Potting on Chillis

[Gemizzel]

Hi everyone

This is my 2nd year growing chillis and my first year with a polytunnel.

My question is, when my seedlings are ready for potting on, do I still have to pot them on gradually or can they go straight in the beds in the PT.

Have read conflicting info online.

[Lamboluke]

Hope you don't mind me tagging on but aswell as the above question, what is the ideal final pot size for all non dwarf varieties. I've read the bigger the pot the bigger the plant but surely there are limits?
Mine are current in 7cm pots and I've just purchased 15 or 18cm (can't remember which at the minute) for potting on.

[Scarlet]

Gemizzel, you can't plant chillies out into your poly tunnel until the last frost and the temps are at least over 10 at night. They are very tender plants and need to be kept in the warm to grow. Until then pot on as normal and keep them indoors.

Lamboluke, it's difficult to say what size will be your final pot. Keep potting on slowly, eventually the plant will slow down its root growth and you will know that it's ready to stay put for a while.

[Lisasbolt]

Well Scarlet beat me to it, wait until a few weeks after your last frost. My grandma always said "don't plant till May is out" although i always did mid May.
You will be really upset when it has taken months for those chilli's to grow and to rush it will be a shame, either you will lose or it will stunt growth

[Scarlet]

My grandma used to say " don't cast a clout till May is out".
Prefer yours...I'm gonna use it often

[Jay-ell]

Don't dig a clout till the may be out - the may in question is the hawthorn blossom

[Martin H]

The "clout" in the saying is your warm winter coat. So I like Scarlet's grandma's version.

[Lisasbolt]

I said my saying wrong it was meant to say "don't plant out till May is out"
damn these quick replies

[Gemizzel]

Thanks all! Definitely do not want to rush anything they are coming on fantastically. I have a light box which my seed trays are under at the moment and they look so green and lush
The box is big enough to pot them on and still be able to keep them under the light until they are quite a bit bigger

[Kristen]

when my seedlings are ready for potting on, do I still have to pot them on gradually or can they go straight in the beds in the PT.

When the polytunnel, or greenhouse, is warm enough the plants can be planted out into the borders. Until then (I assume you have them somewhere warm enough, minimum 10C, perhaps a windowsill or conservatory) they need potting on when the pots start to become potbound. If you find they barely get through the day on a single watering that's a good sign that they haven't got a large enough pot.

The theory is that repeatedly potting-on, to a pot about an inch or two larger [diameter] the roots will expand to fill that new inch of compost, and with successive potting-on will form a really dense rootball, which is then able to take up water and nutrients very effectively. If you stick them straight into a large pot the roots will grow out until they hit the sides of the pot before they then circle round, so the root mass in the centre won't be anything like as dense as a plant that was potted on successively.

The other problem with small-plant into large-pot is that the compost in the large pot will hold a lot of water, relative to the size of plant, and there is a much greater risk (particularly for a Newbie) of over watering and thus "drowning" the young plant.

[Gemizzel]

When the polytunnel, or greenhouse, is warm enough the plants can be planted out into the borders. Until then (I assume you have them somewhere warm enough, minimum 10C, perhaps a windowsill or conservatory) they need potting on when the pots start to become potbound. If you find they barely get through the day on a single watering that's a good sign that they haven't got a large enough pot.

The theory is that repeatedly potting-on, to a pot about an inch or two larger [diameter] the roots will expand to fill that new inch of compost, and with successive potting-on will form a really dense rootball, which is then able to take up water and nutrients very effectively. If you stick them straight into a large pot the roots will grow out until they hit the sides of the pot before they then circle round, so the root mass in the centre won't be anything like as dense as a plant that was potted on successively.

The other problem with small-plant into large-pot is that the compost in the large pot will hold a lot of water, relative to the size of plant, and there is a much greater risk (particularly for a Newbie) of over watering and thus "drowning" the young plant.

thanks for explaining that! I always wondered why pots had to be increased gradually - makes perfect sense now!

all my seedlings are currently under lights as our house doesn't seem to get enough light for them and they become very leggy. Under lights they are doing really well.

[Kristen]

These are my Peppers, brought on under a Metal Halide lamp

Sown 10-Jan, pricked out 24-Jan (to 1" modules)



10 Feb 2015 (4 weeks from sowing)



26 Feb 2015 (6 weeks from sowing)

not got a note of when I potted them on to 9cm, about 2 weeks ago I think, just after the first photo was taken. They need moving on to 1L pots now ...

[Veggiemama]

Hi Kristen, can you help with buying a light.

Talk to me as if i was a 5 year old

Can you direct me to the type of light you use (as in an online shop i can buy it from) and tell me how to set it up.

I'd love to have that set up.
Thanking you in advance
veggiemama

[Kristen]

Worth reading the Cannabis forums, and asking some questions there. They have growing under lights down to a fine art - their High Value Crop probably helps! That's where I got all my knowledge from.

I have a Metal Halide lamp with a simple reflector. I'm not convinced that a posh reflector makes enough difference to be worth the money, but I have read the Cannabis boys comparing the various types and deducing that some of the posh ones are worthwhile. Don't bother with adjustable wings on the reflector or anything fancy like that, so a basic reflector like this will do:



Budget = £10

A discharge lamp (either Metal Halide or Sodium) can't just be plugged into the mains, sadly. It needs a Ballast. The Ballast has to be matched with the wattage of the bulb (although Lumatek make ballasts with selectable wattage, which is handy if you want to start off the season with, say, 400W and then increase to 600W to cover a larger growing area). The blurb with Lumatek ballasts also suggests that they use less electricity and give out more Lumens ... I have no idea how true that is, or how the laws of physics allow such an outcome ...



Lumatek adjustable ballast



Selector switch

Budget: Lumatek 400W £100, 600W £120, 1000W £200. Mine came off eBay for about half that.
A budget range ballast is probably about £40-50 for 400W/600W

Then you probably want a timer (although you could turn it on by hand in the morning, and off at night (or vice versa). You can't just plug a high wattage device (lets say 400W or more) into a regular timer - it will be likely, over time, to cause the contacts in the timer (when it comes on) to melt / erode to the point where they won't work any more. So you need a Contactor. A contactor has two 13AMP plugs on it, once plugs into your regular "segment" timer, that provides a low wattage signal to the Contactor to turn on, and off, and the contactor then connects the second 13AMP plug with the lamp. You can also buy integral Timers and Contactors.



the 2-way will control up to 2 x 1000W lamps. Budget = £22.50

[Kristen]

Timer - something like this:



£3.50

You need to replace the Metal Halide bulb each year. The light output falls off markedly, sadly, so whilst it looks fine in Season Two it won't be chucking out anything like as much light (but will still be burning the same amount of electricity ... )



Metal Halide bulb budget: £12.50 for 400W to £35.0 for 1000W

You can use either Metal Halide or Sodium, but for vegetative growth of your plants MH is better (Sodium is better for Flowering / Fruiting - the Cannabis boys will use both, at the various stages of the cropping cycle).

You can suspend the lamp's reflector with some string / whatever, but I find these Gro-Rollers handy:



They are friction rollers, you can pull the light up/down to any position. Handy to lift the light up for watering, and then move it back down again. Chains work well too.

Beware of the heat from Metal Halide bulbs. Plants probably need to be at least 24" away from the bulb - test a distance with the back of your hand that is not too hot for comfort

I find that a 400W bulb covers about 1 Metre Square of growing space - the plants around the edge are getting light from one side, so worth swapping them with plants in the middle every few days.

I think that's about it! Google for a Hydroponic Store, they sell all the various bits, often as a Kit which might be cheaper than the individual components.