Finally It’s Seed Starting Time

It’s time to start the pepper plants for the garden. I love growing peppers. There are 12 different varieties in this year’s line-up. We pickle them, freeze them, dry them, eat them fresh, and use them in recipes.

Here is my seed starting process in pictures.

I use a mini 20 soil block maker and a commercial organic, soilless mix to germinate the pepper seeds.

Here are the soil blocks ready to plant the seeds. I am using recycled hummus containers to hold the soil blocks. Each container will hold 16 blocks which will allow me to get 12 of the best seedlings for transplanting.

In the next picture, there are 80 blocks shown. The blocks are put on the container lids and the clear bottoms will be used as a little greenhouse to increase humidity and keep the soil blocks moist during germination.

Here are the containers all planted and labeled. Notice how compact they are. I can get hundreds of starts in the germination chamber I made. Here is a link to the germination box instructions... https://steemit.com/homesteading/@beyondordinary/easy-and-simple-germination-box-you-can-make-for-less-than-usd10

Into the germination box they go. Because this creates ideal germination conditions, you want to check for sprouts daily. As soon as you see the seeds sprouting, get them into the light or under the grow lights. Failure to do this will result in weak, leggy plants.

Here are the results. This next picture was taken 1 week after the seeds were planted.

The next step will be transplanting into the larger soil blocks. I like to do this at the size you see in the photo above. I select seedlings for transplanting based on appearance and quickness of sprouting. This gives me the strongest, healthiest plants.

Stay tuned for an update when the transplanting is done.

Happy Gardening!