This is my first ever attempt at growing hot peppers and I’m excited to see the growth on these Habaneros!
I’m not sure how much bigger I should let them get before I transplant or how to separate the plants that are growing together.
Any tips?
OrangeIcy6044
I would have separated them already, before the true leaves sprout. You can also just kill one of the 2
jesse4653x
I would do it now and put them into solo cup size containers. Peppers are extremely easy and not picky, just separate the roots and gently pull them apart and they’ll be fine. I’ve had plenty that even lost almost all the roots when being separated and still came back with no issues.
Odd_Combination2106
Delecatly
-Quersperre
Do you need them all? If not, just cut the smaller ones. It’s a bit late to separate without damaging the roots (imo).
bollaP
Put them in a small bowl of water, remove all the dirt, and then untangle the roots.
internetpillows
In my experience it’s not too late to separate at this stage, you just have to be very careful and gentle. But if you don’t need all of them or don’t have the space for that many full grown plants then pick the weaker of the two and remove it. The weaker one is usually whichever one is smaller or less developed, but also if one has any kind of deformity or weird shaped leaves just get rid of it.
Washedurhairlately
There can be only one…
J/K you can cull, or you can grow two somewhat smaller plants side by side throughout the growth cycle. I have not personally witnessed this, but… other growers indicate that peppers are highly tolerant of growing very close together provided that there is sufficient nutrition, light, and moisture. The downfall to this is that if one gets sick or pest infested, they’re both going to suffer the same fate. It will also limit overall plant size and production, but for home growers, not necessarily a deal breaker. That said, cull the weaker looking seedlings and keep the more robust seedling going to play the next round. The point of planting two or more seeds per cell is so that you don’t have dead space in a germination tray. Cull means cut the weaker one just above the soil and leave the roots where they are rather than tugging the weaker one up by the roots. If you try disentangling them to create two seedlings, chances are you’ll just damage the roots of both and, best case scenario, you’re set back a few weeks while both recover – worst case, both just give up and die.
8 Comments
This is my first ever attempt at growing hot peppers and I’m excited to see the growth on these Habaneros!
I’m not sure how much bigger I should let them get before I transplant or how to separate the plants that are growing together.
Any tips?
I would have separated them already, before the true leaves sprout.
You can also just kill one of the 2
I would do it now and put them into solo cup size containers. Peppers are extremely easy and not picky, just separate the roots and gently pull them apart and they’ll be fine. I’ve had plenty that even lost almost all the roots when being separated and still came back with no issues.
Delecatly
Do you need them all? If not, just cut the smaller ones. It’s a bit late to separate without damaging the roots (imo).
Put them in a small bowl of water, remove all the dirt, and then untangle the roots.
In my experience it’s not too late to separate at this stage, you just have to be very careful and gentle. But if you don’t need all of them or don’t have the space for that many full grown plants then pick the weaker of the two and remove it. The weaker one is usually whichever one is smaller or less developed, but also if one has any kind of deformity or weird shaped leaves just get rid of it.
There can be only one…
J/K you can cull, or you can grow two somewhat smaller plants side by side throughout the growth cycle. I have not personally witnessed this, but… other growers indicate that peppers are highly tolerant of growing very close together provided that there is sufficient nutrition, light, and moisture. The downfall to this is that if one gets sick or pest infested, they’re both going to suffer the same fate. It will also limit overall plant size and production, but for home growers, not necessarily a deal breaker.
That said, cull the weaker looking seedlings and keep the more robust seedling going to play the next round. The point of planting two or more seeds per cell is so that you don’t have dead space in a germination tray. Cull means cut the weaker one just above the soil and leave the roots where they are rather than tugging the weaker one up by the roots. If you try disentangling them to create two seedlings, chances are you’ll just damage the roots of both and, best case scenario, you’re set back a few weeks while both recover – worst case, both just give up and die.