No luck with my peppers

[luigiwu]

I planted on Feb 23rd and nothing still.
I started with the wet coffee filter and two weeks later when nothing happened, I put them in little cups with seedling mix in ziplock baggies - always on a heat mat. Sometimes the heat mat can get hot.. like 86 degrees. Do you think its time for me to restart?

Any advice for this time?

I'm trying the following:
Shi sito
Chervena Chuska
Jimmy Nardello
Ancho Grande
Jalapeno

[Doug9345]

I don't like paper towels, coffee filters or the like on heat mats. There is no mass there to even out temperature swings. I suspect you cooked them.

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

I don't like paper towels, coffee filters or the like on heat mats. There is no mass there to even out temperature swings. I suspect you cooked them.

I agree. Meanwhile, this is working great: Richard's Indoor Propagation - start with the 1st post.

[KarenO]

I agree but I am also not a fan of paper towel pre sprouting techniques in general. I plant my seeds in either jiffy pellets or sterile organic seedling mix depending but I do think a heat mat helps with faster germination of pepper seeds although it needs to be a heat mat specifically designed for seed germination and the seeds cannot be in direct contact with the mat in just a moist paper or they would be too hot I think.
Karen

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by KarenO

I agree but I am also not a fan of paper towel pre sprouting techniques in general. I plant my seeds in either jiffy pellets or sterile organic seedling mix depending but I do think a heat mat helps with faster germination of pepper seeds although it needs to be a heat mat specifically designed for seed germination and the seeds cannot be in direct contact with the mat in just a moist paper or they would be too hot I think.
Karen

Sounds about right to me.
The year of the 100 peppers I started so may seeds in jiffy pellets thinking nothing would sprout.
No heat mat just under lights.
Well they all came up.

Worth

[epsilon]

I did the same thing to some of my peppers this year, but I was using the bottom of my mac book. The second I saw sprouts I should have pulled them. But oh well, at least I had extra seeds and what ever doesn't start, I can now grow other varieties in their place.

+win/-win

[drew51]

I found with the paper towel, if they happen to dry just a little, that is enough to kill the seedling. I did mine on top of the fridge. Keeping them moist, checking twice a day they germinated fine. But I lost some on transfer to soil. So I switched to starting in soil.
I would say you probably cooked them too. If no thermostat with mat, do it without the mat.

[feldon30]

I presoak tomato and pepper seeds in weak tea for about an hour or two, and then sow them extremely shallow in seed starting mix in starting trays. Never had a problem nor have I needed to do the paper towel trick.

[luigiwu]

Thanks for the input guys! I probably did cook them - booo!
I bought a light dimmer for the mat but obviously it still cannot self-adjust if the ambient temperature fluctuates. My backroom, its heated ambient temp is around 62-65. I have my dimmer for my seedling mat on the lowest setting - the thermometer near the pepper tray will swing from 77 to 86 degrees depending on the ambient I guess.

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

Thanks for the input guys! I probably did cook them - booo ....

Next time get a common baker's thermometer that registers between about 50F to 500F. Use it BEFORE planting to learn what soil temperatures are in your set up. I talk about this a little bit in my thread "Richard's Indoor Propagation".

[bower]

I love the heat mat for starting seeds, but there is a problem with ziplock bags in that situation, even with soil instead of wet filter paper. There is limited air in the zip, and if there is any respiration by sprouting seeds in the heat, they're at risk of suffocation. Heat levels build up much quicker inside a bag too.

I do like to cover my seed trays with raised domes, to keep the moisture level high without totally excluding air exchange - even then I have to fuss over them several times a day, knocking down the condensation and raising the lid to refresh the air. I take the seedlings off the heat as soon as they have sprouted. Yep, I cooked a few by leaving them on the pad too long once, learned my lesson. My heat pad doesn't have a thermostat either, and it seems to have a few 'hot spots'. This year I've put an extra 1020 tray between the pad and the cells or flats where seeds are planted to keep them up off the heat a bit.

My room temperature is about the same as yours, but if the soil seems very warm in the evening I will unplug it and let it cool overnight. This also simulates the normal variation of temperature day/night and it may actually be producing a faster germination than steady heat, afaict.

If you want to get your peppers started quickly, soak the seeds overnight in water, then plant and very lightly cover with soil or potting mix whatever, spritz the surface until drenched and then put them on the heat mat under the dome, moisten by spritzing once or twice a day as needed, they should be up in five days if the seeds are not too old or the peppers especially stubborn ones.

[jack03111969]

Try putting a sheet of sheet rock on top of the mat then put your seed on top of the sheet rock.

[tnkrer]

This is my first year growing from seed and this is what worked great for me. 5 varieties of sweet pepper seeds sprouted in 3-5 days. I used a thin layer of DE saturated with water (discussed in RayR's thread) in a small plastic container with a lid. A bunch of those containers were in another big plastic box. And that box was on hydrofarm seed heating mat. Before I did that, I measured temperatures in the box for 24 hours and it fluctuated between 72-82. (Room temperature fluctuated between 55-68 ). Now the seeds are in seed starting tray (again over the same mat)

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[recruiterg]

I always use the paper towel method. My advice is not to use a heat mat. I always get pretty close to 100% germination. Once you transplant into mix, you can use a heat mat if you wish to get them going under lights. Once they are going you can remove the mat. If you absolutely want to use a heat mat, put a one gallon zip top mat with a few moistened sponges directly on the mat, then put the zip top bags on top of the closed gallon zip top in order to remove some of the heat.

[luigiwu]

Well, I was reading that optimum temperature for peppers were around 77 degrees. My backroom is 62 -65 usually so I thought they would never germinate at those temp. I bought a hydrafarm heat mat but I did not buy the temperature regulator for it as it costs more than the heating mat itself.