Hot Peppers

This fellow is 1,5 years old, last year she gave me like one and a half pepper. This year the plant has over 50 buds, flowers and fruits.

[Image description: A hand holding a long thin pepper gradiating from red at the tip to green at the top]

It’s not much, but my garden is living off VERY minimal effort from me this year. Hoping to upgrade my setup next year with better soil, but they still seem to be surviving at least!

Tomatoes seem to be thriving in the carotas tic soil I gave them (not shown)

One more bonus pic:

Post your own setups here if you don’t mind!!

Breakdown of the different LED wavelengths

Given how many "Pepper Joe'd" stories filled the Facebook and Reddit communities, I thought it might be a good idea to address this right off the bat.

Pepper Joes is a seed vendor that has been around for many years, and ranks right at the top for some popular search terms.

Legend has it that at one point they were a reputable seed seller, but the original owner sold the business many years ago. The current owners apparently outsource their supply from a variety of third-party growers, and their quality control is non-existent. Many people ordering from them receive seeds, grow them, and eventually find out that the seeds are not at all what they ordered. Most frequently they wind up being a pretty standard habanero, but random superhots or unknown crosses are also fairly common.

Other pepper communities have seen so many posts from people complaining that the seeds they bought from Pepper Joe's didn't grow true that it has become a meme.

There are many reports of their customer service getting argumentative with customers, refusing to acknowledge any responsibility or to issue refunds, although this doesn't seem universal.

Buy from them at your own risk.

I thought it would be nice to start a list of reputable seed vendors. Please feel free to list any of your favorites.

I've broken the list out into U.S. and EU sections, but some U.S. vendors may ship to EU countries, and some EU vendors may ship to the U.S.. If anyone has any good Asia-Pac vendors, I'll add a third section.

#U.S.

• White Hot Peppers
• Jimmy Pickles
• Chileplants.com
• Towns-end Chili & Spice
• Puckerbutt Pepper Company
• Matt's Peppers
• Refining Fires
• Sandia Seed Company

#EU

• Semillas La Palma
• Vertiloom
• Sea Spring Seeds
• South Devon Chilli Farm
• Suttons

While I don't want to invite "name and shame" over bad experiences, I do want to call out one vendor that has earned a lot of notoriety. Pepper Joe is one of the most popular seed vendors, largely due to having excellent search engine placement. However, the original owner sold it long ago, and pepper communities are FILLED with people who bought seeds from them only to have them grow into something completely different (typically common habaneros).

We have a discussion thread specifically for Pepper Joe's.

My recommendation is to NOT buy from Pepper Joe's, ever.

I have always been a paper towel and warm area kind of person, but Puckerbutt goes in a different direction with a tea soak and then planting in soiless medium until they sprout. I don't really have the luxury of planting seeds that may never sprout in my limited space so I am thinking of sticking with the paper towel method.

The email sign up code (unique to each email) will apply to the sale price for the LED units. My two 45w panels had been having power issues from pretty continuous use for years and it was time to upgrade them for the season. Grabbed the 260w. Flat rate shipping was $10 + tax so my unit was $216 shipped w/ code. I have ordered from this company a few times and they have been great to work with.

Looking to upgrade my nutrient regime for my indoor setup and was considering Fox Farms. If you use FF, which one are you using?

Grow Big is a 6-4-4, Tiger Bloom is 2-8-4, Big Bloom is 0-.5-.7

Have you needed to supplement with cal- mag?

https://foxfarm.com/product-category/liquid-fertilizers

Thinking of using Happy Frog potting soil in conjunction with their liquid fertilizers

https://foxfarm.com/product/happy-frog-potting-soil