I don’t know exactly what you mean by wintersowing. There seem to be different methods that all get pushed under one umbrella term. I haven’t done wintersowing with peppers, but I have done direct sowings in the spring to mimic volunteering. I don’t even have the change to wintersow. Your climate they might even overwinter although I don’t see the advantage of that compared to direct sowing in the spring. They will anyway only sprout once the temperatures are high enough long enough. In some climates volunteers or those sown too early might come up too early and risk being wiped out by late frosts. I don’t know if your climate is that varied. They would need quite warm weather for quite long for the soil to warm up enough fot them to emerge. Maybe not a problem for you. Might be a good time to direct sow there if you want to try that. Just have to consider that those sown get equal exposure to sun in order to have equal selection pressure. I have found double row in east-west bed to be the best. Otherwise single row in the more sunny side. Other factor to consider is that it’s better to oversow a lot. There will be variance from genetics and luck and so the more you sow the less it’s affected by luck. This means that you need to cull quite a lot and quite often. You can look at my trials from last few years for some inspiration.
Fair enough, i suppose i haven’t explained myself properly! I didn’t just direct sow seeds on the cold winter ground, what i did is also commonly referred to as the “milk jug method.” You are essentially creating a mini greenhouse by planting your seeds in a sealed clear plastic environment (milk jug cut in two then taped up is what i see often, i used 2inch deep trays with domes/lids) and the seeds will germinate when the temperature is right. When watching videos on YouTube, most people start sowing in late winter anywhere from January to March. If you live in a constantly fluctuating environment, yes, it would certainly be best to plant at a later time to avoid a late frost killing the delicate seedlings. I had a super mild winter with only one or two snow fall that melted right away. I waited until March to ‘wintersow’ all of my heat loving crops and true potato seeds, but sowed cold hardy crops earlier in Jan/Feb. Perhaps i couldve attempted direct sowing pepper seeds sometime around now or mid-May but i have never grow peppers from seed and thought this wintersowing/milk jug method would be a good middle ground to eventually attempting direct sowing. I did sow quite heavily because i didnt know what to expect but i have had great germination rates with my own mix of hot peppers, tons of little pepper seedlings, and will cull accordingly. The gts sweet peppers had slightly less vigorous germination but still plenty to work with!
Thanks for sharing a couple of your trials! I would say that your use of plastic to warm the ground is kinda similar to me using the little greenhouse containers for a warm start as well before transplanting… we are both kickstarting things! My night time temperatures have been around 6-10c and daytime anywhere from 15-20. I took the lids off of both my peppers and tomato seedlings and they seem to be acclimated nicely… just gotta wait til they are large enough to transplant! My rows face N/S but i plan to space my plants in a diagonal checkerboard pattern so they receive lots of sun without being shaded out from one another.
P.s. love your cheeky wording “You could say the ground has been peppered with seeds” on your one post 
I use a hermetic box with transparent cover under a spot led for germinated my peppers for improvised a mini greenhouse.With the humidity of the hermetic box the seeds is not sticked at the cotyledons.i was had 100% of germination with this method.
For exemple pepper sowed in february the 19th april
Unforrunately with 100% of germination its difficult to selected the mosts vigorous.
Have you a great yield difference between a direct seedling and a seedling in pot?
What is your temperature of germination?
At normal time capsicum anuum required 21°C for germinate, have you a good germination rate with under temperatures?
Wow, your pepper plants look so green and healthy! I feel the same way about the challenge with such high germination and selection for vigor. Im aiming to plant every single pepper seedling i can fit into my garden, prioritizing what appears to be the most healthy. Then if i need to I’ll grow the rest of the leftover pepper plants in pots if i must.
I don’t know if this was directed to me, but I asssume so since there aren’t many who do direct sowing peppers.
I’m not looking and can’t really look for yield in direct sowing. Firstly my season is so short that at most I can have some idea of yield potential by looking at how many developing fruits there are. Secondly, because of direct sowing the spacing is quite random and at some point I might have more than ideal for that area. I look for early flowering mostly and looking for yield is left for when I grow them to transplants. I do select some of the earliest with biggest yield potential for transplant testing next year, but I save also wider for next years direct sowing to give also those change that might have had bad location that year.
I really don’t know. Direct sowed have had black biofilm and cloth on to increase heat, but last year was quite cool cloudy start to the season. Ground temperatures must go to around 12-13C during night. I doubt that they go often much closer to 10C or under. Day probably around 20C depending how much sun there is. Little sun and it could go quite easily over 20C. Warmer years ofcourse more. Probably 15-20C is where the temperature is the most time.
I also did just a try of sowing small patch without black biofilm and cloth. Those really had zero change of making any fruits, but it was good in terms of learning experience. Firstly they germinated in quite good numers and it didn’t take that much longer than those with all the help. Still probably some 20-30% difference which the early season. They did have some problem that made them grow twisted. I contribute that to cold and probably some sort of root rot because of that. It happens smaller numbers in those that are protected and even those grown on pots, but in this case it was at least 50%. So there might be some good selection pressure to be had if you start way early, have really cool start to the season and have long enough season for them to produce. That should work almost anywhere in France.
Germination rates I would say can be good, but it takes long and some seeds germinate just way too late. But that’s really the point, to bring out some differences. I sow usually at least 30 seeds for area that can hold one plant on average (might have 2 if there is more space on either side) so it’s not that important how good the germination is. I’m sure I could push it even more, but my season is so short that I can’t loose too much time early in the season.
