What's wrong with my pepper seedling?

[wildflowerrun]

I've been starting many (probably too many, but that's no fun!) plants inside my house this year. Too many varieties to name, but more than I've ever done before. I'm only starting the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and I tried spinach/lettuce/kale/herbs, but they didn't turn out so well.

The tomatoes have done extremely well. They're starting to droop a bit, and a few of the edges of the true leaves are turning yellow--last time this happened and I watered them, they all perked right up.

However, my peppers are struggling a bit more. They're slow to grow (is this normal?) but more than that, I have a few that are wilting away! Pictures below.

Most of the varieties that are wilting are the hot peppers, though a few of the bells are doing it as well.

I started them in early March in a seed tray with peat moss. Once they germinated, I moved them down under a shop light setup in my basement, using cool & warm bulbs hung roughly 1-3 inches above them. At first I watered them a bit much and they started to turn yellow. Since then, I've tried to water them less frequently (maybe once a week?). I water from below and let them pull up the water.

I watered these plants on Friday (or Saturday/Sunday?). They haven't been under the shop light setup since then (I meant to pot them up this weekend but I'm getting to it today).

The soil is VERY dry. Most of the plants are healthy, but I would say 6 of them are almost entirely dried up. 2-3 more are just drooping, and 1-2 more are halfway to dried up.

Are they even worth potting up and trying to save? I'm potting them up to MiracleGro potting soil. The peppers I did the other day are looking healthy, though still growing rather slowly.

How much water do these pepper plants need?! What else could be causing it? These aren't even the cells with a film on the top (and there are some of those, but those plants are healthy otherwise). Any suggestions for raising pepper seeds into happy little plants to put out in the garden in the next few weeks?

Edited to add: My basement is anywhere from 55-65 degrees. The past few days the peppers have been upstairs, which is significantly warmer (70 degrees on average, though sometimes it dips). They lights are on for 14-18 hours a day on average, though some days I've forgotten and they've been on for 24 and other days it's been 10.

These are the dried up ones. You can see how dry the soil is.

These are the slightly droopy and almost dried up versions.

You can see most of them are happy and healthy, and then a few of the droopy ones!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Everyone finds their own best methods on these things. I can only tell you what I do.

First, I don't sprout in that fancy, textured product that is popularly sold and used. It may be great to sprouting, but in my experience (some 50+ years) it isn't suitable for anything much more than sprouting. By the time a sprout has two real leaves (not the two sprout "false" leafs), I transplant into individual 4" pots. With tiny plants, it is easy to damage the stems with your fingers. I use a popsicle stick to prevent touching them too much. I also really dislike those plastic cups I see in your photo. Never had plants do very well in those. I prefer a pot where excess water can bleed out the bottom.

Then, within 3 weeks, they'll outgrow those and I transplant again into 8" pots.
That second step may not be necessary for folks in a more temperate climate, as they might well go straight out to the garden, but here, we must dodge frosts until June 5th.

I mix my own potting soil and yes, it is soil. It has a bit of chicken coop sweepings, just the really fine crumbling stuff on the floor, after cleaning the coop. I use soil from my own land which I believe acclimates the plant. I also blend in a big dose of peat moss (or vermeculite) and just a good dose of compost. (the result is a mixture not unlike Miracle Gro product.)

This is the dark mixture you see in the photos. If those plants were mine? They'd already have transplanted into their own pots. That textured stuff simply holds very little moisture for very long and it tends to leach out nutrients too quickly. Worth a try. Hope that helps.

 

[wildflowerrun]

Beautiful plants! And thanks. That does give me some to think about. I should have planted them up a week or so ago, and I dropped the ball there big-time. Thus trying to pot them up now.

We did drill holes in the plastic cups for drainage, and I sit them in a plastic tray with water to pull up the water from the bottom. As I said, it's working well for the tomatoes, but I'm not sure about the long term effects. We'll see. So far, though, I actually like the cups, because I can see that I can probably plant them up again this weekend. Because they're clear, I see that the roots are growing and healthy. (If this is a bad thing, well.... oops. I've learned a lesson.)

When do I know to pot up for sure? I've been going on my best judgement after the first time I asked someone at the local nursery and they said it would probably be a few more weeks--I ended up potting up the tomatoes 3 days later, because they looked cramped.

I do like your potting mixture! I used what I have for convenience more than anything else. I've started to think about what I may do the same or differently next year, but I'm waiting to hold judgement until the end of the indoor planting....

 

[wildflowerrun]

All but two have bounced back! And those were pretty dry/shriveled, so if they'd come back I would have been surprised. But some I thought were a lost cause came back after I gave them water and a new pot.....

I'll be doing the same with some tomatoes in my basement! They're looking sad and I can't tell if it's because they're thirsty or cramped, but it's almost exclusively affecting the cherry tomatoes. Either way, they all need to be potted up. I set some outside to see if they'll perk up....

 

[FlySammyJ]

If you over-watered the sprouts you were trying to nurture them, it could have actually damaged the roots and made them less able to recover. The best rule of thumb I've come across is to stick your finger in the soil. If a little dirt sticks to it, you're good. If the soil is too dry to stick to your finger, it's time to water. I've found bottom watering is the way to go, too, just make sure you don't leave water in the tray too long - that counts as over-watering. I drain mine as soon as the surface of the soil looks moist. And yeah, my peppers are at least two weeks behind my tomatoes, and they were planted at the same time.

 

[wildflowerrun]

If you over-watered the sprouts you were trying to nurture them, it could have actually damaged the roots and made them less able to recover. The best rule of thumb I've come across is to stick your finger in the soil. If a little dirt sticks to it, you're good. If the soil is too dry to stick to your finger, it's time to water. I've found bottom watering is the way to go, too, just make sure you don't leave water in the tray too long - that counts as over-watering. I drain mine as soon as the surface of the soil looks moist. And yeah, my peppers are at least two weeks behind my tomatoes, and they were planted at the same time.

Thanks! Good to know that's normal.

I've noticed with the peppers that once I potted them up, they started growing much faster.

I also don't think I over-watered them (for once). It looks more like I let them dry out too much. And I'm not sure what soil you use (suggestions?) but I'm noticing with this Miracle Gro potting mix that it can be relatively dry on top, but wet in the bottom. These clear cups are actually coming in handy, because I can see that the moisture is only going up about 1/4 inch, sometimes more. But I can at least see there's moisture somewhere in there, so I leave them be.

I'm just ready for it to be consistently warm enough to plant them all outside