the seeds indoors, and when to move the seedlings outside - it'll be something like "start indoors about 8 weeks before last frost, transplant outdoors about X weeks after last frost." That's how I figured out when to start the seeds indoors (I counted back the right number of weeks from April 20th) and when I'll be moving the baby pepper plants outside (looks like May 11th is the date I picked for that). So if you're also in Zone 7B, you planted the seedlings at about the right time. You can look up your growing zone online - they just need your zip code.
In between now and when I plant them, I'm going to keep an eye on them, keep them moist, and keep them inside (or I may move them to the greenhouse in my community garden). They don't need light until they sprout, but once they sprout they should have light (hence the greenhouse). I have a growlight indoors - some cheap thing I rigged up with a growlight bulb I got off Amazon, and a shade from Ikea; if it gets too cold I may move them over to my house. Other than that, I'll be treating them like houseplants until May 11th, at which point the best couple ones will go in my garden plot, and the rest will be shared with the rest of my community gardeners.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:44 AM on March 6
What you do next strongly depends on where you are, as that impacts your growing zone - your growing zone is just a way to track where, on average, the last date of an expected frost would be. For instance - I am in zone 7B, and it says the last frost date for 7B is April 20th. The seed packet should tell you about when to start the seeds indoors, and when to move the seedlings outside - it'll be something like "start indoors about 8 weeks before last frost, transplant outdoors about X weeks after last frost." That's how I figured out when to start the seeds indoors (I counted back the right number of weeks from April 20th) and when I'll be moving the baby pepper plants outside (looks like May 11th is the date I picked for that). So if you're also in Zone 7B, you planted the seedlings at about the right time. You can look up your growing zone online - they just need your zip code.
In between now and when I plant them, I'm going to keep an eye on them, keep them moist, and keep them inside (or I may move them to the greenhouse in my community garden). They don't need light until they sprout, but once they sprout they should have light (hence the greenhouse). I have a growlight indoors - some cheap thing I rigged up with a growlight bulb I got off Amazon, and a shade from Ikea; if it gets too cold I may move them over to my house. Other than that, I'll be treating them like houseplants until May 11th, at which point the best couple ones will go in my garden plot, and the rest will be shared with the rest of my community gardeners.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:44 AM on March 6
Response by poster: Sorry to be clear I'm growing zone 10a It's just been unseasonably cold and rainy recently.
posted by Carillon at 11:19 AM on March 6
posted by Carillon at 11:19 AM on March 6
Hmm.
Well, you are past the last average frost for that zone. But, as you've noticed - sometimes the weather has its own ideas about how to conduct itself. I'd try keeping things indoors, but with as much light as possible, until the weather starts to calm down a little; this is the weather site i use to keep an eye on expected high and low temperatures over the next couple weeks. (We're due for a nighttime cold snap in late March here in NYC, and I'll likely bring my peppers in from the greenhouse then.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:59 AM on March 6
Well, you are past the last average frost for that zone. But, as you've noticed - sometimes the weather has its own ideas about how to conduct itself. I'd try keeping things indoors, but with as much light as possible, until the weather starts to calm down a little; this is the weather site i use to keep an eye on expected high and low temperatures over the next couple weeks. (We're due for a nighttime cold snap in late March here in NYC, and I'll likely bring my peppers in from the greenhouse then.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:59 AM on March 6
If a fan is too much hassle, gently brushing your hand over the seedlings as often as possible also helps. And it’s so fun.
posted by clew at 2:47 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 2:47 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
How many baby peppers are we talking? Peppers really like to wait until the soil's nice and warm overnight, not just after first frost, so depending on how many, you may be able to rig them up with a desk lamp right over them and pot up, or need to do something more complex.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:16 PM on March 6
posted by deludingmyself at 8:16 PM on March 6
Response by poster: Thanks so much to everyone! I really appreciate it and went out today to get a grow light. I had hoped to separate and just leave out during the day in bright sun as it's decently warm during they day, but you've convinced me.
posted by Carillon at 10:33 PM on March 6
posted by Carillon at 10:33 PM on March 6
AskMe questions stay open for a year. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would appreciate periodic updates on how your plants progress.
posted by flabdablet at 1:12 AM on March 7
posted by flabdablet at 1:12 AM on March 7
As an aside: you'll have the best success transplanting outside if you rely on soil temperature instead of a calendar. Soil thermometers are relatively cheap. When a 3 day average temperature is 60 degrees or more it is safe to plant hot weather crops.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:26 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
posted by oneirodynia at 3:26 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
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About two weeks before that, you can start hardening them off. That means slowly exposing them to the elements to get them used to sun and wind. Here are some detailed instructions for doing that. You can also see in the photos there that the plants are pretty far along, compared to what you have now, by the time that's happening.
You also don't want your seedlings to get root bound in the meantime, so if they are close together or in very small cells, you may need to transplant them into larger temporary pots before they're ready to move outdoors.
posted by redfoxtail at 7:10 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]