In my last post about our seedlings, I mentioned that I thought maybe where the peppers were in the tray was a bit too cold. So I squeezed things over a bit and pulled the tray and heat mat a couple of inches away from the end of the aquarium greenhouse wall. I checked them a few hours later, and would you believe, I found peppers sprouting already! Maybe they would have sprouted anyhow, but it sure was nice to see!
As of this morning, they were noticeably bigger.
When I shut off the lights for the night, the one that is upright in the photo was like the bent one in the foreground. There’s just the two seedlings, but that’s better than none!
I’ve just come back from a long day, which I’ll write about in a separate post, but I checked them again when I got back. Not only are the peppers a bit bigger (though there’s still just two of them), there is now a second drum gourd seedling starting to show through the soil! It’s in the same pot as the first one, with no sign of seedling in any of the other drum gourd or zucca melon pots, so I hope to see more seedlings soon.
I’m just happy to finally be seeing some peppers showing up!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
So exciting to see those green shoots appear – Great job!
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Have you ever had your pepper seedlings ‘permanently stall’? That’s happened to me a couple of times, where I’ll get the germination just fine, but that’s it. They then don’t go beyond that first leaf set. Compacted soil maybe? Too cold? Hopefully it won’t be the case this year. The last 2 years I’ve over-wintered a couple pepper plants inside, just dug them out of the garden before the frost. Doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s nice to get an earlier crop. Have you tried that?
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This is only the second time we’ve tried to grow peppers from, and last year, they amazingly survived the Great Cat Crush. This is the first time we’ve tried this variety, or started any this early. Even when we grew a hot pepper, a few years before our move, it was from a purchased transplant. I’m afraid I have no experience in them yet! It’s definitely something I will watch out for, though. I know they’re supposed to be hot weather plants, but that’s about it.
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They are rather slow growers. Probably good you started so early. I’m curious to see how well they do under lights for so long—do keep us posted please! 😁
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I will!
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