Sorry for the late reply guys - hope nobody bought anything from Amazon! And my apologies for derailing this thread. Maybe we can create a 'grow your own hot peppers' thread?
Ok, why not buy from Amazon and/or Ebay?
LOADS of people have ordered Chili seeds from there - Trinidad Scorpion Morugas, Carolina Reapers, etc., and ended up getting sweet bell peppers or the common thai pepper seeds. You won't know what they are until 6 months or more down the road when your peppers pod-up (start developing fruit). LOTS of people have been scammed this way.
Here are my sites that I buy pepper seeds from:
http://www.pepperlover.com/
Judy at Pepperlover is one of the most respected chiliheads online selling seeds. If you get a bad batch, you let her know and she will replace it for free. I have ordered form her a couple of times. She often will throw in some 'add-ins' as well - I ordered around 9 or 10 seed packs from her, and she threw in 3 or 4 different varieties as a gift, which was a nice surprise when I opened the envelope. Apparently she (and others who I will list below) almost always do this.
http://www.chillihead.co.za/index.php?route=common/home
This site is from South Africa. Africa? I know what you are thinking, trust me. This guy is THE man when it comes to chilies. I am trying to remember his name... I actually met him on another forum years ago. I have never ordered from him, but he actually sent me a package of seeds for free. He has an impeccable reputation among the chili community. Just tell him the guy who is a Piri Piri aficionado sent you - he may remember me, maybe not. For those interested, he also rates all the chili peppers he sells (yes, there are people in this world who have exceedingly high tolerance levels that they can actually eat an entire pod of 2 million+ scolville pepper and tell you how it tastes and feels.
Here is an example of one of his pod tests (he sometimes does 2 or 3 in a day! I can't even do a half pod of some of these, and wouldn't even try):
http://www.semillas.de/cgi-bin/shop_en/shop.cgi
I have never dealt with Semillas - but he has a very good reputation as well. Forum members from another site all rated him really well. He has by far the largest selection of peppers, and often the best price too. This comes out of the Canary Islands.
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X3 on where to source the seeds. Have a plug n' play shoebox-sized hydroponic planter that I've never used. This sounds way more interesting than basil.
I haven't tried hydro at all, but I know some people online that did, with really good results. Have been meaning to try it out one of these years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
How much sunlight do you need to grow those chillies?
As someone already answered, you do need full sun - sort of.
I start mine indoors under fluorescent lighting. Put them close to the sprouts, and as the seedlings grow, make sure they don't touch the lamps (or of course, that part ends up burning). I get mine to flower indoors usually too, and even get some pod-setting.
Now, this is almost useless though. It has been my experience - and the experience of other users online - that peppers need full sun to really throw out full heat and full flavored pods. People are also convinced that the more 'stressed' a plant is, the more heat it will put out. For instance, nearing the end of the harvest cycle they will let the pepper plants get a bit thirsty. Bugs that chew on the leaves and such also SUPPOSEDLY illicit a response in the pepper plants to invest more in each pod.
I can't say this is 100% true or not, but it has been my experience that the first set of pods from each plant are relative 'duds' in terms of heat and flavor. The ones near the end of the season seem to be full of heat and flavor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler
Well, I took apart a Thai green chili and planted 3 clumps of seeds in a pot. Will keep you updated. Will try to find some other varieties and plant them too - something is bound to sprout I hope.
3 clumps of seeds in a pot? Sounds like me the first time I tried growing them.
I remembered I had saved some Hot Portugal pepper seeds from the case I bought at the flea market. Took a disposable beer cup and filled it with soil, and added about 50 seeds, thinking: "I hope one or two sprout up".
I got 50 seedlings that took me forever to separate. Didn't go to the flea market that year to pick up peppers (and mine came out much hotter than the ones I bought, so there may be something to the theory of stressing plants out).
I don't use fancy planters. Peppers sprout with a bit of heat (but make sure you don't cook it). You can get seed-starter everything - including heat mats. I find a Styrofoam egg container works really well. Fill those areas where there were eggs with pre-moisoned soil. One seed per slot. Add a bit of water so the soil is moist, but not wet - standing water will only rot your seedling if it pops up, if not your seed at the start. Use the lid to write down what you are sprouting (if you decide to grow a bunch of different things). Then throw it on the refrigerator (not inside, but on top, if you have the room). They will sprout faster with a bit of warmth. Trust me, some of these seeds take forever. I have seeds pop-out after 45 days. Most sprout in less than a week, depending on how fresh your seeds are.
Just keep checking and make sure the soil is moist, but not wet. Seedlings can easily die from damping-off disease (wet soil causes a fungus to basically grow and eat your seedling, in layman's terms).
Throw them under lights. Make sure you don't over-water. Pepper plants prefer under-watering rather than over-watering. I usually just grow them in beer cups until I am ready to transplant them outdoors (and if you do that, you need to slowly acclimate them to the sun, or they will burn - just like us humans we need to develop that tan first).
Let me start you off with the guy that started me off in his youtube videos - I do most of what this guy does, though don't worry about the tums fertilizer bit - calcium deficiency is pretty rare in soil and most feel it comes from over-watering:
With that being said, this is way too late to start growing them with the intention to transplant outdoors. Your thai chilli plants are one of the faster plants to start producing, but they may just start producing by the time the first frost hits. They do make good ornamentals though (and there are loads of ornamental chili plants and more popular varieties for consumption). There are even people who grow bonsai pepper plants (never tried it):
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Superstore now has ghost pepper hot wings. I'm probably slightly above intermediate for spicy tolerance, but after very heavily saucing my wings, these were at the absolute upper limit for me; the underlying flavour was quite good though and I'll eat them again.
The real price of admission was the morning after spent riding the pain train.
Last edited by NuclearFart; 05-26-2016 at 03:54 PM.
Reason: Country grammar
http://www.pepperlover.com/
Judy at Pepperlover is one of the most respected chiliheads online selling seeds. If you get a bad batch, you let her know and she will replace it for free. I have ordered form her a couple of times. She often will throw in some 'add-ins' as well - I ordered around 9 or 10 seed packs from her, and she threw in 3 or 4 different varieties as a gift, which was a nice surprise when I opened the envelope. Apparently she (and others who I will list below) almost always do this.
So as someone who has zero clue when it comes to growing peppers would it be too late in the year to start? I don't want to do it myself but my fiancee's mom loves making her own peppers, the hotter the better. She already makes a bunch but it could be neat to add in some new peppers for her to try. I should add that her birthday is coming up or else I'd just ask her.
There should be hot pepper plants at the Millarville Farmers Market, ready for you to transplant outside in your garden.
I'd be grabbing some of the more extreme heat ones from online, she already has a good amount of the typical habaneros and serrano peppers that she grows. I just don't know if it's too late in the year to start a new batch. It wouldn't be for me to attempt, although I do end up smoking about half of what she makes to get that different flavour into some of them.
Will try to find some other varieties and plant them too - something is bound to sprout I hope.
