Help with hab pepper types germinating

[Tracydr]

I've been trying to get a sweet habenoro and aji dolce to germinate all spring. I've tried at least three plantings and I'm running low on seed. I've tried with and without the heat mat, under a plastic cover and not covered. I have them outdoors but this last try it's been hot so I don't think cool temps are a problem, in fact, ive been worried this time that I may have gotten them too hot with the heating pad.
Seeds are from Bakers Creek 2010 and SESE 2011 so they should be fresh.
I'm not in a time crunch as I can keep them alive year-round with frost protection but there weren't many seeds in either packet so they are starting to run low.
All my other seeds such as eggplant, ground cherries , sweet peppers and tomatoes have germinated without problem. I did have a failure with a Hungarian black pepper but it was traded seed and I'm not sure about the quality.
Any tips or tricks would be very appreciated!

[TZ-OH6]

Have you let them dry out and then rewater. A wet-dry cycle or two often results in a fresh round of germination in my pots.

[muskymojo]

Use a thermometer and keep a constant 80-86 degrees. I personally germinate all my hot pepper seeds in a damp paper towel placed inside a sandwich bag. It's easy and works great. Once you see a tap root emerging from the seed, transfer it to a soilless seed starting mix and cover with the humidity dome. Remove the cover when the seedling appears and then add light. Soaking the seeds in water for 24 hours first helps too. Good luck!

[Tracydr]

I will try both these tricks. How long should I expect them to take?

[muskymojo]

Usually about 7-10 days, but it can take longer. If none pop in 20 days, I would find new seeds. 80-86 degrees is perfect, but a little cooler is better than a little warmer. It's easy to cook seeds, especially in an enclosed container. I would suggest getting the temps right with your setup before you add seed.

[Tracydr]

I'll give this a try. I'm wondering if I have two different bad sources of seed?

[Boutique Tomatoes]

IMO, both the temperature and letting them dry out more than you would pretty much any other seed you were starting is important. If I keep them moist like tomatoes they just rot and they don't really do well unless they're kept at 80+ degrees. Germ time can depend on the variety as well, how long are you giving them?

This season I had some Douglah seeds I thought were no good, after 28 days I reported my germination results of 0% to the source and two days later two of them popped. That was with good conditions, sterile starting mix, bottom heat, etc. This year I started 32 different Chinense varieties with only one total failure and I suspect the source there.

[Tracydr]

Well, I've been trying since Feb. I've probably given eatch batch about 3-4 weeks but I've kept them pretty damp most of the time. In the last couple of days I've let the pots dry out and I'm going to dig out whatever seeds appear viable. I'll try some fresh seed starting mix and also the damp paper towel with a couple other seeds.
I did recently pop a couple new seeds in one of the pots, maybe last week because I tipped it over when moving the rack so hopefully at least that batch has some good seeds left.
If they didn't have so few seeds in the packet I wouldn't be worried but not anticipating a problem in the beginning, I sowed quite a few from each pack and I only had about ten of each to start.

[Tracydr]

I've been letting the seeds dry for the past few days. Today, I dug around in the "sweet Habs" and I was very excited to find a little root on one of the red dyed seeds. Yeah!
Great ideas! I'll spend a little more time digging tomorrow and see what else I find. Maybe they just needed some dry time?

[Tracydr]

I can't believe this. I have three of the aji dolce growing now, after about three days of drying out! Now to just keep these tiny things alive!

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

I can't believe this. I have three of the aji dolce growing now, after about three days of drying out! Now to just keep these tiny things alive!

Great to hear it!

[Tracydr]

I now have 9 little aji dolces!