Pepper time!

Last week, on February 17, I went ahead and purchased my chili pepper seed from Thompson and Morgan.  I also went to Walmart and purchased the Jiffy peat pellets that I like to use to start seed in.  Today, February 24, my seeds arrived in my mail box!  Very exciting, especially on a cold and rainy Friday!  Rather than wait for Saturday, I decided to go ahead and plant them today.

Left side: dehydrated state, right side: hydrated.

For those who may have never used Jiffys before, the peat pellets come in two different sizes.  In the past, I have only used the smaller, standard size.  This year, because I am starting the peppers much earlier, I decided to go with the larger size.  The benefit to using a larger size is that I can let the plants grow for a longer amount of time before I have to pot them up into larger containers.

Pushing the pepper seed down into the Jiffy.  

Along with the chili peppers, I also went ahead and planted my bell pepper seed.  I used left over seed from last year rather than purchasing a new packet.  Remembering from my previous experiences, peppers take a lot longer to germinate than tomatoes, so I am hoping that I can get the peppers up and going before I need to kick them out from under the grow light to make room for the tomatoes.

Planted!  Bell peppers on the left, chili peppers on the right.

I turned the grow light on to heat up the green house as peppers need temperatures of at least 75 degrees Fahrenheit to germinate.

Recap:  Bell peppers and chili peppers planted in Jiffy peat pellets on February 24, 2012.

Next post:  Pepper Update