Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am trying to get some chilli seeds growing ready to plant into my aquaponics setup, but they keep dying.

I used these Jiffy Peat Pellets to germinate the seeds.
They all sprout, get to about 5cm tall, then the leaves wilt, then it dies.

I have them in a seed tray with a clear lid on top.

Does anyone know where I am going wrong?
- Not enough water?
- Too much water?
- Not enough sun?
- Too much sun?

Are there any better ways of getting Chilli plants going for Aquaponics?

Doubt it would be too much sun, they love the warm weather. With the colder weather in Adelaide recently it may be stressing the seedlings a fair bit.

Are you using aquaponic water to keep them moist? At 5cm they will be at the stage of needing nutrients.

I have just been using a spray bottle with tap water. I will switch to the aquaponics water to see if that helps.

Regarding the heat, they are inside being kept warm. I also wonder if there are issues with that.

What type of chili are you growing?

All planted on the 4th of September.

- "Unknown". Random seeds from a friend. - 7 sprouted. 7 dead.
- Holiday Cheer - 0 Sprouted
- Jalapeno Red - 4 sprouted. 1 dead
- Jalapeno Black - 4 sprouted. 1 dead
- Scorpion Butch T - 1 sprouted
- Royal Black - 2 sprouted


I also have some old seeds that I didn't expect to sprout. They were about 7 years old. As I expected, none sprouted.

- Red savanna
- Jalapeno
- Habanero Barbados
- Morpeth Marbles


The unknown ones looked like this before suddenly shriveling up

seeds are a catch-22 too wet unhappy, too dry unhappy.
With my seed stand I used to wet with microjet misters for 1min twice per day.

they won't like having their feet in water with soil - so you can't have 1cm water around base.
to do that you need deeper pots and maybe perlite.

not sure on the effect of being indoors - usually it is low humidity and dries plants out.
may be better outside in a clear plastic box with couple vent holes.

p.s. I tried those style seed starters and not much success. these days i just use the larger plastic ones that you buy seedlings in and seed raising mix. much better. maybe try a few directly in the plastic cells with some seed raising mix.

can you clarify what these are please.

I picked one of the pucks up. It seemed dry on the outside, but I squeezed it. Lots of water ran out.
I am wondering if the pucks are holding too much water.

If the container has a clear lid and it's in the sun without good ventilation then that's probably the culprit. The leaves will overheat collapse and the plant will die. It may be different in your climate but for most people the cover is either removed or propped once the seedlings sprout (you may have yours propped I'm not sure).

If you are getting damping off where the stem is girdled at about ground level and the seedling falls over with or without the leaves shriveling up then the media is too wet.

Some people here grow lots of hot peppers and I'd take their advice on what to do but for the sake of being complete - I use a heat mat to get the temp up and I grow them on a lighted plant stand indoors to get them started. I let them get three or four inches high and then transplant them to soil or AP (usually wicking beds)

If you look online you'll see lots of different ways to grow peppers - some swear by the peat pellets and others say you should avoid them because they hold too much water. The same sort of thing goes on with the plastic covers and the misting and the .... - you get the idea. Bottom line is find what works for you

[DLF_Perth] much better. maybe try a few directly in the plastic cells with some seed raising mix.

[TONZ]can you clarify what these are please.

Just the larger 6 cell type ones that you get your Bunnings seedlings in.
You can also get something similar for couple dollars for 5 etc at RedDot.

In the OP's case - the black plastic that the grow cubes are sitting in, in the picture.

alternately if you want a lot, you can get the nursery/tree raising type heavy duty plastic ones
they have grid on bottom so don't get too wet.
In Aust, you can get them from Danbar plastics (via web) and various other similar.

After squeezing out the water and moving to a more sunny location, I had 3 more die.
But! the ones that survived have started growing and are looking much more healthy.
I will try starting a few more seeds and see how they go with the new conditions.