The recent spell of warm weather has brought with it a spurt of fast growth from the chilli plants. Every year as Spring gets under way and Summer nears there is a flurry of activity as the batches of seeds I’ve sown over the last few weeks need re-potting.
When to Re-Pot Pepper Plants
A question we get asked a lot is ‘When to re-pot chilli plants’? As a general rule i re-pot my peppers when the roots start showing at the bottom of the pots. Below is a good example where you can see the thin white roots through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.
How long it takes for the roots to appear will depend on many factors, the main one being the temperature and light levels.
Which Post Size is Best for Chillies?
It’s worth remembering not to move your pepper plants in to too big pots. Doing so may mean the plant concentrates its efforts on growing the roots system at the expense of foliage. For a healthy plant you need to try and promote consistent growth of both roots and foliage. To do this it is best to re-pot often into slightly larger sized pots until you reach the desired pot size later in the summer.
I typically like to plant seeds in small seed module trays then prick them out into 3″ pots once the first set of true leaves appear. From there I’ll move to a 5″ pot before moving to something around 10″ pots for maturity.
If the pots are too big for the root system of the plant, then the roots are not able to use up all of the moisture you add every time you water the plant because the roots simply can’t reach the water in the edges and bottom of the pot. This can mean the roots end up sitting surrounded by sodden wet compost which encourages fungus and rot, definitely not what you want.
Pricking out seedlings
I’ve had a large batch of Cayenne pepper seedlings inside my lightbox for the last couple of weeks. This has given them a great boost and they have been overdue to be pricked out for a while.
It can be a bit tricky to get tender young seedlings out of seed cells or trays without damaging them. However if you prepare ahead you can minimize any damage to the seedlings.
First of all water the tray about half an hour beforehand. Doing so will make it much easier to remove the root ball with the soil still attached which will minimize any damage. While you are waiting for for the compost to dry a little, prepare your potting on compost mix. Here is the recipe I use for potting my chillies.
When selecting the right sized pot think about how big your seedlings are and how deep you want to pot them. My cayenne seedlings (see above) here were looking a bit leggy so i chose a slightly deeper pot (i used old drinking cups with drainage holes cut in the bottom) so i could re-pot them at a deeper level than before. When you do so the plant will sprout more roots from the part of the stem that is buried beneath the surface. Once you know how deep you’ll be planting your seedlings partially fill your pots with compost mix.
After watering and leaving for thirty minutes i use a large lolly stick (a small teaspoon would do the job) to gently loosen the compost around the edges of the cells. Once I’ve done all four sides with one hand i’ll gently take hold of a leave while with the other I’ll scoop out the root ball from the tray with the lolly stick. Be careful and aim to keep as much compost as possible on the root ball to minimize any damage.
After placing the seedlings gently in the new pot and lightly filling with the potting medium I very gently firm down the compost. I then give the repotted plants a light watering (using a watering can with a fine rose) to help bed the compost around the roots.
As your plants move up into bigger pots, the larger volume of compost will mean you will not need to water as often as the growing medium will be able to store more moisture.