what are the lighter colored specks on top of the soil?

bought one of those grow in a can sets, after like 6 weeks of them not sprouting i decided to empty the can and sift through the soil for the seeds, when i replanted them i decided not to waste the soil that came with the can (weirdest soil i've ever seen but it's supposed to be super nutrient rich)

Great job on getting them to sprout, what kind of lighting are you using? Seems they are reaching for the light and getting leggy, if kept under same lighting they will get so tall and topple over. If you are using florescent lights place them closer to the top of the peppers. Also when you repot into individual pots bury the stems deeper in the soil since the stems are young it will be fine. I would repot as soon as you can.

Mark

also, if you are continuing to grow them indoors (which doesn't make sense here in sunny FL unless you don't have outdoor space), I'd suggest adding a fan. air circulation will make them grow stronger stems, which will keep them from getting even leggy-er. leggy plants tend to topple over under the weight of lots of pods, and of course the goal of growing chiles is to get lots and lots of pods.

also, surely you poked holes in the bottom of that container, right? peppers don't like wet soil.

and if you don't mind me asking, where in FL are you? I'm a fellow sunshine state chilihead.

there are holes at the bottom of the container (hard to see it's at an angle and the tray is on the opposite side), and i'm using a mixture of incandescent and florescent lighting (incandescent for the heat my house is usually at about 70 degrees) I've been meaning to repot them soon just gotta go get a few good sized containers. the lighting is going to be moved down as soon as i can manage that, either that or the plants moved up. i'll put a fan on them right now, thanks for the advice. I live in south Florida, CoralSprings area, and i'm hesitant to harden them off because they're still so small, and the past few weeks we've been having a bunch of really bad storms, an i don't want these poor little guys to suffer because of it.

Ditch the incandescent, and go with the fluorescent about an inch or so from the top of the plants, NOW. Otherwise, they'll just get leggier and you'll never be able to harden off because they'll be so weak that any wind will just knock them down.

The fluoros will be able to deliver enough heat.

Good job so far, though.

Good luck.

Kevin

70 is great, I grew mine starting jan/feb zone 7 in the only area I had the basement which was cooler than the rest of the house and I would say it was between 65-70 and I used floro shop lights inches from the tops. here is a pic for an example.

Mark

good to know i'll have to rig something up in my garage today or tomorrow.

understandable concerns about hardening off. as you may have read on the forum, the trick is to do it a little bit at a time. when my plants were small if I knew it was gonna come down hard that day I just brought them under cover, and it's fine. I started a thread some time ago about florida rainstorms and overwatering. now my plants are plenty big, and I just leave them alone (maybe it's just because they're heavy and I'm lazy). tomorrow, take them out in the sun for 10 minutes. the next day, take them out for 20, see what happens. I had a crazy storm damn near uproot one of my plants. I just staked it and left it alone. it was looking pretty bad for a little bit but now it's doing just fine. peppers are tough little plants. you gotta try to kill them, it's hard to do accidentally.

thanks for the advice :)