Ok my daughter and I are complete beginners. We planted these sweet peppers from seeds just purchased at Lowe's some weeks back. We were away on vacation for the last 8 days and expected to come home to find these guys as goners but they seem to have done okay!
These were planted in McKenzie/Jiffy peat pots with netting, and before we went away they were much higher and only inches from the grow lights. When we went away we moved them down a bit from the lights, shortened the light window each day, and left them on a damp towel, all in an effort to avoid them overdrying out while we were away
We plan to eventually end up using 5gal grow bags outside but we are in northeastern MA and it's still far too cold to move them out.
The question we have is…. what is the next step, if there is one needed at this time? It looks like little baby roots starting to come through so I'm not sure if we need to size up? Do we move them back up closer to the light (and extend the hours again) now that we are home?
Thank you in advance! We are trying out best but as you may be able to tell, there is a bit of overthinking going on đđ
by Adventurous_Sun3892
4 Comments
I run my lights 16hr on 8hr off. They look great so far. I would place them in small cups of soil so the roots can continue to become better established. I try to keep my lights 6â above the sprouts
Plants like dirt. Put em in dirt. If outside dirt no good, do inside dirt until outside dirt good…then do outside dirt. Also plant like sun. Sun good. If no Sun, do inside sun until outside Sun come back.
Take the netting off the outside and plant in solo cups , or another smallish kind of pot . You could plant in its final pot if you wanted but youâd have to be careful to not overwater if they go straight to a 5+ gallon
You should start adding some fertilizer to your watering routine since there arenât any nutrients in those peat pellets and any in the seed are long gone. At this stage I do 1/2 strength of the âindoorâ plant dose on Miracle Gro for every watering. Theyâre maybe 6 inches or so if itâs still not outside time, I switch to the full indoor strength.Â
Theyâll also appreciate being outside during the day if itâs a nice day and above about 70. Even on an overcast day, the sunlight is stronger than most grow lights. A gentle breeze also helps their stems firm up and overall this helps reduce the shock of living indoors before being planted out in the garden. If theyâve only known a grow light, donât put them directly in the blazing sun, pick a cloudy day to start or a spot with a little shade or just early or late in the day if itâs warm enough.Â