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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Starting Peppers from Seed

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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Starting Peppers from Seed
  • Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 08:12:45 -0500

After having grown pepper transplants for >25 years, my experience tells me that you did most things right. the most serious deficiency that resulted in plant loss was lack of light energy. There's no real substitute for natural light for growing strong, healthy transplants. Root rot at the stage you describe can easily happen to plants in artificial light. A small greenhouse to get your plants growing after emergence would make a huge difference. You should expect >95% success with relatively fresh seed if you have a greenhouse rather than starting in artificial light. I'd also advise you to use as little misting as possible on your trays before seedling emergence. Once they're up, water thoroughly as seldom as possible. Let the soil feed water to the plants, and then replenish the soil with water. This will cut back on populations of micro-organisms you don't want, including algae.

Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center
www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html


I have roughly 400 pepper transplants in the ground right now on
fabric mulch in raised beds. I started my transplants back in
February and March (first year doing so and was not too sure how soon
I could them in the ground..I am Zone 6b...I got them in the ground
before May 1 but prolonged periods of rain had me transplanting even
at the end of the month.

I used 1020 trays with 288 cells and I put a seed in each cell. I
did four trays along with trays with a variety of tomatoes and had a
48" germination mat that kept the soil at 60 to 70 degrees (depending
on how warm my basement got...I have a supplemental wood furnace down
there so everything was nice and toasty. I used those clear lids as
well to keep in the moisture since the air my basement was so dry.

The germination period raged from 14 to 20 days. I had near 100%
germination rates. Regardless of the type of pepper (sweet bell,
ristas, anchos, Hungarian) they all started germinating around the
same time with some being a little bit dormant. From 14 to 20 days
nearly all had germinated though).

I used seed starting soil from three sources and found little
difference in result. One was an organic source (Johnny's Organic
seed starting soil), one was one I made from a combination of mulched
compost, mulched sawdust (to give it some fluff) and worm casting/
soil (I have no way to collect worm castings), and a Lowe's super
fluffy ground material that actually seemed to have aluminum (or
simply, metal) flakes in it, which makes me wonder how they made the
junk. It worked though.

No amendments to any of the above and there was no difference in
germination rates or post germination growth rates. I did not water
heavy, I simply misted the surface and kept the surface moisture
high. Once they had germinated and grown an inch I began to water to
help the roots a bit. THis seemed to work well. It is important NOT
too over water and let them go dry for a little bit so the the plant
gets some air. I probably lost 100 transplants at this stage, prior
to moving them over to larger cells because the roots simply rotted
off. I also made the mistake of putting young transplants out in
heavy early spring sun and sun scalded some just after true leaf
development and I lost some as a result of that.

I started with probably 1200 to 1400 transplants total (not including
peas and eggplants) and I put less than half of those in the ground.
So, another part of my first year lesson learned is to expect losses
and over produce at least twice what I need. If they survive I can
always sell them at early markets!

My tomatoes are doing the best right now (I posted a picture of them
on New Farm forum in the Dailies section). My Romas are almost
exploding, which makes me giddy. First year and so far, so good.

I hope that helps!

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com
rstewart AT zoomtown.com




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