Starting Peppers & Chillis Indoors: Part 2 - Making a plan
This post will detail my checklist for creating a plan (yes, I'm planning my plan!) to successfully start aubergine, sweet pepper and chilli plants indoors during winter for planting outside in summer. By the end of the post I will have a list of decisions to make and topics to explore to create my plan for starting seedling indoors. Future posts will go into detail on each topic.
So where did I go wrong last year? I started my peppers, chillis, tomatoes and aubergine indoors, planting seeds in late March (when there was still the occasional frost outside) on a south facing windowsill in small pots of compost. The tomatoes did great and the aubergines took a while to mature but were doing well by mid summer. The peppers on the other hand didn't do well. Only the sweet peppers germinated and the young plants remained small. Even after planting out they didn't grow much.
After reading and watching all of the internets wisdom on growing peppers and paying closer attention to the seed packets it's clear why my peppers didn't do well: I didn't provide enough warmth for germination of chillis and I started the plants too late in the season. But more importantly I wasn't well prepared with either knowledge or equipment. Knowing that peppers should be started indoors with warmth isn't helpful if you don't provide enough warmth or enough time for the young peppers to establish.
I've boiled down the list of decisions into this checklist and will figure out the details of each one before I sow my pepper seeds this year. Each question below will link to a post on that topic.
Why do I need to make a plan for starting my pepper seedlings indoors?
As I mentioned in part #1, I had no luck with chillis and peppers last year.So where did I go wrong last year? I started my peppers, chillis, tomatoes and aubergine indoors, planting seeds in late March (when there was still the occasional frost outside) on a south facing windowsill in small pots of compost. The tomatoes did great and the aubergines took a while to mature but were doing well by mid summer. The peppers on the other hand didn't do well. Only the sweet peppers germinated and the young plants remained small. Even after planting out they didn't grow much.
After reading and watching all of the internets wisdom on growing peppers and paying closer attention to the seed packets it's clear why my peppers didn't do well: I didn't provide enough warmth for germination of chillis and I started the plants too late in the season. But more importantly I wasn't well prepared with either knowledge or equipment. Knowing that peppers should be started indoors with warmth isn't helpful if you don't provide enough warmth or enough time for the young peppers to establish.
My planning checklist for starting seedlings indoors
The other thing I learnt from the internet this winter, about starting peppers indoors, is that while the general method seems straight forward (start them early with warmth, provide plenty of light and plant out when it gets warm) there are many different techniques to achieve this each with numerous small details. Without a clear plan I risk either 1) not harvesting peppers again this summer or 2) wasting money on equipment I don't really need.I've boiled down the list of decisions into this checklist and will figure out the details of each one before I sow my pepper seeds this year. Each question below will link to a post on that topic.
- When should I start my pepper seedlings?
- What method will I use for germinating pepper seeds?
- How much space do I need for my pepper seedlings?
- What method will I use to grow my pepper seedlings after germination?
- Do I need to provide additional lighting?
- When will I plant the peppers outdoors?
When all of these questions are answered I will have my master plan for being successful with peppers and chillis this year. Hopefully this will also help you prepare for a winter planting of pepper seedlings and enjoy a harvest of home grown peppers this summer.
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