Topic: Growing time disappointment

[mickyp]

You should be proud of that crop of chillies, good effort. How are you going to dry your `kashmir chillies, then will you just grind them up as required?

I have a dehydrator, I will then just grind in small batches

YAYYYY, cool i love Gadgets.

[JonG]

Update: the remaining 5 seeds from my original 6 batch have sprouted and been potted up. Now I have one which shows two tiny leaves above the soil and two which are just in the process of bursting through the soil.

I

[livo]

Pretty useless using lighting of the wrong spectrum for plant growth. Check out full spectrum aquarium lighting. Either led or even older fluorescent. You may be able to get 2nd hand.

[JonG]

Ok - could you elaborate?  I just checked the box and the lightbulb I

[mickyp]

You want full spectrum grow lights or a nice window, the advantage of grow lights is you can extend the exposure time to strengthen and bring the seeds on, for an idea just look at grow lights on amazon, I think Livo was steering you to a light for a fish tank which would also work and if you get a second hand set up it could save you money, if you did that i would certainly start off with a new tube.

[livo]

Correct. Normal household lighting, whether incandescent, fluorescent or LED, will emit very little light of the type required to sustain plant photosynthesis. You can purchase lighting specifically designed for internal plant growth, used in indoor hydroponics etc, or a cheap alternative would be fish tank (aquarium) lighting.  If you purchase a complete second hand unit the tank itself may function as a terrarium.  Usually, aquarium lighting is of the type required to sustain photosynthesis of aquatic plants and will work for terrestrial plants as well, although probably not as well as specially lighting.

[martinvic]

Or, if possible, you could stick em on a sunny windowsill, with a homemade light reflector behind them.

And again if not too much trouble, when the weather is ok, stick em outside in the sun and bring em back in again.

You'll have to start doing that anyway, to harden em off until frosts are past, if they are going to be grown outside.

[JonG]

Thanks guys. I

[Madrasandy]

Get some 6500k T5

[DalPuri]

Tin foil is the worst reflector, it absorbs more than it reflects.
Better off with matt white paint or fork out for some Mylar.