This year I made some mass sowings in boxes to select for cold germination on those that I grow for transplant as well. I have heater and termometer to adjust the temperature. Warmer days when it can go to 25-30C (only short period) on my balcony I have not used heater or only shorter periods so that at least part of the day they are exposed to temperatures under 15C. I have tried to keep the minumum at 12C. If the days are cooler then I try to keep constant 18-20C. Nights might be little cooler and days little warmer. Now I’m just coming to 2 weeks from sowing and waiting from the last patches at least the first to emerge. Quite expected that it takes 2 week or even longer when temperatures aren’t ideal.
With all my direct sowings I have done small, sometimes only m2 mini trial to just get an idea how they grow and really a proof of consept/learning experience from where take conclusions to the next year. If you really thinking of doing direct sowing some year and have extra seeds (preferably already F2 as they are more likely to do better), I would suggest taking like hundred seed and trying f.ex that m2 area.
My coverings are similar, but that is so much bigger area that there is less fluctuation and it’s closer to normal temperatures that they are likely to experience during summer, just bringing them earlier. Really only if it’s really hot would they have it hot there, but then it would be hot anyway. I might even take the cloth of if it’s really warm to make little less easy. First year I did bigger trial I did have that kinda start, but that time I didn’t have the knowledge of how well they might do if the season isn’t as favourable. Now I do have better idea so I might take it off.
I ended up with just 11 of the GTS peppers after a lot failed in the small soil blocks with vermiculite on top. There were 12 (out of maybe 15 that made it into larger blocks) but one detached from its roots during transplant. They were all fairly floppy at the base. I had uppotted them into the 2" soil blocks, but they really needed to be deeper that the holes in the bigger blocks allowed. I transplanted them a little deeper to anchor them so the wind doesn’t kill them. I planted some heirloom peppers and some I started from grocery store mini peppers along with them.
Aside from being a little floppy they seemed pretty happy overall. Hopefully that means they will do well once they’ve straightened themselves back out.
I got to harvest 3 sweet peppers last night. As usual, the plants are big, a with fruit, falling over. I need more cages to put around them, I think. They smell nice, but are rather thin walled. Might be I’m spoiled by store bought green peppers. I saved some seeds!
Hmmm… my sweet peppers aint doin so hot 
still early in the season so im hoping they start putting on some growth with the heat. Didnt expect them to die off and im down to about 4 or 5 seedlings now
Hy sly,
You have a nitrogen deficiency due at the wood mulch. You should put the pepper of the first and second picture and the pepper at right on the third picture in pot one to two weeks and wait that they made more roots.
You can put in the planter 50% of draining potting soil and 50% of compost.
The left plants of the third picture can grow in fullground.You can remove the wood pellet.
Grass mulch will be more adapted, the nitrogen will be availlable more fast and in more quantity than with wood mulch.You should sift some mm of potting soil and if you have beetroot vinasse or a fertiliser it will be perfect to diluted in water for watered.If yiu don’t have fertiliser you should made your own compost juice, you put in a container one proportion of compost and one proportion of water.
For avoid pathogenes the mulch don’t must touch the collar of the plants.In my experience they have a very small root system.
I don’t have gts seeds but i show you some picture of one my pepper
Just got about 20 sweet pepper plants planted out; they are descended from GtS seeds, along with other varieties I added along the way.
Thank you for the helpful advice, your peppers look nice and healthy! I dont have a compost pile since i bury my food scraps in place throughout my garden but i will try worm castings from my red wriggler worms! I have made various fertilizers from soaking weeds in water for extended periods of time but my main go-to right now is diluted urine so i will dose up the peppers, which i haven’t done yet. I havent ever tried compost tea but again that is just because i dont have compost piles nor do i purchase soil/compost/amendments. I made garden beds with wood chips layered with horse manure during the late winter and planted in the spring. .. some crops really like it so far but my sweet peppers are clearly struggling.
I’m still finding the balance with growing vegetables without interfering too much 
Horse manure is very good infortunately the bacterias consummed the nitrogen of your soil for decomposated the wood pellet.
Worm casting is again better than compost!
I diluted 1/4 of worm casting in my soil.
The pepper required a soil well decomposated.
Ahh good to know the ratios of worm casting for soil. This is my first timing growing peppers so i didnt know how particular it was!
A thing that i have note they also like when you sift potting soil around the plant at each steps of grow.
Sifting soil for em sounds kinda finicky but since I only have a handful of plants i should probably pamper em a bit so i can hopefully get some seeds to donate back to gts and save for next years sweet pepper attempt!
Yes you can sift a layer with a mix of 3/4 of soil and 1/4 of worm casting.The texture of the layer must be thin and draining.They will made new roots in this layer.1/4 of horse manure and 3/4 of soil is also possible if you don’t have enough worm casting.
If you want put a mulch a thin layer of grass will be more efficient than a wood mulch.I have see new roots under the grass.
Sifted a mix of my native soil, aged horse manure and worm castings then made a good sized hole in my woodchips/manure bed, put some of my soil mix in there, and replanted the pepper plants. Finished with a layer of ripped clover/grass/weeds on top!
I didnt wanna go the extra step of potting them then transplanting again but im pretty sure having a hole of the soil/castings/compost will have the same affect for the roots to stretch into while the plants grow bigger and stronger. Will water it with some diluted urine fertilizer and observe the results soon.
Thanks Again! 
