Do peppers need to be potted up?

I've been starting veggies from seeds for years, but recently a friend made me some tables and gave me more light fixtures so I have a lot more usable space. I always pot up tomatoes but do peppers need to be potted up too or can they be started in their nursury pot? It would sure be a lot less labor intensive if I could just stick the germinated seed into each pot.
Thanks

Lisa, I germinate seeds in a little foam cyclinder (Parks Bio-Dome plugs), then when they are ready for the next step, they go into a 4" pot in some good seed starting mix, or potting mix depending on what's on hand. Does that help?

I'm not sure what this is asking. Sorry.

Thanks for answering. I usually start my tomato, eggplant, and pepper seeds in peat pellets or seed starting mix then when they get their second set of true leaves I put them in a 4" pot. I was just wondering if pepper seeds could go directly into the nursery pots? I know tomatoes benefit from being potted up and they can be buried deeper because roots grow on their stems.

Lisa,

I don't have any science to back this, but I would think that it depends on what you want. If you pot up into nursery pots, the plant will spend a lot of effort to establish a root system. It may also develop the plant at the same time. I'm thinking about how the plants get stressed if they become root-bound. Does that stress accomplish anything useful? I think so for tomatoes, but don't know for peppers. If you went straight for the larger pot, then perhaps the roots and plants would get a good start and grow into the container more quickly than if potted in intermediate stages?

David

I suspect I would start them small and pot up. I think proper watering in a large pot might be difficult to maintain and more likely to cause damping off or waterlogging the pepper seedlings.
Sorry... I know that wasn't what you wanted to hear. LOL

Pod and David there is really no certain answer that I wanted to hear. I have heard all the reasons to pot up tomatoes but not peppers. Most of mine are already started so I'll be potting up anyway. I was just thinking.....
Now if I can just get rid of this cold/allergies, that I've had for a month so I can think straight. ARGH

I have started some of my peppers in December on a 4" pot.
In late January I potted them up on a larger and deeper 5" pot. They are growing beautifully.
It is hard to see in the picture, but the plants are 8"-10" tall.
They are very happy and they keep making flower buds, which I remove.
The reason that I am starting so early is that I have a big problem with PILL BUGS !!! If I put out a plant that it is too small, they will snack on it !
So this year I have started both eggplants and peppers in December.
The plants are doing fantastic in the 5" pots and growing a really thick trunk.

Those are the eggplants.

You can see how larger are the eggplant's pot compare to the 4" of the tomatoes on the right.

This message was edited Feb 28, 2011 11:38 AM

I start my peppers in 3oz plastic Solo cups and pot them up into 6oz cups when the roots hit the walls. Once the roots are established, I either transplant them outside (after hardening them off) or, if the weather is still too cold, put them in one gallon pots.

I aim to get them in the ground around the middle of April, but sometimes the soil temperature is still too low, so I "hold" them in one gallon pots for up to a couple of weeks - bringing them in at night (which is a real pain!!)

To save on "potting soil" - I take regular garden soil from the spot where the peppers will grow and put it in the one gallon pots, adding fertilizer as necessary. A coffee filter in the bottom of the pot helps to keep in the soil.

This is also a handy way to "hold" peppers for a couple of weeks if you already have something growing in the spot where you want the transplants to be. You just have to find soil from elsewhere to fill the pots.

I do exactly the same thing for tomatoes.

Thanks for all the responses, it seems like there are many ways to do this.

drthor, I didn't realize how distructive Pill Bugs could be until my seedlings kept getting chopped in 1/2. I was even told that Pill Bugs couldn't be the problem, this was years ago. I put some kind of garden dust around each seedling in the morning I went to the garden and thought I saw rabbit poop, then I realized it was jillions of dead pill bugs.

I have so many PILL BUGS. By the book they should eat only dead stuff ... but not in my garden.
I have tried everthing ... now I just live with them.
If I plant a old enought transplant, they will not bother.
That's why I am starting plants indoor in advance.
It is fun anyway ...

drthor - Sluggo Plus will kill pill bugs. The regular "Sluggo" will not kill them, so if you buy some, be sure it's "Sluggo Plus"

Sprinkle a few pellets inside each of your seedling pots, too. The stuff is $$, but really good, and you don't have to use a whole lot. And, it still seems to work after at least one rain. Once you situate your plants in the garden, sprinkle a perimeter of Sluggo Plus around it. I sprinkled around the concrete pad my eBuckets and containers were on, and a bit into each of my gallon milk jugs I was winter sowing seeds in. No rolie polies (pillbugs)!

It is dead once they get to it, I guess they are planning ahead!

Well ... my pill bugs love the Sluggo Plus for dessert !!
but thanks y'all anyway ...

drthor - you have pill bugs that are resistant to Sluggo Plus? Oh, dear, that is bad news!

yes ... they are MONSTERS !!
That's ok ...if I plant old enough transplants the pill bugs will not touch them.
I am really looking for a PREDATOR.
Somebody told me that a toad will eat them ... so my question is: where do I find a toad?
I was not born here ... so I dunno.

drthor - I thought toads were rather common in Texas.

