Sweet or Spicy, post your growing notes from the Pepper seed mixes here!
Share photos, observations, and questions. Can’t wait to see how all this diversity shows up in our gardens.
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did you get good germination? mine was kind of spotty, but it was colder than peppers like.
I use craig lehoullier’s method for germinating seeds so I’m not really sure how well it did :). Basically I put in a bunch of seeds in a 2in pot, cover them with a little bit of soil, and cover that with a seran wrap piece. Every day or 2 I flip the plastic over so that it doesn’t grow mold (too much) and I wait until they sprout. Once they sprout I take off the plastic and put them under grow lights. Once they get their first true leaves and are obviously crowding the pot big time I pull them out and tease them apart and put them into 4in pots like shown until they’re ready to go outside. That way you can plant 50+ seeds in 1 2in pot and if you only get 1/2 germination then no big deal and I can pick the 12 best plants to put into the bigger pots. Ever since i’ve switched to this method I love starting seeds each year 
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I started my peppers at the beginning of April in soil bricks on a heat mat. They germinated nicely, and the plants look decent, though the ones that got a little more shade (they were outside in the sun) looked better. Just a couple of days ago, I planted them out into a garden bed; I put in around 30, and kept some back in case something happened to the ones I planted.
Right now, they are under a row cover, since we had hail warnings—I figure that this year I’m focusing on increasing the amount of seed, and didn’t want to lose them all. I will be uncovering them once the storms are past.
I’ve never been successful with uncovered peppers here in Colorado—in past years all my peppers grew under row cover for the whole season. So growing them in the open should be a good test of the various genetics.
I will be planting a row of sunflowers immediately to the south of the peppers to provide some shade, and I’ve left a lot of spring greens growing in the bed, some of which will go to seed. I did use cutworm collars on the plants, since the cutworms are very bad this year.
Next year, when I have more seeds, I’m going to try direct sowing without any precautions.
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The seed I contributed to the mix was grown without row covers in a coastal area where peppers generally struggle to ripen. We had a warmer than average year, and a pretty good success rate. I started with wild mountain’s “perfect swarm” and added 5-6 other varieties touted as cool weather tolerant. The wild mountain seeds from CO did better than all the rest!
I did start indoors and pamper them for a couple months before setting the transplants out. I’d like to move away from this but doubted I would get anything if I didn’t.
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We were planning for a soft start of our pepper grex this year, but it was a particularly rough year getting plants germinated (partly due to a late cold spell, but I also think I had some seed packets that weren’t viable for whatever reason; I actually replanted the rest of 4 packets yesterday as a last-ditch effort to at least get a taste of them and see how they like our climate.)
It was a rough late start for me in Northern California as well. Greater selection pressure on those seeds! Many of my first batch didn’t germinate or seem stunted, but I’m hopeful that the few healthy ones will thrive and produce good seed.
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I mixed the going to seed sweet pepper mix with a bunch of other sweet pepper seed packets that I had bought. I think 2 or three different pepper mixes and 5 named varieties.
I planted a 128 cell tray, germination was good but erratic, they germinated over a 4 week period. I forgot to water once and lost a few seedlings but had enough to put into a 72 cell tray where they’ll stay until I plant them.
As of now I think I’ll plant 50 outside and the rest in an unheated greenhouse to guarantee myself some ripe peppers. I rarely get ripe peppers outdoors. My seedlings are the healthiest I’ve ever grown but when I transplant peppers into my cold soil they generally turn yellowish and stop growing until the soil warms up enough, usually in early July they perk up.
I’m hopeful that some of these make viable seeds outdoors so I can work on getting peppers that will grow well in cold soils.
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I think you’re going to have some luck with this mix! 
Growing in 6b I started my pepper seeds in mid February to have them ready for transplant after derby day (first weekend in may, the general rule of thumb for the old timers in my area).
I planted the going to seed sweet pepper mix combined with a few sweet pepper varieties that I’ve had success with as well as enjoyed the flavor of in the past: including ajvarski, jimmy nardello, poblano and some other heirloom selections from baker creek as well as the lofthouse sweet pepper grex obtained from experimental farm network.
I started with a freshly tilled garden and plan to keep the weeds down to an extent (only surface running plants [purple dead nettle, strawberries, hinbit, etc.] will be allowed in the area.
The plants are spaced anywhere from 8-14 inches apart and have tomatoes and beans growing in beds directly on either side.
I planted out 16 plants around a week and a half ago. 5 a week ago. And 4 more today.
Very much looking forward to what happens this year. No fertilizer organic or otherwise will be added. The only thing I plan to add is a grass clippings/Jerusalem artichoke/comfrey mulch around the perimeter as warranted.
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It has been very cool, very wet, and very cloudy here, which is very unusual for the Denver area. The last time we saw 85 degrees was in April, and we haven’t hit 95 yet this year. We’ve had 12 inches of precipitation so far this year—and our average for the whole year is 15 inches! And we’ve had two hail storms and quite a few pounding, wind-driven rain storms. It is still dropping into the upper 40s some nights.
The result is that all the warm-weather plants are rather unhappy looking, and even the cool-weather plants look pretty beat up. The peppers are not much bigger than when I planted them out. Also, I’m sure they don’t appreciate being shaded by the flowering brassicas that they are sharing the bed with. (I planted the peppers into spots in which I removed the pre-existing greens.) I’m starting to remove those to free up space.
I hope that when (if) things ever warm up they will take off.
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The peppers in the foreground are the GTS sweet mix, with other varieties beyond. They got to a bit of a late start due to issues with my seed starting mix in the greenhouse, but have recovered nicely and are growing well.
On the trellises in the right are GTS tomatillos in the foreground, also with other varieties further down the line. Most of these have done great and we’ll be able to start harvesting pretty soon.
Location: Missouri Ozarks
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wow! these look fantastic. I’m envious that you’ll be harvesting soon.
Any observations on the mixes compared to your usual varieties? I know the sweet peppers had a good percentage of inputs from growers in cooler climates (like me) and shorter seasons – how are they doing in your climate?
That’s a nice-looking garden you have there.
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Right now, the GTS mix sweet peppers are simply more variable than the rest, which I’m glad of because it means there should be a good deal of diversity. Some of the best looking plants in the patch at this time are from the GTS mix, many look more average, and a few look kind of sad. I’ll report back again later in the season when I have better answers.
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Happy to hear this! Mine are miserable, due to pretty miserable cold foggy weather and a heavy onslaught of gophers. Selection is definitely happening.
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My GTS peppers are still struggling; the weather has continued to be unusually cool this year, though it looks like we are now entering a warm period. (And we’ve had six hail storms heavy enough to damage plants!) The biggest green fruit on one of the plants is about the size of a ping-pong ball. They’ll have to hurry if there are going to be any seeds; we could get a frost by September 10th, through October 10th is average.
In retrospect, this was a bad year to try the “milpa” concept with them; I let seeding brassicas and sunflowers shade the bed to protect them from our typically intense sun, but that wasn’t the problem this year! The taller plants did absorb some of the hail, though.
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Going to seed sweet pepper grow out. I squeaked these into germination tray at the end of May. They are continuing to grow pretty well, but the clock is ticking. They will need some mulch this week at least.
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