Transplanting Your Seedlings “Potting Up”
Your seedlings will quickly outgrow their cells and if left too long will become root-bound or start growing out of the bottom of the tray making them difficult to remove. Eventually, you will need to transplant (or “up pot”) them into larger containers.
Seeds started in double cups do not require potting up! They can stay in their Solo cups while they are indoors (2 months max) before transplanting outdoors.
When to “pot up” hot pepper seedlings
When seedlings are very young their main tap root is very short and fragile and can be easily damaged when you try to pull it from the cell. Hot pepper plants are very resilient and can tolerate mild root damage, however it can stall out the plants growth. If you wait too long to transplant the seedling it is possible that the roots might become tangled within each other and grow out of the bottom of the tray making it difficult to pull out which could also increase root damage.
Important: Seedlings will quickly outgrow trays with small cells.
I like to wait until the seedlings get to about 1-2″ tall before I transplant them into a larger container. I like to lift the cell tray and look for roots. If the roots start poking through it’s a good time to pull them.
Materials For Potting Up
- Fabric nursery grow bags – or – 3.5″ plastic starter pots. They are very strong and will last many seasons.
- 1020 Trays. You can fit 18 of the fabric bags or 3.5″ starter pots in a 1020 tray. Also from Bootstrap Farmer. They’re super strong.
- Soil. Suggestions below.
- Plant label tags.
- Outdoor plant labels. I like these on Amazon. They are angled backwards so you can see them better when standing! Or the Vigoro Plastic T-Labels at Home Depot.
- (optional) Gallon pump sprayer (Helps when watering hard to reach plants). Make sure the end nozzle can be removed.
The Best Soil For Hot Pepper Seedlings
I recently did a study comparing FoxFarm’s Ocean Forest vs Happy Frog soils (among others) and the results might shock you! I won’t spoil the surprise, but I discovered that these soils do not require fertilizer (while they are indoors)! That’s right, no need to spend time and money on fertilizing your plants indoors. This is a HUGE benefit that (in my opinion) definitely justifies the price. I was also able to germinate seeds directly in these soils too.
Some people claim that it’s “too hot” (I have personally seen inconsistencies among different bags). If this is a concern, try Happy Frog since it’s not as heavily amended as Ocean Forest.
Happy Frog is a little cheaper than Ocean Forest but either will do. Or you can do a mix of both! For Long Islanders, check out Agway in Mt. Sinai, NY.
Other Soil Options
I have used PRO-MIX Premium Organic Garden Soil (yellow bag) with good results. This is just a basic blend of peat, perlite, and mycorrhizae. I did need to fertilize however. They also sell a red “moisture” garden mix but I’ve heard of people having drainage issues with that one.
You can also make your own soil by mixing some organic compost, peat moss or coco coir with perlite. I like to get a 5lb bucket and fill it 3/4 with compost and add about a solo cup of perlite. Perlite helps with water drainage. If you use straight compost it will compact and water will not flow through. And if you use too much perlite the water will flow through the dirt too quickly 🙂 I stay away from top soil since it is far too dense and tends to harden.
Another common soil mix is 1/3 peat, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 perlite. I am currently researching how to transition to coco coir due to it being a renewable resource.
Check to see if the soil you use contains fertilizer and if it doesn’t, you’ll need to add your own.
Containers & Nursery Grow Bags
There are a ton of container options to meet budgets of all sizes. I prefer these fabric nursery grow bags. They are very reasonably priced and the best part is that you can place these bags right in the dirt when you transplant them and the roots will grow right through the bag! The 5.5″x6.3″ size will allow for 18 of these bags to fit within a 1020 tray, pictured below.
You can opt for traditional plastic nursery pots if that’s more your thing. I like these 3.5″ pots since you can fit 18 of these inside one “1020” tray. (They’re called “1020” trays because they measure roughly 10″ x 20″.)
If money’s tight, you can also use Solo cups on trays or baking sheets. Just cut holes in the bottom of the cups (like how you would do it if utilizing the double cup method) to allow water to drain.
How to Transplant Hot Pepper Seedlings (potting up)
When the seedlings get to about 1-2″ tall, I will take the entire cell and transplant it into the fabric starter bag or 3.5 nursery pot. If there are multiple sprouts in a cell I will leave them all intact. This increases my changes that at least one will survive the transplant. After a few days, I will pick the best seedling and snip the others (Don’t pull them!). Don’t forget to label your plants! I use these tags.
In the video below, you can see me using wooden popsicle sticks as I slide them down each side of the cell, squeeze and lift the entire plug out. Sort of like eating with chopsticks. I also shave the ends of the popsicle stick so they slide in easily without disturbing the soil. It might help to wet the soil beforehand if the soil plug falls apart when you pull it from the tray.
Best Temperature For Hot Pepper Seedlings
Hot pepper plants thrive in temps around 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Temps lower than 60 degrees will cause their growth to stall. If you grow in a cold climate (like in an unfinished basement) you could look into using a grow tent. With two of my 4′ florescent light fixtures in my grow tent, I was able to raise temps by 30 degrees Fahrenheit!
More about grow tents
- This tent allowed me to fit ten 1020 trays per shelf for a total of 180 plants.
- Fluorescent light fixtures will provide much more heat than LED lights.
- Make sure to have a few fans circulating air inside the tent.
- Be sure to keep an eye on humidity levels. (These monitors are AWESOME!). With a lot of plants crammed in a tent humidity levels can get out of control and breed fungi and disease. You can equip your tent with an exhaust fan to help combat this.
- Be sure to regulate your exhaust for optimal levels. If you exhaust the air in your tent too quickly you will end up removing most of the warm air, defeating the purpose of the tent!
Keep your plants healthy. They should be around the height of the plants pictured here by the time you bring them outside.