Get a light, fluffy seedling starter mix. I know that Scotts makes a seedling starter soil mix that you can buy in a small blue bag. There's also something I've seen called "Jiffy Mix" that's not really a soil...but it's supposed to be a medium that is light and seeds supposedly germinate well in it. I've not used it, but it sounds interesting. I don't suggest those peat pellets, or peat pots at all. I'm a decent gardener, and I can't even get those dang peat pellets to work for me. And peat pots dry out quickly and harden up so that the roots of the plants can't pop through them. They can actually stunt the growth of your plants. But if you have great luck with them, by all means use them.

When you get the soil into whatever pots you are using, water the soil so that it compacts down. Add more soil and wet it again so the added soil compacts down. DON'T TAMP, PRESS, OR PACK THE SOIL DOWN. Just wet it and let it settle on it's own. Set the seeds on top of the soil where you want the seedlings to come up. Make sure to give them plenty of room between seedlings, so that the little roots won't tangle with each other, and/or when you go to transfer them to a larger pot you won't kill 'em gettin' them outta there. Cover the seeds with a scant 1/8 inch of soil, (very scant) and MIST it lightly. Make sure the soil is not swamped. If you are using one of those little plastic greenhouse things, put the pots inside it, and put the cover on the little greenhouse. I've used Applebee's Carside-to-Go containers perfectly well at this stage, setting the little pots inside it and snapping the lid on tight. Put your planted pots on a table in front of a sunny window in the warmest room in the house. A window that faces South would be best. If not, then West would be the next best. Or Southwest even better than West. After all, they ARE Chili's :p Don't be discouraged if it takes a couple weeks for them to sprout in cooler climates during the cooler months.
ALSO, one thing I've noticed...is that sometimes because of watering for a week or so, the soil might wash off the pepper seeds, causing them to float to the top of the container. If you can see your pepper seeds; if they seem to have floated to the top, take a small blunt item such as the eraser end of a pencil, and gently poke the seed a a tiny bit back into the soil. Gently brush some soil over it, covering it again. I've done this many times with good success.

The first leaves a seedling gets are known as the "imp leaves". When the seedling gets about four more leaves after the imp leaves . . . (two more sets) gently transfer each one that you plan to keep into it's own clay pot. One seedling per pot. You can get a few small clay pots maybe 2" or 3" diameter at Home Depot, for real cheap. I'd go with 3" rather than 2" because with the larger diameter bottom, they are less likely to tumble over. I like clay pots (terra cotta) best, because the clay regulates moisture and temperature best. Those durn peat pots dry out too quick and get too hard, and plastic can also allow the the soil to dry out fairly fast.

Again you are going to fill the pot, wet the soil down, adding more soil if needed, and wet the added soil down. Use a pencil or a finger to gently poke a hole in the soil in the middle of the pot. Remove the seedling from it's starter pot. If some, or even all of the soil falls off accidently, it's not a disaster, but it's better to get it with the soil still around it's roots. Stick the little seedling down into the hole you made, and VERY GENTLY pat the soil, pushing the hole closed around the stem to make sure it's standing straight up. Plant it at the same depth it was in the starter pot. In other words, don't pile soil up high around the stem, or don't leave the bottom of it's stem bare, or roots showing.

When you go to plant them outdoors, make sure there is no more danger of frost. I'd make a garden area for them on the South side of the house, and not under any shade. In those cold climates you are going to want them to get that full sun, and as much heat as possible. Get a couple bags of good garden soil at your garden center store. Ask them how you should go about making a decent garden plot to grow vegitables in your area.

What I used to do at my old house to water seedlings that I transferred to my garden area's; I'd lay down one of those flat green hoses with the holes in it. Sprinkler hoses I think they are called. I'd even anchor it down with the "staples" that are used to hold landscape fabric down with, so that it would stay out there in place exactly where I wanted it, for a long time. I'd sometimes even use a thick needle to poke a hole in the hose exactly where I wanted it to spray. I'm not talking about the round black drip hoses. The ones I'm talking about spray upward about 5 feet. The plants like the water on thier leaves as well as on the soil around them. And it was fun to look out the window and see the birds flying through the mist too hehe. You can usually get sprinkler hoses at Big Lots for just a few bucks. When I first put the seedlings into the garden plot I'd turn the sprinkler hose on each day for about 20 minutes in the am, and again in the evening. If your soil holds water much better than our sandy soil here, adjust the water to the soil. You don't want the soil to dry out, but you don't want it to become swamped either. Of course, if you are getting rain, you won't need to water so much. You just want it so that the soil sticks into a ball if you grab a handfull of it and . . . well, squeeze it to try to make it stick into a ball.

