Midwinter is a good time to make plans for the upcoming gardening season, especially to figure out what I want to grow and to purchase seeds. I did a pepper germination test in mid-January to see if a couple of types of older seeds were still viable. I just sowed between 4-6 seeds of each of the 4 varieties in small pots and waited to see what came up. Two of the four types sprouted, so if I want to grow the other two varieties, I will need to purchase new seeds. The good news is I now have a few sprouts that will start my pepper collection for this upcoming season. They are both small sweet pepper varieties. For any seeds that are more than a few years old either doing a germination test, or sowing extras is recommended.

Pepper experiment time!

Pepper seedlings a few weeks later

My fig cuttings are doing quite well, I had a high success rate for propagation. I love seeing all the tiny leaves that emerge from sticks that were dormant a month ago. Many of my older fig trees which are in the basement are also waking up and unfurling new leaves. Some of the houseplants are even showing new growth, so that is a sign that they are enjoying the slowly lengthening days. It may be freezing outside, but spring is on the way.

Peppers like a warm environment so I started the seeds inside small greenhouses on a heat mat. This way they were warm and humid. The heat speeds up germination and ensures more of the seeds do sprout. I’ve had pepper seeds poking through in as little as a week using this method.

I have also repotted and taken cuttings from a few of my houseplants. Winter time isn’t ideal for this, but the houseplants were putting on new growth, and roots were coming out of the bottom of their pots. I spent a couple hours last week repotting them all, including two hoya and two pothos.

I had successfully taken cuttings from a jade plant and so I planted them in a few small pots to grow on.

I started my first main sowing of pepper seeds last weekend and expect to see sprouts later this week. I sowed the following varieties:

I plan to start a second set of seeds this week, all different varieties. Once these are all up and I see how many potential plants I have growing, I will start any final seeds, to potentially fill in gaps.

I have already started a set of leek seeds and they have been growing for about a month now. Allium family seeds (leeks, onions, shallots, scallions) are very slow growers. I managed a few small leeks last season, but I want to try again. I bought onion starts last year which worked, but I did not get large onions. This year I am once again going to try from seed. I also plan to start celery seeds soon as they are very slow growing seedlings as well.

Multi-sown leeks living amongst the houseplants for now.

I have purchased my first small bag of potting mix which I used this weekend to pot on my small hibiscus seedlings. My homemade seed starting mix is quite lightweight and well draining, but once seedlings get a little bigger, they can use more nutrients. I plan to start feeding them with a diluted houseplant liquid feed after they are about a month old. I’ve not done this before, but want to see if it helps the seedlings grow stronger and larger.

My grow lights are set up on the bottom shelf by the back glass door. This way the pepper seedlings will get as much light as possible for the time of year. I’m also utilizing white cardboard at the back of the shelf, to try and capture and reflect the light back onto the seedlings. I did this last year and I think it helped them stay a little more balanced with their growth. I’m still rotating the pepper seedlings every couple of days so they don’t grow lopsided.

We just emerged from a lengthy cold snap where I live, and I am very much looking forward to spring and nice warm days.