Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone tried growing chilli and capsicum direct from seeds?? I have put quite a number of seeds of both chilli and capsicum into the growbeds but they do not seem to sprout seedlings well... Of the few that do sprout, the seedlings do not grow much... it seems to always stay small...

Any ideas??

Yes I've grown some. They are very slow plants to get going and since they take a bit to sprout and then more time as really small seedlings, it is easy to do them in before they get big if you are not really careful of them. I'm now starting the seeds outside of the AP system and then growing them a bit bigger before transplanting and hoping that will give me more success. I found that some bottom heat really helps for sprouting the seeds. I had far more success by putting the container with the seeds over the light on my indoor aquarium. They got daytime bottom heat and the light turns off at night so a bit cooler temp over night and I got a much higher germination rate than when I've tried the seeds in the AP system. I've not got a bunch of little seedlings in yogurt cups with wicks and gravel that I can place in the NFT pipes. For now they are sitting on a tray with a little AP water in the bottom to keep them from drying out. I don't know if they will do well in the NFT pipe or if I should transplant the seedlings into the gravel beds before the roots get too big. But they take such a long time that success by direct seeding them seems pretty random to me.

Well it is good to hear that I am not the only one having this issue... I was just thinking that I must be doing something wrong. I suppose for chilli and capsicum it is probably worth buying a punnet of seedlings from the nursery then... otherwise by the time I get my tiny seedlings to grow and produce fruit, summer will be over...

Mine sprouted OK but have been about 50mm tall for the last 3 months! Mean while the dirt one is already producing fruit. I though the slow growth was due to low nutrient levels as the nitrate loving silverbeet was stealing it all, I will see how they go now that I have more fish.

i have had some sucsess with capsicums but i grow them in soil untill they are about 15 cm tall then put them in the grow beds or start them in jiffi pots, they do take a while to get going but once they do they produce well.

good luck

same prob as most here. the seeds I put into the gb this year took 3-4 weeks before any sprouted. they are still pretty small (about 3-4cm) and that has been almost 2 1/2 mths now Will keep them in to see if they eventually take off (doubt it) and next year will do all my seeds in the greenhouse well in advance and transplant when they are 10-15cm tall.