In Florida, or other tropical climates, you can start these seeds outdoors. However, make sure to bring them inside if the temperature is going to dip below 50ish. Or snap them into a greenhouse type container. In Florida, or other extremely hot climates, or hot and dry climates, you might want to make sure that the pepper plants get a little releif from extreme heat. That's sometimes difficult, because they do need that full sun. Make sure you keep them watered plenty! Water in the early morning, and NOT in the heat of the day. The sun can actually burn the plants when evaporating the water off the leaves. In Florida, and humid climates, don't water after dark, as this sets up perfect conditions for molds and mildew that can rot your vegitables overnight. Again, the best time to water would be early mornings. If you water in the evening, make sure that you will have enough daylight left to dry up excess water before dark that could cause molds and mildews.

I hope this information turns anyone with a black thumb into a successful Peter Pepper Picker!

 

Native American Graphics Copywrite of
The Greasy Grass Native American Graphics

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My husband and I live a rather quiet life in a fast growing South-Western Gulf Coast Florida community. It used to be a very "small town" atmosphere, but the recent influx of pre-retirement baby boomers has pushed the county's growth almost out of control. We're not recent transplants like almost all of our neighbors are. We've both grown up here.

Our only child is a "fur kid"; an adorable loving and very friendly, and very stubborn little Shih-tsu dog. She gets her adorable, friendly nature from me. I don't know WHERE the stubborn came from. Must be from my husband! (Looking at the ceiling, whistling a little tune). Actually, Shih-tsu's are nutorious for being stubborn. She communicates with little grunts and snorts. When she's not happy about something, she lets you know by snorting lol!

I like to garden when the weather isn't too hot. Little by little, I've been landscaping the yard at the house we built in 2004. There's a lot more landscaping that I have planned, and a lot more planning to do. but I have to end my projects up before the real hot and humid weather rolls in. Which will be VERY soon. So there will always be more to do for next year. Killing the dang fire-ants will have to take priority this year. I also have 9 Earthboxes to garden in. (See my favorite links below).

I like to do almost any type of artsy-crafty thing. I fancy myself an "artist wanna-be". Anything that I think I can make, I usually end up at least attempting it. This sometimes results in a lot of UFO's around my house...you know, Un-Finished Objects. My undertakings include but are not limited to sewing and quilting, tole painting, jewelry-making, and making multiple things for decorating our new home in Southwest, and Native American style. I'm one of those people who does not want what is overly common, or what everyone else has. Anyone can decorate now days with palm trees and tropical themes. Every recent Florida transplant or snowbird decorates with bedspreads and curtians printed with seashells. That's for the tourists.

As far as making things, I've even worked with cement to make something called "Poetry Stones". (See favorite links below). I love words, and once in awhile, I write some poetry when the mood strikes me. I'll paint anything and everything if given a chance. I'm teased because I like to paint old things to make them look new, and new things to make them look old. Also because patchwork quilting involves taking large pieces of fabric, cutting them up into smaller pieces, then sewing them back into large pieces again. I want to get into making mosaics out of tile, granite, pieces of stained glass ... whatever I feel like sticking into them. Realize that mosaic making involves breaking big pieces of glass or tile into little pieces, and sticking them on some surface to make a big piece out of them again. I'm very good at the "breaking things" part! *chuckle*. Sometimes I think I have more desire than talent and energy however. I am very good at collecting artisans as friends. I guess you can say I have an artist collection.

I've also been a casual, "RL comes first" Everquest player(online roleplaying game that is like "Lord of the Rings")with a high-level Shaman on the Xegony server. I have not played for a couple years however. I'm having more fun doing more productive things since I'm regaining some of my energy and stamina after a several year bout of severe anemia. We do keep in contact with a group of people from the last guild we were in, and sometimes go to get-togethers in the Tampa area. Great bunch of folks. I also walk every night for excercize, and I've been loosing weight! I walk two laps around the neighborhood carrying weights, and I do a third, slower lap without weights...walking the dog. She and I both get excercize every night! When I try to hurry her, or pull her away from a spot she wants to sniff...she SNORTS!

