Starting our pepper seeds indoors

Steve and I finally got our pepper seeds started! 

 

We got our trays out and set them up.  We had 4 flats and 4 trays of inserts that set in them. 

 

 

Then we got our potting mix, our big metal bowl, and a pitcher of water.  We scooped out the potting mix into the bowl and wet it down and mixed it up.  It was like making mud pies together. :)

 

 

(I think we wet it down too much, so next time I hope we just make it damp and not so wet.  I had to take the dome lids off and knock off the built up water droplets several times a day.)

Then we filled the holes up. 

 

I labeled the sides with masking tape so we could keep track of what was planted where.

 

We planted 3 types of hot peppers.  Anaheim, Jalapeno and Black Hungarian, which is supposed to be mildly hot.

 

There were not nearly as many seeds in the Anaheim package as we were picturing so we decided to plant some of the sweet peppers while we were at it and had the trays ready to go already.

 

 

Our heat mat holds 4 trays so we figured we might as well fill all four of them since we don't know what rate of successful germination we will get being newbies at this and all.

 

We planted a row of each of the fascinating varieties we bought.  There were so many wonderful sounding peppers to choose from, it was a difficult decision to narrow down.  We even ended up buying more than we were intending!  What we decided on and planted this time around was Lipstick, Red Pepper Cheese, Golden Marconi, Corbaci, Large Red Cherry, Sweet Banana, King of the North, and I had some seeds leftover from trying to start seeds 2 years ago so I tried a couple of Orange Bell Peppers as well.

 

We picked out the tiny little dried seeds one by one.  I couldn't help but pause and marvel that this tiny dried up seed would, Lord willing, become an entire plant blooming and growing lovely, delicious peppers for us to enjoy some day!  It is a miracle and fascinating to me.  God is a genius and I never grow bored marveling at His brilliant design for creation.

 

 

We planted a full tray of Anaheim, a half tray of Jalapeno, a half tray of Black Hungarian, 2 Orange Bell Peppers, one row of 4 each of the new and exciting sweet pepper varieties.

 

I layed a seed down in the center of dirt filled each insert. 

 

 

I sprinkled some dry potting mix over it to cover it ever so slightly. 

 

Then I spritzed it with water from a spray bottle. 

 

 

 Next, we covered each tray with a humidity dome. 

 

 

Steve unrolled the fancy shmancy heat mat and placed in on one of the shelves of our handy dandy Gorilla Rack shelving system and we put all of the trays on it and stood back and admired our handywork.  Just lovely!

 

 The humidity quickly began building up so we tore ourselves away and left them to begin to come alive while we ate a late supper filled with anticipation of rows and rows of tiny pepper plants and wondering if it will really work!

 

Planting date of March 28th.