[AshtonPete]

Hi everyone,
I recently planted some hot chilli seeds, I impatiently waited for them to show and uncurl.
Then when they did I was elated, as a few days went on, they shot up out of control.
I didn't know if this was the norm or what, as I'm new to all this.
Then I was told too leggy, not enough light, so I bought 8 clamp on lamp holders and 8 white daylight bulbs (pretty expensive).
I tried again with all this light blazing down on all my seeds, not just chillis.
My sweet peas just shot up and I mean 2 inch in two days. I started to get frustrated as I thought I was sussing it out.
Then I was told it was too cold, so I got an oil heater and got the room to 85 fahrenheit and humidity of 30%, This I was told was perfect.
So time went on and I planted some more seeds, Swede, Parsnip, Jalapeno and Cayenne peppers and more sweet peas.
The Swede has shot up quicker than Jacks beenstalk and so has my sweet peas yet again.
I bought 10 Dorset Naga seeds (Bhut Jolokia) off eBay and frightened to death of planting them in case of disaster as its looking that way.
I am at my wits end and feel like giving up and just buying them all from B&Q or somewhere, but if I do that I have been defeated.
Then I was told to buy a light bulb for Hydroponics, it was about £48 quid and looked like a bleeding great gattling gun.
Needless to say I didn't buy it as I thought there are more issues here than lighting.
Can someone get me going in the right direction with seeds?
They are in my dining room against the window sill but I NEVER get any sunlight Anytime of the year.
Here is what my testing station looks like....My Botanic Garden.

http://www.telewester.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/seed%20setup.jpg

Hellllp!!! What am I doing wrong?
Regards
Pete

[DD.]

Ask someone else about chillis, but I can tell you what you're doing wrong with swede, parsnips & sweetpeas.

Swede, you're way too early with - normally sown outdoors around June, so they're too hot and too early.

Parsnips - again too hot, they can be sown outdoors at this time of year, but I prefer to wait another month.

Sweetpeas - same again, better off in a coldframe or cold greenhouse with more light.

[m1ckz]

yes  much too eary  lol   just wait a bit

[shokkyy]

I can tell you how I did my chilli/sweet pepper seeds this year.

On 22 Jan I sowed 2 varieties of chilli and 2 varieties of sweet pepper. For all of them, I filled a 4" pot with general purpose compost, misted the surface so it was moist, then put half a doz seeds in each pot, covered with some sieved GP compost and misted again. I put a polythene bag over the top of each pot to hold in the moisture and put them on the worktop next to my boiler, where it's nice and warm. If you don't have a spot like this, an airing cupboard will do fine. The moment the seedlings showed, I removed the bags and put the pots into a gravel tray and put them on the kitchen windowsill, which is south facing so gets lots of sun. I also put tin foil standing up at the back and sides of the tray, to reflect back the light.  Every single seed germinated and on 20 Feb I pricked them out into individual 3" pots and put them back in the trays on the kitchen windowsill, with the foil behind. They're now very sturdy little seedlings and look very healthy.

[Yabba]

This is how I did my peppers/chillis, just for contrast :

2nd Jan I filled a seed tray ( individual modules 1" cubed ), slapped in my chilli seeds ( marked each module ), threw on a bit of water and slapped it under my computer desk next to a radiator.

Once they started to show I turned on my lights ( 2 * 25w Cold Daylight CFLs [ approx 6,500 kelvin ] ).

As they've grown bigger they've been potted on into bigger pots ( currently most are in 3" pots but some are in 5" pots ) and some of them have been moved under my gattling gun ( because I have one, last year they stayed under the lil bulbs ).

The quickest way to kill chillis is to overwater them, leave them until the soil is bone dry and they start to go a tad limp before you water them

¥

[compostqueen]

If you take time to read the instructions on the back of the packet much distress will be avoided. They clearly specify the sowing dates and growing on advice.  If you choose to ignore it then you can expect to fail.  As a beginner you need to follow the seed merchant's instructions.  Once you've accepted that you will succeed 

What made you think you could raise seeds in a room which gets no light? 