I've always been very interested in my Native American background. I'm a bit Seneca Indian from my mother's side. I'm interested in almost anything Native American as you can see by this page. I love browsing eBay for native items and artifacts, maybe buying an item here and there. I went through a phase where I collected some really neat Navajo sand paintings. Maybe it's because the art involves grinding rocks and minerals of many colors into fine little bits of sand, and putting them back together to make one big piece out of them again. <*Grin*> It's facinating and beautiful spiritual artwork, and I love anything that has to do with rocks and stones, as well as with Native American spirituality and spiritual "medicine". I also look for, and sometimes buy genuine Native American made spiritual items. I have a few really cool things. I'm in a "pottery shard phase" right now. I just LOVE ancient Anasazi pottery shards, and have purchased quite a few. I make earrings and pendants from some, I'm making shadowboxs from others to hang in my house, and I've even put a few together and have a large section of a pot. Maybe I'll use some of them to stick into mosaics whenever I'm able to get back into working with the Poetry Stones and cement.

I went to the Grand Canyon a few years back which was a life-long dream of mine. I never got red rock country out of my system, and I don't think I ever will. If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to have one home somewhere not too far from the Grand Canyon. Maybe in Flagstaff where I can retreat when it's too hot in Florida. With a built-fireplace that looks like a Kiva! (That's a Pueblo oven). I know very little about my direct Seneca ancestors. I know that the Seneca didn't live near the Grand Canyon, and didn't create sand paintings. The Seneca live in Upper-state New York around "The finger lakes" regions.

I have permenant damage from Multiple Sclerosis which does things to me that prevent me from effectively working outside the home. I've been diagnosed since 1996 after having a very strong "attack". Among lots of other symptoms, I often need naps, get confused, forget words, get different bouts of pain, and can get especially overwhelmed by different MS symptoms in the heat. The hot humid Florida summers often render me into a couch potato, sitting indoors with no energy to get up and do anything. I do okey, and you wouldn't know that I have MS by seeing me, but the symptoms that I get are not something that allows one to be effective and dependable in a work environment, as I never know how I will feel from one day to the next.

I hope to "find my nitch" and become a regular eBay seller someday. So far I'm having fun doing a "continuous garage sale" type of genre. This is something I can do in the privacy of my air-conditioned home, on my own time, without bosses glaring at me for getting tired, for not being productive every minute, for lack of brain functioning that hits me in phases, or for needing breaks. I mean, one day I can be sharp and programming my sprinkler system, or understanding how to do HTML, and the next day I can't figure out how to get the telephone, or microwave to work, or how to walk without stumbling. And then like magic...all of a sudden I can remember how to do them. It certianly can be a wild roller coaster ride.

Oh well, everyone has thier speedbumps in life. You either stop for them...afraid that they are too high to cross over, blaze a trail up and over them, or learn a different way around them. At first I decided that I would ignore the fact that I have MS, and would go full throttle, blazing a trail right over any speed bumps. Frankly, the speed bumps beat the livin' hell outta me. So, I had to back-up and re-think the situation, and accept that it wasn't willing to allow me to ignore it. Instead, I've learned ways, and created ways to go around those speed bumps and still get to my destination,
while trying to keep a sense of humor about it. I guess you can say I'm cutting my own trail, at my own pace. Even though, sometimes the trail takes me through some very rough and rocky terrain, up and down hills...like a roller coaster ride.

My listings are basically like a continuous garage sale. And who doesn't love a garage sale? I usually list new items about 5 days per week. I have anything from gently used household items, collectibles, oddities, vintage and antique items, to beautiful mint-condition collectible porcelain dolls. Even coupons and codes! Lately I've been enjoying selling seeds from my gardening endeavors. I don't make tons of money off of it, but it's helping to support my gardening habbit in this tuff economy. No telling WHAT you might find listed under the name krisanco! I just might have that one certian item you've been looking everywhere for! So put my name on your favorite sellers list, and check my listings often!

A NEW PUZZLE!
I helped draw the design on this puzzle.
I call it "Tourmaline Dream".
Have fun putting it together!