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The Impatient Gardener

Edibles, Garden

Grow peppers + begonias from seed

March 15, 2023

Thank you to Park Seed for partnering with me on this post. As always, all words and thoughts are my own.

You might be asking yourself what begonias and peppers have in common that they’d end up in the same article. A lot actually, at least when it comes to starting them from seed, which makes them good seed-starting partners. 

SEED-STARTING SIMILARITIES

Begonias and peppers are good seed starting partners for a few reasons.

  1. They should be started from seed at about the same time. Peppers should be started about 8 to 12 weeks before your last frost, a bit earlier for bell peppers and a little later for hot peppers, but I start them all at the same time. Begonias should be started about 10 to 12 weeks before your last frost. By batching it all at the 10-week mark I simplify things a bit, and particularly in the case of begonias, it’s OK to be a little on the late side because they’ll start performing in the garden quickly. If you don’t know your last frost date you can look it up here, or you can use the From Seed to Spoon app to just see the dates for starting various crops based on your location.
  2. Begonias and peppers are both heat lovers, so you can sow them in the same tray and give them the same conditions, about 70 to 80 degrees of bottom heat from a heat mat.
  3. As you grow them on inside under lights they’ll both appreciate a good amount of light, although you can remove them from the heat mat after they germinate.

HOW TO SOW PEPPERS

If you’ve ever grown tomatoes from seed, you know most of what you need to know about peppers, and that’s not a surprise given that they are close relatives. Sow them about a quarter-inch deep in seed-starting mix or, if you’re using the Park’s Original Bio Dome like I did, you can just put them in the hole in the special sponges. 

I sow two pepper seeds to a cell and will thin the weaker seedling out later.

Keep seed-starting mix evenly moist or leave about an inch of water in the bottom of the Bio Dome, then cover them with a humidity dome and set them on a heat mat until they germinate in about seven to 10 days. 

HOW TO SOW BEGONIAS

Begonias are sown differently from peppers. Since the seeds need light to germinate, they should be sown right on the surface of the soil, or on top the Bio Sponge. 

But don’t expect to see the seeds on top the soil, because begonia seeds are incredibly small, almost like large dust particles. Anytime I’m dealing with a very small seed, I put the seeds into a small container (I used the lid of the toothpick jar in this case) and use a toothpick to pick up an individual seed then lightly wipe it on the surface of the soil. 

A toothpick makes picking up itty bitty seeds easier.

If you can find pelleted begonia seeds, it’s well worth the extra cost, although you’ll probably still need to do the toothpick trick.

Even pelleted begonia seeds are incredibly small.

AFTER SOWING

After sowing, set the seed tray on a heat mat under a grow light (the begonias need light, but if you are only starting peppers, the light isn’t necessary until after they germinate). Keep them evenly moist and remove the dome when most of the seeds have germinated.

Cover cells with a humidity dome (one is included with the Bio Dome) until seeds germinate.

If you’re growing in cells with seed mix, you’ll need to transplant the small plants to pots (3-inch or so) when the roots fill the cell. Use regular potting mix at this point. You can also start using a dilute fertilizer at this point.

If you’re growing in a Bio Dome, you’ll want to fertilize with the included fertilizer pack but you may not need to move the small plants up to pots. When it’s safe to plant them outside, just pop them straight into the garden.

WHAT I’M GROWING

After a few years of growing peppers I’ve figured out what types of peppers I’ll actually use and that determined my selections.

  • Mexican Sunrise is a hot Hungarian pepper, with a nice amount of heat (which for me is enough to know it’s there and not enough to make me afraid to eat it). It’s tolerant of cooler conditions, which is helpful in my not-too-hot garden. It’s an All-America Selections winner, which means it’s been tested in trial gardens all over North America and found to be the best performing variety of its kind. I’ve found it to be extremely productive.

Mexican Sunrise

  • Pot-a-peño is a small jalapeño pepper perfect for containers, but also great in gardens where you don’t want to dedicate a lot of space to peppers. It has great flavor and, although I’ve grown plenty of super hot peppers, this is at a level that I love to use to actually flavor dishes, rather than use as a party game. You can eat them green or red. This is also an All-America Selections winner.

Pot-a-peno

  • Candy Cane Red peppers were just too pretty to pass up. This sweet snacking pepper is a new variety for me and it has variegated foliage and fruit. The peppers ripen to a variety of colors, including green and red striped. You can’t buy that in the grocery store!

Candy Cane Red

  • Kitchen Minis Fresh Bites Yellow are the cutest little pepper plants. They were new last year and I grew a couple of them in a planter filled with quick-grab edibles by the back door. Sure, the peppers were delicious, but they were beautiful as well, and that is reason enough to grow these small plants.

