Super hot chillis, to heat or not to heat

[jackarmy]

That is my question.
So ive been growing chillis for several years and always do pretty well with them, but the suprhots are now forcing questions of me, ie. do i buy a heated propegator to give them an earlier start or not?.

Ive always grown my chillis on my east facing bedroom windowsill, i have two windows there so there is plenty of room and i normally start late january - mid feb.
When the seedlings appear then i simply move them every afternoon from the east facing b/room to the west facing b/room when light levels require it, its done me fine untill now.

A nameless grape has given me a couple of superhot seeds , (i wont name her but she has gone with the wind if you know what i mean ) which now has me questioning weather to invest in a heated propergator to get them kicking in early as possible...but
in the 2014 season i bought a ghost pepper plant which grew to be a cracking plant but only produced one flower, so i gave it up as a bad job and binned it come september.
Now the point is, i should have overwintered that plant and apparently it would have got off to a much better start in 2015, such a long growing season.............

So, do i buy a propegator or save my energy bills , plant at normal time and aim at overwintering instead, my heart tells me get a propegator, my head says overwinter.

Sorry that took so long lol, all advice welcome and thanks to the windy one for making me type this .

[skeggijon]

I wouldn't personally buy a heated propagator for the sake of a couple of seeds, but if you're going to make full use of it then go for it. I've got two large heated propagators with LED growlights above them and a Geopod with built in T5 growlights that I was given as a xmas pressie and all of them are full to busting at the moment - and I haven't even started my Toms and Chillies yet!

[jackarmy]

Oh man, a propergator with bult in growlights? sighhhhh....................now im totally boogered, got any links for that Jon?

[sparrow100]

I have a very simple heated windowsill propagator. I haven't noticed much hike to the bills and it's on most of the time between now and the end of April.

[skeggijon]

Link for Geopod Heated Propagator with Integrated Propagation Lights

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

John! Did Santa award you the big one or small one?

Must admit was drawn to these, but still working on the pro's n cons of investing in a Vitopod propagator and a T5 Growlight! I'm not no way no how rushin to the decision!

[skeggijon]

^The small one Deano, but since that is still three times the size of a standard propagator, it gives a fair amount of space.

[Scarlet]

I couldn't be without my heated props. I have two and they really are worth their weight in gold. I don't think they take much electricity, though mine are really basic. They really speed up germination and the constant heat usually ensures they all germinate around the same time and I get more successes than failures. I start most seeds of in mine - not just chillies! All my toms, cues even my french beans.

[Scarlet]

This is very similar to my propagator which is now over 18 years old (this isn't my photo but I'm not going out the shed to get mine)! It's really basic, no thermostat, just two vents on the top. As soon as I see any signs of germination the seedling is taken out and put on the windowsill.

[Chris11]

I'm very similar to Scarlet, only have a basic heated propagator, which I use to get everything started before transferring to a sunny windowsill. This makes room in the propagator for the next cab off the rank in my growing plans. And not just chillies, tomatoes and courgettes also benefit. And I agree that, however basic, a heated propagator still makes a massive difference.

My propagator came from a kind person from my local Freecycle. It's more than paid itself back to my local community since then as I have had more spare plants to give away as a result of increased success with germination.

Vitapods and Geopods look fantastic and I would love to have them. I think chillies in particular would benefit from a temperature controlled propagator.

[Philthy]

Same process as Chris11 and Scarlet for me too.

I use a Garland G52 propagator. Price I paid was about £40. On it's own it's really just a heated tray with the temperature fixed at 19 celcius, but as this is the optimum temperature for germination of the widest range of seeds, not just chilli, I find it quite adequate. It'll take x2 A4 seed trays with fitted, ventilated lids (same as shown in Scarlet's pic).

I'm an advocate of overwintering. Once you have a cycle going you should get similar and probably better results in terms of yield from overwintered super hots to those aided by lights in year 1. By cycle I mean you're sowing seeds for next year and harvesting from plants sown the previous year.
But there's no guarantee your overwintered plants will make it, even with the best preparation. So it makes sense to keep two specimens of each plant just in case, but then you may have to go with fewer varieties so as not to have issues with space. Patience is the other thing; something like a Bhut Jolokia under natural conditions in year 1 will yield next to nothing in a ropey summer like the one we've just had, and 18 months for the chance of a proper crop is a LONG time to wait if it's one you've not grown before.

So each method has it's pros and cons.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

[jackarmy]

Great , thanks all. Jon thanks for the link , thats one awesome piece of kit, maybe one day . thats a lotta cash. even though its probably worth every penny think my mrs would freak right out lol, so i think ill gave a shop around on gumtree etc. Just spent £150 on poly sheets to extend the greenhouse so id better be a bit thriftier for the moment .
thanks again for the replies.

[Scarlet]

Sankey Growarm 300 Heated Propagator (1599): Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

How about something like this? you might get away with this one without the Mrs freaking out

[jackarmy]

Perfect Scarlet , thanks very much ordered and now waiting
Saved me doing the searching as well , your santas little helper

[the big lebowski]

on the packet of scotch bonnet chilli seeds i have it says that they need to be heated to around 28 degrees c to germinate