Quintisho RED ,PEPPER SEEDS – Capsicum Chinense – From Bolivia CANRIBBEANGARDEN

Quintisho – C. chinense
A rare variety producing 3/4″ pods on compact plant and ripen from green to RED yellow. Very productive with fruit similar in appearance to a wild cherry tomato. Aromatic with a critrus like flavor. Eat these handsome morsels fresh, add to salad and salsas or pickle for later. Origin – Bolivia. 5,000 to 30,000 SHU .

• Color matures from dark green to RED, sometimes orange to red
• Height: 70-110 cm
• Fruit round, upright, 1 cm tall
• Taste very fragrant fruity
• Sharpness Level 9-10, very sharp
• Feature extremely branched growing 1-2 berries per branch, so very profitable
• Origin variety from Bolivia

HOW TO START PEPPER SEEDS

 Unless you live in a subtropical climate you will need to start pepper plants indoors. I start my seeds in seed starter mixture in plastic “Solo” cups. Plain old outdoor garden soil isn’t a good idea at all. Seed starter mixture is sold in bags in the stores but I mix my own. It’s basically peat, pearLite and a little lime. Peat pellets work too but I don’t like the way the roots get tangled and bound in them. I punch 4 holes in the bottom of the cups and put them in plastic trays with about an inch of water in the bottom so the moisture remains high. I then put them in my boiler room where it is always between 70 and 75F.

Once they sprout I dump the water in the pan so the moisture goes down a bit to prevent mold growth. At this point the seedlings will need light. I have grow lights but if it is warm enough outside I put them out. If you have access to an unshaded south facing window that may do also. The key to sprouting seeds is moisture and warm – but not hot – temperatures. Too much of either or both equals rotting seeds and no germination.

There are multiple ways to start growing your pepper seeds. 

I will now tell you the way we are growing our peppers. This may be somewhat different to the instructions you find searching the web, but we are highly successful with our method.

Things you need

First you need a warm place, a mini greenhouse with heating, or a box where you can hold constant temperatures between 77-86°F (25-30°C) in the first stage of propagation. Anything below this range will give you insufficient results or no germination if it’s cold enough. You need a commercial propagation substrate on turf basis, Perlite, Vermiculite, plastic pots and glass plates to cover the pots. 

Soak the seeds 

Seeds are soaked in warm water for two days with one change after 24h. If the seeds tend to float add a very low amount of dish washer to the water. This will enhance water uptake, as the seeds have some oil at the surface repelling water. 

In order to avoid bacterial growth, we recommend to add hydrogen peroxide to the water. There are small bottles with a 3% (w/v) solution available in drug stores or pharmacies (https:///products/prod.asp?pid=73864). Use 9 parts of water and 1 part of hydrogen peroxide solution (final dilution should be 0.3% of hydrogen peroxide). Hard to germinate seeds like some Capsicum chinense or Capsicum annuum varieties can be pretreated with a 2% (w/v) saltpeter solution at a maximum of 24h. 

Potting the seeds

Prepare a mixture of 2 parts of commercial propagation substrate and one part of Perlite and one part of Vermiculite. Use clean plastic pots 8cm (3 inch) and fill 2/3 of the volume with your propagation mix (4-5 spoons).

Press down the substrate with a spoon or a punch prepared from wood.

Distribute the pre soaked seeds on the surface a cover with a spoon of substrate. Then set the pot into a bowl with some inches of warm water and led soak until the surface gets dark.

Now cover your pot with the with the glass plate and put into your propagation box or mini greenhouse set at 29°C. Until the seeds have sprouted, no light is needed.

Inspect your pots daily and remove all pots where the seeds have sprouted. 

First weeks Pots with sprouted seeds are put at a somewhat cooler place (room temperature) under fluorescent light.

Use tubes with the 865 specification that produce pure white light, this will give you compact growth with dark green leaves. If you use more red light you will get unwanted early lengthy growth with unstable plants. 

First transplant After the second pair of true leaves have developed, it’s time to transplant the seedlings to single pots. Use the same mixture as above, keep the young plants at somewhat lower temperatures (about 75°F) under good light but avoid direct sunlight in the first week after transplantation. Then adopt to sunlight and lower humidity. Any type of potassium enriched fertilizer will now help to setup a very good rooting and compact, green growth.