Kitchen Minis Yellow

Both of the begonias I’m growing are new-to-me varieties that I’m eager to add to the garden.

  • Viking Explorer Rose on Green is another All-America Selections winner, and a sister to other Viking Explorer begonias I’ve grown and loved in the past. It grows into a sizable plant—20 inches high by 24 inches wide—that is absolutely covered in flowers all season. Although it will do best in dappled sunlight, it’s quite adaptable to different lighting situations. The seeds are pelleted.

Viking Explorer Rose on Green

  • Pizzazz White is exactly the kind of annual I like to have lots of on hand to scatter around the garden to fill holes and brighten up dark corners. It’s a bedding begonia that I’ll use for those empty, front-of-the-border spots in the shade.

Pizzaz White

In most areas, it’s not too late to start either of these, alone or together.

For limited time, use the promo code IMPATIENTGARDENER15 for 15% off your Park Seed order.

begonias biome grow from seed how to grow peppers
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: Three ways to grow annual poppies
next post: Seed abuse in the name of cool plants

Comments

  1. Emily says: March 18, 2023 at 7:08 am

    I’ve never thought about starting begonias…I overwinter the ones I can and usually just buy small packs if need dictates, but now you’re luring me into your seed starting web of madness 😂

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: March 20, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      Web of madness. I like it!

      Reply
  2. Diane says: March 18, 2023 at 10:34 am

    Viking Rose on Green, looks beautiful! Would love to see a video like you did last year on the top plant winners from various organizations, such as All-American selection winners. Also do you have any advise on how to keep basil going all winter? It seems to be harder to get a my local grocery store. Love using it in recipes! Thanks for all your posts and videos!

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: March 20, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      Oh I’m terrible about keeping basil going. I’ve had limited success doing repeated cuttings, planting, then cutting again, but they get very tired and pathetic by about February and I finally gave up trying. I do freeze basil in fall though, by cleaning it, drying it thoroughly, and then rolling it up in a log in a zip-top bag. It doesn’t work when you need fresh basil, of course, but it works great in any dish that is cooked.

      Reply
  3. Geri Niemann says: March 18, 2023 at 12:48 pm

    The seed starting plugs you use do not compost as advertised. I have found them intact in my beds years after they were placed. They persist in the compost even after compost is “finished.”

    Reply
  4. Gloria Chmilar says: March 20, 2023 at 9:54 pm

    I live in Alberta, Canada, in Zone 3A, and you can imagine or perhaps you cannot imagine the challenges we face when trying to successfully garden in our short season. Stokes Seeds, a Canadian seed company, also offers pelleted begonia seeds and I plan to start growing them this November, indoors. I tremendously enjoy watching you on YouTube, your videos are so informative and I have recently bought Sonic Bloom and Terra Cotta dahlia tubers from a dahlia producer in BC, Canada. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and down to earth advice! Your devoted fan! Gloria (Master Gardener)

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
Get your dahlia engines running. All the dahlia th Get your dahlia engines running. All the dahlia things are happening very soon. I actually started dividing my dahlias last weekend, about two weeks earlier than I usually do because the weather kept me cooped up inside. I’m glad I did it because I had some (not unexpected) losses that I’ll have to adjust some plans for. So stay tuned: we’ll be talking lots about dahlias soon. 😀
Want to give a gift to your future self? This fall Want to give a gift to your future self? This fall plant snowdrops and winter aconites and I guarantee you that it will bring you happiness the next spring. They are tiny blooms of joy.
A favorite groundcover and a favorite reseeder. Fi A favorite groundcover and a favorite reseeder. First off, you should know that I really love groundcovers. I would rather see a plant than bark mulch any time. Ajuga is a favorite because there are several forms (my favorites are ‘Black Scallop’, shown here, and ‘Chocolate Chip’) and because they can handle most conditions from sun to shade. Popping up next to it is Talinum paniculatum ‘Limon’ (Jewels of Opar). It reseeds around the garden and I just move it around where I want the chartreuse, succulent foliage. Tiny flowers in red and pink bobble on with stems, looking a bit like peppercorns. Then they drop their seed and come back the next year.
Make this the year that you grow a plant you know Make this the year that you grow a plant you know very little about. If you love your garden that’s all that matters. BUT I promise you’ll find even more joy it it when you broaden your horizons. I feel like I’m starting to see the same plants in gardens over and over again. By all means appreciate and love those plants, but also add something you have to learn about. There is great reward in getting to know new-to-you plants. 

Here are two good candidates you might consider: Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ and Persicaria (or Bistorta, thanks to the taxonomists) amplexicaulis ‘Golden Arrow’.
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