When I first started off my peppers and chillies
I had a rather simple setup, basically a heat mat under a tea towel and a old propagator lid over them. I thought that would do the job for a good while, but literally days later a single King of the North bell pepper poked its head up, way too early. So I
rushed them over to a grow light with the single seedling outside.
Now this posed a dilemma. Only one seed germinated and far too early, it would take a good while longer for the others to poke their heads up. So did I keep it outside the propagator, potentially sacrificing the other four seeds in the pot to help that one seedling. Or kept it in, risking that one seedling to help the others along...
Thankfully the gamble paid off and the others eventually appeared. I transplanted the single that popped up early to give the others a chance to catch up, so it didn't overshadow them. I've been
removing them from the propagator as they've been coming up (notice number of cups increasing
) and now I find myself with the same problem again. Sweet pepper gypsy, only one seedling up and no sign of the others for some time...
So I'm back to the gamble, only unlike Real Seeds that included lots of KOTN pepper seeds; the packet of gypsy has about ten. I've planted five so I have to decide whether to bank of the others germinating outside of the heat, or use the rest of the packet up (£3.29 for
ten seeds!?).
This time I was wondering what people would recommend, as I'm sure they've faced this dilemma before? Is there a way to encourage the other seeds along without threatening the seedling, or should I risk potting on a seedling again and chucking it back in the propagator?