February is the month that I sow the hot peppers to give them a nice start before going out into the greenhouse in March. This week I took time to sow the seeds into a 50-count deep-celled tray. I put 2 seeds into each cell and will thin them when they sprout.
I like using the larger, deep cells so that I don't have to transplant them into pots. This has worked well for me in the past and if they do get too large I have 4" square pots that are deep to move them into.
I've decided to cut back the amount of peppers I plant from 15 of each to only 8 this year. I had so many peppers last year and have not used that many. I like to make hot sauces so I combine the different peppers to make a nice flavor.
The Jalapeno peppers come in these three colors that make a nice presentation in bread and rolls. I found that the Lemon Spice Jalapeno seemed the hottest of the three.
Hopefully, this year the Cayenne peppers do better than last season. The plants were very small and had low fruit. I may plant them in one of the tower gardens to see if they do better. The Poblano peppers were prolific and were quite tasty stuffed. I'm looking forward to having them again.
I had room left in the tray so I sowed the Italian frying pepper too. Last season I lost most of the plants to the deer and this year I will make sure they can't get to them.
I plan on pickling the Italian Pepperoncini this year as I think they would do well, similar to a Pimento.
The seeded tray is currently sitting on top of the heat mat to help with germination.
A dome cover keeps the humidity up and helps to prevent the soil from drying out. Once the peppers start to sprout I remove the dome.
This tray of onions was sown last week and they are just beginning to emerge. Now, I am going to spend the day continuing to organize my seeds according to my planting schedule. Tis the season to get it all together. Spring will be here before we know it, right?
Until next time, this is Sunscape
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