Raising plants from seed takes patience and if you have none then best buy in plants. More expensive, but then you are not paying to heat greenhouses and then there's the time saved element to factor in   

We all have to start somewhere but if you try and do too much at once you'll be overwhelmed. Begin with something easy and then move on to the trickier stuff when you've got the hang of it.  Don't give up though as there's nothing quite so satisfying as getting a seed raised plant and growing it on successfully. 

[Lardman]

This is how I did my peppers/chillis, just for contrast :

I follow a similar process but without all the fancy bells and whistles and grow lights. Don't expect to see fruit until late in the season, without the growlights you'll just be a little later and wont have such a high yield.

Its not as if you need 1000's of Nagas !

[gillie]

Daylight bulbs and growlight bulbs are not the same.  Plants need fairly specific light wavelengths supplied by growlights, daylights will be deficient in this.  You have given your seedlings a lot of heat but not much usable light. 

[AshtonPete]

Would this mean that my 25W 6400 Kelvin Daylight bulbs have been useless all along?
Should I change to those Sodium or Metal Halide types?

[DD.]

No, you need Growlights as already stated.

Sodium would be even worse as they just give off yellow light.

[rizzla_lite]

Hi

I have been using a 125 watt Blue Spectrum (6400) CFL reflector for a couple of years with good results - chillis sowed indoors under one of these in Feb and moved to unheated greenhousee in May produce fruits in early June through to October.

125w is good for 1/2 square metre of plants in small pots. Not everyones cup of tea but works for me.

Avoid the red spectrum 2700 as they are for  encouraging flowering.

Fairly economical to run £4.50 per month for 14 hours a day. I only use from Feb to April. Last year I started 60 chilli / pepper, 20 toms and 10 cues. All went on to produce good crops.

Going to try Aubergene as well this year.

[viettaclark]

I have become much more patient with age...
Now I indoor plant when there's more light because early sowings aren't THAT early cropping and there are loads of ways they can fail !!
Early toms are just sown but I'm leaving the rest till April!!
Read the seed packet and don't necessarily plant at the earliest time.....

[Yabba]

Would this mean that my 25W 6400 Kelvin Daylight bulbs have been useless all along?
Should I change to those Sodium or Metal Halide types?

Your lights are fine for chillis in the green stage, if you want to grow them completely indoors then you'd need to get a warm daylight ( approx 2700 kelvin ) for the flowering/fruiting stage.

Unless you're growing a high value cash crop I wouldn't bother with MH or HPS

You can get a lot of information about lights if you trawl the alternative gardening sites, they *really* know their business and you can learn a lot that's relevant to _all_ types of plants

Note : the only reason I use lights is because I wouldn't get any chillis in a season unless I started early. I don't use them for any other veg plants as the season is plenty long enough for most of them.

¥

[kari]

I'm a newbie to chillies, (and starting anything from seeds) so I'm sure I will make a lot of mistakes this year, but so far, so good *touch wood*

I started them the same as my toms & aubergines, plant them into seed compost in modules, then they go in my 'hot spot' I have a place at the bottom of my stairs, near to a heater which seems to work perfectly, at this point they need heat, not light (or so the seed packet said)

Once they have popped theit heads out of the soil, they get moved to a warm sunny windowsill, they stay there for a week or so, then get moved into my unheated conservatory.

So far all of my toms, aubergines, peppers & chillies have been started this way & are doing great.  As an experiment in all the dreary weather we have been having, after potting them on, I moved a couple of chilli & tom plants & put them under a daylight lamp,  reading all of the advice above, it looks like this may not be the best idea, but I planted way too many, so will keep them there for now.

Good luck with them, the best thing I can suggest is choose which seed you want to plant, then read up on them, as every plant needs different growing conditions.

[Weessy]

No, you need Growlights as already stated.

Sodium would be even worse as they just give off yellow light.

Usually DD has good advice, but I dont think he quite understands artificial lights. Sodium lamps give off a spectrum of light, they just look yellow to the human eye. There are many good sodium grow lights on the market. Further research is recommended before choosing the correct type. Personally I use an envirolamp growlight 250Watt flourescent and I use it to supplement daylight and to extend the day, however I do thing something similar would suit your set-up