Pepper starting method

TZ-OH6 · March 26, 2009

I got a couple of dozen rare hot pepper varieties through trades, a few seeds each, and I needed to know if they would sprout and how many of each I would have. I also needed to save space, so rather than simply cover them in potting mix and waiting I first germinated them and then transfered the individual seeds to flats of 3" cells as soon as I saw roots emerge. It has worked very well, saved a lot of space, and I know exactly how many seedlings vs bad seeds I have to work with now even though I can't see many plants pokeing up through the soil yet.

Materials:

Covered container (I used clear plastic clamshell food containers, the kind you get bakery section cookies in, (cutting the top off and invert/nest it in the bottom is easier than opening and closing the springy lids - easier than using plastic wrap over top too.)

Toilet paper
Note card cardboard and pencil.

Take two or three pieces of toilet paper the length of your container, stack them and then fold in three so that you have a 1 inch wide strip. Place in container and saturate with water.

Make small tags with the note cards and pencil and lay across the toilet paper strip to delineate sections for seeds.

Place seeds in areas between tags.

The wet toilet paper holds alot of water so that you do not have to do a presoak of the seeds, and by the time enough water evaporates to need rewetting the seeds should have sprouted. It is also thick and soft enough that it holds onto seeds when the contianer is bumped (I do not know if paper toweling will work as well.) I did start out by presoaking a dozen varieties at a time in a foam egg carton...pain in the rear, not recommended.

Almost all of my varieties had root tip emergence in 5-8 days, but after putting these seeds in mix it was another 4-5 days before the first sprouts emerged from the soil even in a warm room. So you can imagine what it would have been like to sit around for 10-14 days waiting to see if any of the seed was good (I had 0% germination from the varieties I received from one trade,and now I have time to try again with those or substitute).

One big surprise was that a couple of varieties that are supposed to be reluctant sprouters, (like Pequins, and
Rocoto red) sometimes had one seed out of the bunch sprout after only a couple of days (like a tomato seed), while the rest of the seeds took their time.

I don't think this method would work with tomatoes because they sprout so fast the roots would tangle in the TP.

March 26, 2009	#1
TZ-OH6 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mid-Ohio Posts: 848	Pepper starting method I got a couple of dozen rare hot pepper varieties through trades, a few seeds each, and I needed to know if they would sprout and how many of each I would have. I also needed to save space, so rather than simply cover them in potting mix and waiting I first germinated them and then transfered the individual seeds to flats of 3" cells as soon as I saw roots emerge. It has worked very well, saved a lot of space, and I know exactly how many seedlings vs bad seeds I have to work with now even though I can't see many plants pokeing up through the soil yet. Materials: Covered container (I used clear plastic clamshell food containers, the kind you get bakery section cookies in, (cutting the top off and invert/nest it in the bottom is easier than opening and closing the springy lids - easier than using plastic wrap over top too.) Toilet paper Note card cardboard and pencil. Take two or three pieces of toilet paper the length of your container, stack them and then fold in three so that you have a 1 inch wide strip. Place in container and saturate with water. Make small tags with the note cards and pencil and lay across the toilet paper strip to delineate sections for seeds. Place seeds in areas between tags. The wet toilet paper holds alot of water so that you do not have to do a presoak of the seeds, and by the time enough water evaporates to need rewetting the seeds should have sprouted. It is also thick and soft enough that it holds onto seeds when the contianer is bumped (I do not know if paper toweling will work as well.) I did start out by presoaking a dozen varieties at a time in a foam egg carton...pain in the rear, not recommended. Almost all of my varieties had root tip emergence in 5-8 days, but after putting these seeds in mix it was another 4-5 days before the first sprouts emerged from the soil even in a warm room. So you can imagine what it would have been like to sit around for 10-14 days waiting to see if any of the seed was good (I had 0% germination from the varieties I received from one trade,and now I have time to try again with those or substitute). One big surprise was that a couple of varieties that are supposed to be reluctant sprouters, (like Pequins, and Rocoto red) sometimes had one seed out of the bunch sprout after only a couple of days (like a tomato seed), while the rest of the seeds took their time. I don't think this method would work with tomatoes because they sprout so fast the roots would tangle in the TP.