Re: [CH] Serious De-Lurking going on
Eruna Schultheiss (eruna@taom.com)
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 10:00:57 -0700
On Monday, November 5, 2001, at 07:31 , Chile Wolf wrote:
... Once before I
> ... Once before I planted Habeneros and they took 6 - 8 weeks to show
> themselves.
>
> Generally speaking I tend to buy seedlings from a
> local nursery, because I don't seem to be any good
> with getting seeds to grow to adult plants.
Wolf,
Nice to hear your voice after lurking for a while! I love South Africa!
I have very nice memories of your country. One of them being, that I
have been teaching my first management training workshop in English for
Plascon-Evans Paints, Ltd. That was quite a step for me. I had been
teaching my courses for about 5 years, but only in German, Swiss German
and sometimes French. It was a lot of work, I had to translate a 2 day
program into English, which isn't exactly one of my first languages. It
was more than worth the effort: the meeting took place at a beautiful
safari lodge about 1 hour outside of Johannisburg. I had a wonderful
time! Great country and very nice people!
Now to answer your question:
I always grow my peppers under the lights. I think it's very much worth
the investment and the effort. I know your climate is different from
here in Colorado where the lights are - I believe - a must. However, I
think you would love this: my tomatoes show up in 2 - 3 days, peppers
normally in 4 - 5 days. If I have time I'll go back to my charts and
e-mail you the exact figures.
What might be of interest to other members as well, is the idea of
creating a germination room for the seeds. I have tons of growing lights
in the house (for 64 trays to be specific), but the most important
factor for success, I attribute to the 'germination chamber', which is
located in the furnace room. In there is a kind of a cubby hole where I
have to stoop to get in. During the germination process we put an
insulation board in front of the entrance. It gets nicely warm and
toasty in there. Germination rate is in the 90's. Of course, that
insulation board only gets used for peppers, eggplants, okras and such.
Cold weather plants never make it in there.
Should also mention, that if you start your plants under the lights, you
have to harden them off before transplanting.
Wolf, I hope this helps. With my best regards,
Eruna
missing South Africa