Garden 2022 March | Scorch Garden ®

Scorching the Garden 2022

March PT 1

Welcome to our 5th documented grow! This will be our biggest yet. Just like last time, and the time before. But if you have been following us or if you look into our past, you’ll see we grow every year. We’ll be updating the grow every 2 weeks until November when it gets shut down. Like every season premier, we start out with seeds and some supplies.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy.

We have found that starting seeds in jars on a heating pad gives us the best results. In the past, we have used folded paper towels soaked in water treated with hydrogen peroxide. This year, we are using perlite. There were times the sprouts’ root hairs would get embedded in the towel fibers, which were not as strong as the fibers and extracting them would damage the delicate roots.

If the roots attach to the perlite, the granules should separate from each other and not cause damage. The remaining perlite and be cleaned, sterilized and used again. Not to mention any brands, but this perlite had bits of bark in it. Not sure if this was a quality control issue or that’s just how they do perlite.

We’re planting a lot more peppers this year than we ever have. Every year, we end up breaking one of the jars we use for staring the seeds. We do have a lot of plastic soufflé cups left over from a seed collection project a few years back, so we did them up the same way.

The plastic cups take up the same amount of space and are not air tight. The walls are thinner and they are shorter, so less perlite is used and they will absorb heat faster.

Four days later, we’re seeing sprouts on the milder peppers already. Its honestly easier working with the plastic cups. They’re lighter and stack easier than the jars. The tray they’re in isn’t very ridged and the heft of the jar causes it to warp an bend when trying to hold it with one hand. Its also easier to get to the seedlings in terms of the lids are easier to get off (pop off rather than screwing) and they aren’t as deep so better access to the sprouts.

This is also some of the fastest germination time we’ve ever seen. We’re using the same seeds in both the glass and the plastic so we’ll see what the overall results are before it’s decided that PC cups are the way to go.

Our mantids arrived! We’ll be keeping them in a cool, dry place until we’re ready to hatch them. Throughout the summer, we do see a few patrolling our plants. Thing is, if we don’t see them, that means there isn’t a food source for them, IE, no pests attacking our gardens.

Thank you for joining us for this first installment of Scorching the Garden 2022. Before we know it, it will be time to bottle the sauce made from the peppers that were grown on plants from seeds that we’re hoping will germinate.