December Peppers Day 0 to Day 20

A lot of growth can happen in 20 days.

Day 0 to 10

I have to be honest. I did NOT start my peppers on December 15th. Nor on the 16th, the 17th or the 18th. I started on the 20th. I knew that the holiday rush would potentially set me back but I still fell into its trap. Since I did not start on time, my Day 0 starts on December 20th.

Getting started was easy since I already had a lot of the materials I needed lying around. (If you're interested in a startup tips for this project, I wrote about it here.) I have seeds, peat pots to sow in, coconut coir as my growing medium, a small heating pad and 2 LED daylight flood shaped bulbs. Ordinarily I would use seed starting soil but the closest hardware store was out at the time and I needed to get started. I sowed 2 seeds into each peat pot diagonally from each other because I knew I would eventually separate and place viable seedlings into their own cups. I took a chunk of a coconut coir block and re-hydrated it before placing inside of the peat pots

Eventually by day 10, I started to see little cracks in the coir where the seedlings where sprouting up.

Day 11 to 20

These are 18 day old roots!

Day 20: Final transplants

On days 18 and 19 I began the first transplanting process. At this stage the seeds have germinated and created their first set of 'true leaves'. For this stage I needed cups, seed starting soil, water and a pen.

I still hadn't gotten seed starting soil so I just used potting soil mixed with coconut coir.

I waited until the coconut coir inside of the cells were about 80% dry. Seedlings are very fragile at this stage and separating them from a dryer soil results in less root tearing than if the soil was wet or moist. After separating and squeezing the sides of the peat cells, I used my finger to release the sides of the 'soil' block from walls of the cell. At this point I gently begin to press and split the block down the middle. I really must stress that I am using as little force as possible and I use the tips of my fingers, using them in an up and down tapping motion.

I like to use cups to transfer the plants into. Since I'm growing a lot of plants at the same time and my space is limited, I'm using small styrofoam cups. I labeled the cups with the type of plant, its variety name and a letter. I use a pen and poke 1 hole in the bottom of each up for drainage. Assigning each plant its own letter allows me to track the growth of each plant intimately and watch their growth patterns.

Please excuse the handwriting.

The image above is a sneak peak from days 21 to 40. I must admit, I'm not the most attentive plant mother so these plants are going to have to fight for their lives. During the next 3 to 4 months you will see plants grow big and tall while others will wither and die. I'm excited to see what the 2024 growing season has to offer!