Are you excited yet? Can you taste the heat already? I just started my seedlings barely two months ago and I'm already drooling over the prospect of fresh, hot, delicious peppers growing like crazy in my garden beds. Buuut I digress, this section is supposed to show you how to start your seeds out. I recommend doing this as early as possible in the year if you plan on growing them outdoors. In Oregon, I typically start my seedlings on New Year's Eve so they're ready to transplant when the weather gets better. 

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First, you're going to want to consider where you are purchasing your seeds. I HIGHLY recommend reading as many reviews from customers as you can, as you can easily get slammed with low germination rates, or in my experience, none of the plants turning out to be the variety advertised (it's incredibly frustrating to plant 40 Habanero plants and they all turn out to be Mad Hatters or Big Jim Chilis)due to cross pollination. I've found both Tradewinds Fruit and Pepper Joe to be both incredibly consistent and reliable in both germination and lack of cross-fertilization. 

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Once you've got your seeds, you'll need your starting medium (soil), as well as your containers. Sphagnum Peat Moss is a fantastic starting medium as it is lightly packed (great for root propagation), retains water well, and stores nutrients so they aren't washed away when you water your plants.  While I have used it by itself repeatedly very successfully, some manufacturers recommend cutting it with other sources of nutrition such as vermiculite, both can be found in just about any garden section of garden supply store. 

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For seeds at home, you'll want to use small, biodegradable pot strips commonly available at your local garden section/store as well. Many places sell complete seedling starter kits with pods, a tray, and dome to cover. If you're looking for the easy route, this is it. In larger quantities, you'll want to use the pot strips with a 1020 tray (black plastic trays that they pot strips are placed in) with a dome. Seeds, medium, and pots should cost you about $10 if you're just doing the one batch. 

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To actually sow the seeds, prepare the medium (in the pot strips if you're using them) with a generous dose of water. The medium should be well saturated, but not swimming. You might have to use your fingers to mash things up and get the water to really soak in, adding more moss if needed. Once thoroughly wet, place a 1/2" hole directly in the center of each pot or pod and place 3-4 seeds in it, covering them up after. If you want to really up your germination rate, purchase a seedling heat mat (NOTE: ONLY use seedling heat mats as others are too hot and will scorch your peppers and they are not made to work well with water, something your pepper seedlings will need) and place your tray on top. Cover your tray with a clear plastic dome (to retain moisture) and leave in a dark, room temperature (~70 degrees Fahrenheit) space. 

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Once you have a few seedlings started (all of mine typically sprout right at one week after sowing), prop up the dome to allow airflow and get it under lights. When most seedlings have sprouted up, completely remove the dome, ensuring to add water if things start to dry out. At this point your goal is to maintain a damp medium: not completely dry, but you don't want the medium soaking wet (its a tricky concept to reach this balance at first, but you'll get the hang of it with experience). Don't worry about fertilizers or anything crazy right now, as the seeds you planted contain the nutrients necessary for your plants newborn stages. 

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Keep them under lighting as they continue to grow. If your grow space has natural lighting, I recommend narrow spectrum lights (the red and blue guys that make everything look purple). For those that have no natural light in their grow space (like me), I recommend getting broad or full spectrum lights (white/yellow in color) to make up for the lack of natural light.

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Once you have your first set of true leaves, you're ready to thin the herd and up-pot them for their the first time. True leaves are the second set of leaves on your plant, and the first set grown outside the soil. You'll be able to spot these easily as they will have a well defined vein pattern, whereas your first set won't. The process for this is easy: for each pod or pot, pick the strongest and healthiest looking seedling. Gently pull all of the other seedlings out of the pod or pot and discard, while leaving the strongest intact. Take the pod or pot and plant it in a slightly larger pot. At home and in small quantities, one quart pots (roughly 6" in diameter) work great, but you can use Styrofoam cups if you need to cut costs, just keep in mind to punch a few drainage holes so the soil can drain, preventing root rot (this is crucial as pepper plants DO NOT like soggy roots).. When up-planting this time around, you'll want to leave at least 1/2"-1" from the top of the (new, bigger) pot, and bunker the seedling in alllmost up to its first leaves with potting soil (NOT garden soil). Give it a healthy dose of water, and return to the light, repeating for every plant you have. 

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This is where I start my plants' fertilizer regimen, starting them off with a half dose of a nitrogen heavy fertilizer every other week, working them up to a full dose a couple cycles in. On alternating weeks, I also give them an epsom salt bath by dissolving 1 tbsp of epsom salt in a gallon of water and spraying it over the plants. This is incredibly important as it gives a healthy dose of magnesium to the plants, helping prevent yellowing of leaves, spindly plants, and help fruit mature later on. As they start to grow, monitor their soil and water it every few days. Don't water it if the soil looks damp, and don't over water it.  

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When your plant has 8-10 true leaves, you can now "top" them. While this step isn't absolutely necessary, I prefer it with some varieties that tend to grow quicker like Cayenne, Jalapeno, and Serrano as it strengthens the stems. It also increases the vegetative growth along the stem, and will hopefully produce a higher yield. To do this, you simply (but GENTLY!) snip the stem with a sharp pair of scissors above the 6th (roughly, but 5-7 depending on where you can get the scissors in) leaf. 

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If you're planning on growing your peppers in containers, you can skip the next section, which is meant for those planning to grow in beds. Before you move on to the maintain section, however, you need to understand how to up-pot. Up-potting is exactly how it sounds: moving your plants into bigger pots. This is vital as your plants NEED room to grow their roots, and waiting too long can cause them to become root-bound, which can restrict further development. It is incredibly easy though, so never fear! Simply look at the bottom of your pot. if it has roots coming out of it, its time to move into a bigger home, gradually increasing in size until they reach their final home (I typically end up putting them in 7 gallon pots by July). Gently squeeze the sides of your pot to pull the soil away from it, then slowly and gently slide the plant and soil out of the pot, and replant in its new home. Always remember to use potting soil and not garden soil when adding in your additional soil, and always giving it a deep watering to saturate the new soil (be quick, they'll wilt fast in summer heat!)

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