I had to run to Walmart this evening for an ingredient for dinner. I stopped by the garden center and noted they has shishito pepper starters finally. I bought 2 as a safety net in case the ones I’m growing from seed take a bad turn.
I figured that I would do a better job of keeping my purchases in good shape with these near freezing temps. So any little plants that are very tender are back in the house and under grow lights (off for 8 hours). On Monday I can get back out there and “dig in.”
Oh, a pot with 5 basil plants in it was $13, but a pot with 1 starter basil was $5. Guess which pot I chose.
Sounds like how I used to be on buying shishito backups. What I found was my very small ones started from seed once plants outside with the much bigger Bonnie plants, well mine shot up so fast they all bore peppers around the same time.
Noted and thanks on that - I should check to see if our Wally World has any now. I'd like to try them out. I never see shishito pepper seeds or plants at Menards, Lowes, Home Depot, Rural King, or Tractor Supply.
Also, a question about starting seeds:
Once again this Spring, I have noticed that sometimes when I try to start seeds indoors in new starter soil, potting soil, or garden soil, my results are poor, even though soil temperature, moistness, etc., all seem to be good / correct. But, what I've noticed is that if I go back and seed the very same starter pots with the same only lightly disturbed soil in them, with more of the same seeds from the very same seed packet, holding all the environmental conditions the same, so far as I can tell, "round two" is usually very successful. And, on occasion when I've marked round 1 seed positions at the start, and skipped them in round 2, one or two of those round 1 seeds will pop up a seedling with the round 2 seeds, often on the same day.
This has me wondering if the starting soil medium (media) needs some exposure or to break down / decompose a little to be the most germination friendly?
I'd also note that a lot of the bagged soil / media are not peat based / enhanced any more.
Note that I've not tried (and maybe should try) starting anything from seed REALLY early, say, January, as pretty much all my plant space indoors is taken up by plants I brought in. I suppose I could work up a small experiment next winter, but, less data is... less conclusive...
Thoughts?