Help needed with germinating peppers and aubergines

[OverWyreGrower]

Me too, I don't want to "throw" any of my 35+ pepper plants away, even if they are small and weedy and not growing anymore leaves!

In fact, I have a small tomato plant called Charlie (!) who didn't survive re-potting very well, and I'm nurturing him with the faint hope that he'll grow big and strong like his brothers and sisters....

There, I said it. God, I'm sad, aren't I!

[shirlthegirl43]

LOL - this thread makes me not feel quite so daft for keeping a weeny tomato seedling which appears to be trying to grow leaves after me 'helping' get the seed off and taking the seed leaves with it! It will be kept now and see what happens!

[Flummery]

We're all Mother Earth types here, aren't we? (Except the fellas, obviously!)

[Headfry]

ROF LOL .... you help take the seeds cases of the emerging leaves too! hee hee - so do I, and no matter how much care I take, sometimes a leaf is damaged.....oh the guilt, the guilt....I must now make up for the damage done with extra TLC.

[madderbat]

So glad it's not just me that tries to 'help'!
I haven't started any courgettes yet - am I leaving it a bit late? Trouble is I don't want them to start rampaging away in the greenhouse while it's too cold to put them out, but I'm itching to get them going.

[Alison]

No, you've not left it too late for courgettes. I normally don't plant mine until middle of the month otherwise they get too big before I can put them out. Usually plant another one up at the beginning of May also to carry on when the main crop are flagging. This year I've got one in a pot from an early sowing as an experiment for an early greenhouse crop but that's not the normal for me.

[pixie]

Are everyone elses aubergine seedlings really really tiny? So few have come up, and they are so small that I can't help but wonder if they are just little weed seeds which have got mixed in with the compost I'm using!

[Alison]

Mine are still quite small yet with only one set of proper leaves. Germinated them in little paper pots and have just put them into 3" pots to grow on in the conservatory for a while. The ones in the garden center I saw today weren't much bigger and they wanted £1.50 for them!

[smallblueplanet]

Our aubs are about 3-4" with some quite big (relatively speaking!) leaves. They love light and warmth and enjoy it in the g/h when the weather is good.

[newgardengirl]

I finally have two tiny aubergine plants (out of six seeds planted) but they did take about three or four weeks to appear! Also one pepper seed has started to sprout but it's slower than a snail so I hope it hasn't given up!

[ysb33r]

I don't have enough space for lots of little pots sadly. The bigest part of the problem is when 4 out of 10 germinate and start to get leggy. How do I get the remaining seeds to germinate?

This is one reason why I have resorted to sprouting these seeds on wet paper towel in the airing cupboard. Usually they tend to sprout at roughly the same time. If they don't, which has happened, I just carefully cut out the sections of paper towl with the germinated ones and pot them on. The other are resprayed with water and the cling film replaced.

[FoxHillGardener]

Whoohoo, the Purple Tiger chilli seeds that I planted on 25 Feb (honest!) have germinated - well one of them has. It's been in a heated propogator since then and has seen pots of other chillies, aubergines, peppers and various other stuff come and go and now it's sat next to some of them on the kitchen widown sill. It must have known that if it didn't make a move soon it would have been consigned to the great compost heap in the sky - will have to check tonight to see if any of it's 5 friends are going to join the party! Mind you, still no sign of the Sweet Pimento peppers so maybe have to do without them - couldn't get them to germinate last year either so could also be duff seeds.

aha! Someone else growing purple tiger. Mine are self-collected seeds from a plant I bought last year. I was beginning to think they weren't viable but if yours took so long to germinate then I'll give them a bit longer and keep my fingers crossed

[rustylady]

My tomatoes and chillies (and sweet peppers) are germinated in 3 and a half inch pots (several seeds per pot) in a heated propagator. Tomatoes have germinated in around 7 days, but chillies and peppers have taken between 7 and 14 days. Haven't ever grown aubergines so can't comment on the size the seedlings should be. Seedling size is usually related to the size of the seed itself, e.g. small seeds = small seedlings, seeds courgette size bigger seedlings, and seeds like broad or runner beans = huge seedlings.

[terrier]

Hi, I just planted my pepper seeds today, by what I've just read, just a tiny bit too late. Oh well, live in hope.

[Flummery]

They'll catch up Terrier. April's reasonable time. Lots of people like to try to get an early crop but check the seed packet - I bet it says April's ok for sowing under glass.