I'm curious of this as well. I know I said 8-12 weeks ahead on most plants in that other thread, I'm curious if some peppers should get even more time.
I've seen people say that some of the superhots are slow to produce. However, I assume they still grow at the same rate? Therefore you will probably have to pot them up further than a 3.5-4" cup before you plant outside?

In my experience, peppers that are the result of intensive breeding (so very unusual shapes, unusual colors, extreme heat, etc) are weaker (and hence slower growing) than the more "traditional" peppers.

So if you want slow growing, try some novelty peppers.

My manzano peppers grew pretty good last year, but took forever to ripen. I think they were the last peppers with a ripe pod. You may want to start them early.

Tim

Well, I started several peppers at the same time and they're all about two feet tall now and several are fruiting, but the Fish is still ambling along at about 8 inches, so I'd have to say it's definitely the slowest pepper I've ever grown here.

Than you all,
Time, tell me about Manzano. You gave me the pods. Yeah. I had half of the ripen and the rest stayed green. They set pods so late. I love the taste of Manzano, lots of flesh and fruity.

Anyway, My question was about the growth rate of the seedlings in general not ripening the fruits. On the ripening issue, not a single one of my Bishops Crown got ripe. So no more BC for me.

Seysonn

Thai's, Lemon Drops, and tree habs grew the fastest. Red Bhuts and Tepins grew the slowest. Numex habs were about in the middle...

My manzano peppers grew pretty good last year, but took forever to ripen. I think they were the last peppers with a ripe pod. You may want to start them early.

Tim

I think you should consider size opposed to rate of growth. Thai Bird peppers only get 18 in tall and are easy to overwinter in a small area. I had one years ago in a hanging basket for 3 years.
Peppers were not hot inside mid winter but it looked great hanging in my sunny kitchen window. I wintered over some Marzonos also at the time 10 times the work, 10 the space required it took a lot of TLC compared to the birds.
Do both if you can but short compact plants are less work and take up less space and are much easier to move around.

Thanks podpiper,
That is the general answer that I was looking for. I want to know which variety, when started much early won't out grow in size my limited indoor space. So then CHENENSE general grow at slower rate. I have experienced that most Annums and baccatums are fast growing. I will start those much later.

Seysonn

I'm taking what I've heard as the Chinese grow all the vegetation just as quickly they just take longer to produce. I'm assuming that you should be prepared to pot past the solo cup size if you start too early to avoid stunting the plants.

Thanks Ozz,

I do pot into 4" round or square pots. Then If I see a need, next step will be like 1/2 gallon. But by then I am ready to get them outside. I start about 30 peppers and 30 tomatoes under 3 shoplites. And cannot afford (space wise) to repot all of them into 1/2 gallon.

Same here. I just built a 4' 4 rack shelf to start all my peppers and garden. I don't want to screw myself by having too many plants too soon and run out of space.

The Manzanos are easily the slowest to form fruit and ripen.

That said, they're rather nice in that they can take a good amount of shade and, if necessary, you can put them in a part of your garden that gets compromised sun. If you have a good partial-sun space to put them and limited full-sun garden space, it can take the sting out of them taking forever to do their thing.

nc-crn

I grew Manzano this past season. They had good combination of shade and sun in our cool PNW climate. They started flowering from very early on but dropped blossoms. Finally set pod. I got half a dozen ripe and havested the rest with just a suggestion of turning color. And they ripened inside on the counter. So I can say that they did ok. But on the other hand Bishops Crown never matured pods. So BC is not coming back next year. Habs, Chinese 5C and Lemon Drops did ok as well. I am overwintering a Hab as an experiment. The next season I will try few new ones like: Fatalii, Scotch Bonnet,...

Seysonn

seysonn, vegetative growth will be slower on your chinense species, with that being said if you have plants of any species that seem to be growing to quickly for your liking just cool down the temps in your room and that will slow the growth.

The thing I did notice when starting from seed last year was that after the first sets of true leaves almost all of the peppers grew at close to the same rate. The thing that was the delta factor was the germination times.

Oh and sounds like you would do well with the local method around here. Our season is two short ones with a long heat wave in the middle. The biggest plants will produce way more peppers, and faster than the ones started later.

If one has at least a one gal container filled with root ball at early plant out they are most likely to get a good harvest before the inferno wave starts here.

My best producers went in ground, or final containers from two gallon containers in the late part of March, and in early April. I harvested peppers from those starting in May until late July. They were loaded again in mid September as soon as the heat wave broke.

Thanks centexan for sharing your experience.

You share something about smaller pots, That I have said many times. If you have a short (ER) season, choose smaller pots. You might not get a bumper crop but you will get some before the time is up. Plants are smart. When they see that they have hit a dead end then start producing fruits. But when their roots have a lot of room to roam around, they'll take their sweet time.

Seysonn