Perhaps if you put in a "frog pond" some will show up. If you search on Google for "Cane Toad" (Bufo marinus) you'll learn about this beasties! I didn't think I could kill anything until I found one of these with it's head at the entrance to one of my bee hives eating the bees as the came and went. I had placed the hive high enough off the ground to prevent this from happening, but that toad was sitting on top of another cane toad, and that one was sitting on yet another can toad (three stories of toads!)

The are highly poisonous!

Now that's a funny story - pardon the pun. Whodda thunk the toads could think enough to layer themselves so the top toad gets treats. Wonder if they 'round robin' who's on top??

When the pillbugs are resistent to the Sluggo Plus, we're in BIG trouble...

HoneyBee, this is really funny.
I rather keep the pill bugs and the bees and no toad.
Isn't there a snake that eat pill bugs?

The snake would eat the toad(s)....

Hmmm.... I'm not sure about snakes eating Cane Toads. They exude a poisonus substance on their backs when threatened. When I lived in South Florida, we would hear of dogs being poisoned by them.

There are plenty of other toads that could be welcomed into the garden.

There must be something that eats pill bugs - wish I knew what, 'cause, I too, have an over-abundance of them.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 6:44 PM

Getting back to the original question of whether or not bell pepper seedlings need to be potted up...

I'm about to find out, because all the BP seeds I started are still in their original 4" pots and are screaming for space, food, and the great outdoors! There are two seedlings per pot growing, and they're all about 3.5"-4" tall with multiple TRUE leaves. They've been sitting out on the patio, so they're well hardened off.

Generally, I would've potted them up to 18 oz. solo cups when they got their 2nd true leaves, but I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on everything.

So, this weekend, they're going out into the eBuckets, up to their leaves, and off into the big bad world....

I'll keep ya'll posted.

Somebody told me that a toad will eat them ... so my question is: where do I find a toad?
I was not born here ... so I dunno.

If you live in a subdivision, check the box that your water meter is housed in! GREAT place for finding toads in Tx. (my neighbor kids used to patrol the street, and sell me toads for 50 cents apiece, I think I put them through college. LOL)

Thanks jerrytx.
I have the box right un front at my house ... but it is closed with a cement lid.
How do the toads get inside the box?

I could send you a toad.

how can you send me a toad?

I was joking.. but its the thought that counts and I have plenty of them and pill bugs too!

GG-you start your peppers in 4" pots? I pot up to that. I think you may have just answered my question.

oh no ... I was imagining the box arriving with a jumping toad .... My mail man sure will love to see that.

I'm affraid the Toad would be "scrambled". The USPS can be rough.

1Lisac,
When the temps starting dipping again, I brought the BP trays in off the covered patio, and put them back under the fluorescents. Well, they've surely surprised me!

1. They do NOT like being outside if the weather is NOT warm enough for them, no matter how hard we try to make 'em like it!

2. They will sit and pout until the conditions are to their liking...not one minute sooner...

3. They've taken off like gangbusters in those 4" pots under the lights! Even the pots that have two seedlings. Each one is growing like crazy! They will definitely be potted up to the Red Solo cups for a quick minute (if the weather isn't warm enough yet). Otherwise, they'd all go directly out into the eBuckets for final growth and production!

4. Yeah. 4" nursery pots from now on!

Wouldn't the red solo cup be smaller than the 4 inch pot?

I start mine in peat pellets and pot up to 3.5 inch pot then they go out in the garden when the temps have stabilized to 55 degrees. Maybe next year ill start mine in the pots now that I have more room. The greenhouse is about 80 degrees and the peppers/eggplant love it.

I don't think it matters what you use to plant the seeds in. If you think about it they could be directly sowed into the garden!!!!! The only reason folks start plants early is so they can get crops earlier. I start mine in cell packs and when they reach the "potting" stage I plant them directly in the garden and they seem to do okay for me.

I planted 3 BP seedlings out today in ebuckets. I used Tapla's 5:1:1 mix at the adjusted ratio of 3:1:1, for more wicking action in my self-watering containers.

They look ecstatic (sp?)!!

I'll be planting several sweet peppers in e-buckets this weekend. I'm hoping that I'll be able to avoid the Pepper Mild Mottle virus that infected my garden soil. It came from a big-box six pack of peppers a few years ago...If I'd always grown my own from seed then it's likely that I would have never had the problem. Hopefully the e-buckets will allow me to grow some bells!

David

D,
Explain this PMM, please.

D,
Explain this PMM, please.

Also, I encourage you to try Tapla's mix. It is really stretching my MG potting mix a lot! So far I've filled three 10-gallon containers, four 5- gallon eBuckets, and two 6-gallon containers. I still have just a little under 1/2 a 2.65 cu. ft. bag of MG potting mix left.

I bought 1/2 yard of pine bark for $18, and have about 1/2 left. I bought a huge bag of perlite for $20 and have 1/2 left. The mix takes some getting used to, but it is worth it!