When should a 3rd leaf appear on my chilli, tomato, aubergine & pepper seedlings?

[Nature Girl]

I am a new Lottie holder this season & I am successfully growing the following:

Onions, spring onions, shallots & garlic in one bed.
Lettuce & a herb garden in the next.
A full bed of potatoes with another 5lb still waiting to plant
& I have 2 rows of cabbages from a neighbour

I have many seedlings in the house but the tomato, aubergine & pepper seedlings all planted on the 31st April 2006 & the chilli planted on the 18th April 2006 have still only 2 leaves & are around an inch high.

I thought extra leaves would have grown by now. The seedlings are in a sunny position in my kitchen but not on the window sill. My neighbour is putting a greenhouse up for me so they will be grown in there.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[Shortie]

Hi Nature Girl and welcome!

I'd be interested in this one too as I've only just started to see signs of a third leaf on two of mine and am worries it means they'll not big big enough on time to fruit this year...? I too grow mine indoors as i don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel

That said, they are looking healthy plants so I'm not worried they'll die on me, just that will they put on enough size to fruit?

[Nature Girl]

Replies from other Lotie holders will be appreciated by us both then. Good to see someone else in the same dilemma.

I have a cold frame & I have built my own small cloche/poly tunnel with pipes, fleece & BBQ skewers. This will only be big enough to accommodate plants to around 1 ft.

Thank you for the reply.... Shortie!

[pigletwillie]

Your peppers et al will be girding their loins ready for the next push and will start to produce new leaves within a week or two. Let them grow slow into tough stocky plants rather than quickly into long spindly ones. Some of my chilies are around a month old and are only 2 inches high now with their first true leaves. Dont give them too much heat(10-14 degrees) or water but do give them light.

Pot them into the next size up pot when required which may be suprisingly soon as they will be bulking up their roots at the moment. Try not to let them get pot bound at all.

[Nature Girl]

Great reply, Thank you!!! At work at minuet so should not be surfing net.

Ho Hum....had better get on with the job in hand instead of thinking of Lottie issues!!!!

Thank you pigletwillie for your great advice.

[Strepsy]

Hi there, I'm a newbie on the forum and pretty new to gardening in general but I just had to post as I just took a picture of my chilli and pepper plants. These are about 9 weeks old but to be honest up to about the 7 week mark they were growing so slowly I thought they were never going to get going, then all of a sudden they've started to shoot up, and out



Pepper (California Wonder) 29p from Lidl, and the chilli is Cayenne which were free with GYO.

[Shortie]

Thanks PW and Strepsy, I'm at ease once more. Mee too, at work and should be getting on with my mountain of things to do, but always seem to revert back to thinking about the garden..... oops

[Nature Girl]

Great to see the picture of the chilli. As a matter of interest I planted 2 types of tomatoes. The one in the sunny position has only 2 leaves & the 1 I thought was too leggy & put in a corner of the kitchen will a small amount of light now has 4 leaves. I will repot them up to the 1st set of leaves to make a second set of roots.

Thank you for all the info!!!!

[cotton54321]

nice plants strepsy!