Growing Chilli Seedlings
Your seeds have Germinated and the first leaves are pushing through the growing media - Now What?
Lighting
Depending on what time of year it is advisable to invest in some lighting - Tubes to be precise as this will provide the perfect lighting conditions for your seedlings plants to grow correctly
Using the sun to grow your seedlings is again perfectly adequate however if you are growing in December /January then there may not be enough sun for your plants to grow bushy and stocky and as a result they may grow tall and lanky and their stems may not be strong enough to support them so early on
When the lighting is wrong your plants will grow like this
Your Plants will always grow a little spindly but with support they will grow bushy once the light is right
After a while your plants in the right condition being supported will grow bushy and start to grow strong
As you can see above, when your plants are growing in the wrong light they will start to grow in all directions especially tall and will need some love and care to correct - not impossible and not the end of the world but can be corrected easily by doing it right from the start
Using Lighting to assist with growing Seedling Plants
Using Tubes to help your young seedlings is for me paramount, especially if you are growing early in the year or growing really hot chilli plants as this will get them off to a flying start
Relatively cheap and a DIY system is not hard to construct or expensive
There are complete systems on the market and again will pay dividends on the end result
Once the seeds have germinated and the leaves are not fully open take them out of the propagator and place them in another tray under the light - needs to be on 24hours a day!
Once the leaves have opened and they are looking like this then move them to another tray and increase the height of the tubes a little higher
The seedling is showing its cotyledons - These are not leaves in its true sense
After a week or two your plants will start to look like these
As the seedling grows, the cotyledons will wither and what are called the first "true" leaves will form
Whether you are growing in Soil, Jiffy Plugs , or Rockwool Cubes my advice is always start off them like this as the results and speed are dramatic compared to growing naturally under the sun
As stated above the sun just isn’t strong enough at the start of the year to grow properly, and with the cold weather of the winter you will need to ensure the temperature is right throughout the day to ensure good growth
Growing in Soil and Jiffy there is no need to add nutrients at this stage - Rockwool cubes do need these but I cover this in the nutrients section