An unexpected surprise
So, the 2022 Chilli growing season officially began for me today. Even though I had prepared for it, at the last moment the start of the season went pear shaped. I had followed my own advice and placed the seed into the refrigerator for three days. Also, as part of an experiment, I also put the same varieties into a deep freeze. I did this to find out whether cooling or freezing seeds is better for seed starting
After wrapping the seeds in aluminium foil, I placed them individually into seed tray inserts in mini seed starter trays with lids. The inserts consist of twelve
cavities. I faithfully labelled each cavity with the variety it contained. The covered seed starter trays were then placed into the fridge and deep-freeze. The seeds were taken from the fridge and deep-freeze after three days. They were brought to room temperature, and I then poured weak Camomile tea into the trays. It was at that point, the unexpected happened.
Where I thought the seeds would remain in their individual cavities, they decided to go wandering. I had not realised there was a gap between the seed tray inserts and the bottom of the trays. Thus, the seeds didn’t stay where they should have. They escaped from a hole in the bottom of the seed insert cavities. What I was left with was a pool of water with Chilli seeds of various sizes floating in a pool of water at the bottom of the seed trays. I was now faced with the fact that I had a whole bunch of perfectly viable Chili seeds, but I was unable to tell the one from the other. What a way to start the Chilli growing season!
