How did chili

How did chili

The easiest thing in the chili world is to sow chili. All that is needed are seeds, soil, heat and moisture. Nature takes care of the rest. But to be successful, there are several factors that come into play, whether you get green little sprouts out of the ground, or end up with rotten seeds buried in the ground. In this article, we will try and help you get started with your chili in the best possible way.

Chilli cultivation

Seed

When you are going to get seeds for chili, you should buy from safe dealers, established growers or private individuals with a good reputation. Keep in mind that it takes a good 6 to 8 months before you get fruit on the seed you are about to grow. It can be quite upsetting if you discover after hours of pampering and tending to your plant that it is not what you thought it was. Therefore, we strongly advise against buying seeds for exotic chilies on, for example, ebay. The best seeds you can get are isolated seeds. Chili can cross pollinate which means that two chinense species that are close to each other can get pollen from each other. They can then be cross-pollinated. The fruit will grow like the others, but the seeds from this fruit will form a new type of plant when it grows. New crosses are often unstable and we expect 7 to 8 generations before the plant is stable.

When choosing seeds, it is also a good idea to think about what you will use the chili for. Do you want strong varieties that you can impress your friends with, flavorful varieties that are good for food, varieties that produce a lot of fruit or rare varieties that few others have. Regardless of the choice, the procedure is the same.

Preparations

Plug board for chili. 150 cells

It's easy to see, but we chili heads love to excel with the highest possible germination percentage. And there are several simple methods and precautions that increase your chance of success. You can see in a number of different mediums. Sowing soil is most common, but soil mixed 50/50 with vermucelite is the best. Feel free to add a little Nytta Basalt + as well, this increases the ability to germinate. You can also germinate in paper, rockwool and rootit cubes.

It is good to have a plug board. It can be as big as you want, or as many as you want. If you want that much, perhaps a 60, 80, 100 cell plug board is the best. If you only want to see a few, you can manage with 6, 10, 20 cells. You also need a warm place to put the trays after you have planted the seeds. Some put them above radiators, the top of electrical items that emit heat or water heaters. If you want to take it a little longer, you can use a reptile mat. These are mats that are thin heating cables and adjustable. If you use seed soil, you fill up the cells and poke a small hole into which you stick the seeds. They only need a few mm underground. If you use rockwool/rootit, you put the seeds down the hole in them. When all the seeds have been set, moisten the medium you use well. Let it drain and stand for a couple of hours. Then take a spray bottle and make them well moist again. Now is also the time to cover the cells. Completely normal gladpack works well. Stretch it over to keep the moisture in, but poke a few holes here and there to let air in and out. When the sprouts peek out, it's time to put them under the light. Feel free to use Nytta Basalt + in the seeding soil, this is good for the sprouts and gives somewhat better germination!

Cultivation

Plants in 2 liter pots

As soon as the sprouts have reached the surface, it is good to prick out the cells and move them over to new cells that are under light. The lighting should be as close to the plants as possible. For the cultivation of newly sown plants, T5 fluorescent tubes and energy saving bulbs are the best. Just make sure the kelvin on the fluorescent tubes is around 4000-6500 kelvin. The more watts, the better. You never get enough light. The plants should be around 18 degrees when they grow. If you are good with light, you will get compact plants that will flourish when the temperature is increased. This is good for us who cultivate indoors. Lack of space quickly becomes acute. When the plants have had their first three sets of true leaves, it is time to repot them into larger pots. This is something that must be done several times before the plant is replanted outside. From one cell it is fine to go to 7cm pots. Here they can grow quite a bit before you plant further into 2l pots. When the roots stick out at the bottom of the 7cm pots, you can move them on to the 2 liter pots. The soil used is rose soil/organic plant soil. Until then, you do not need to add nutrients, there is still plenty of it in the soil. When you switch to 2 liter pots, it may be an idea to start adding nutrients. I typically use 1 tbsp epsom salt, 1 tbsp batguano, 1 tbsp neem cake and 1 tbsp wormcastings. In the soil I also have medium-large perlite, about 30%. This is to make the soil lighter and airier. It also drains much better. Now that the plants and pots are getting bigger, so is the area. Remember that the lights should hang close and close. You want plenty of light to get strong plants. When they are in the 2 liter pots, I increase the temperature to 20 degrees. Now the plants will grow taller and have fine branches. The next transplant is to 5 liter pots. Here I increase the aforementioned additions by 1 tablespoon per pot. Now the plants must not be replanted before they are set out. The bigger the final pot, the bigger the plant. Often they end up in 26/37 liter pots.

It is very important to have a good overview of what you are sowing!

During this process, one may encounter problems. One problem that is common is steaming off. This means that the plant shrinks on the stem which is watery. When this happens there is very little to do other than remove the plant and compost it. This comes from over watering small plants. You avoid this by watering so that it is moist and not wet. Yellow leaves on the plants are either; over watering or lack of magnesium. Over watering is solved by letting the plant dry out before watering it again. Magnesium can be dissolved by mixing 2 tablespoons of epsom salt in 1 liter of water, which you spray the plants with once a week. Burnt, brown-spotted leaves are burned by nutrients. Flush the plant with clean water and do not feed for a while. Small warts on the underside of the leaves/stem are due to high humidity and are called oedema. Not critical, but cut down on humidity. The most common problem is too little light. Too little light results in long, spindly and unattractive plants. You will also experience getting little fruit on such plants. Again the need for light is stressed!!