Seeds will no longer germinate.

[snappybob]

I've been saving seeds from Jimmy Nardello pepper plants for about 5 years. I always use those seeds to plant my next years crop. This year, after planting about 150 seeds, I've got about 20 plants. All of my other seeds came from saved seeds from last year did fine. Just the Jimmy Nardellos had really low germination rates. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

[Doug9345]

Too young, didn't dry down right, became over heated somewhere.

[Hotwired]

Jimmy Nardello pepper seeds have always taken three times as long to germinate. I planted 1100 pepper plants 8 days ago, and California Wonders are up about 1.5", Carmen are just poking through, and Nardellos aren't doing anything. I have been growing Nardellos for years and this has always been my experience. Nardello's can take 3-4 weeks to poke through sometimes. Once you grill one you'll know it was worth the wait. Keeping soil temp at 85F will help speed thing up.

[snappybob]

Doug, the way I have been doing it for years is, I pick the prettiest ripe peppers that I see. Cut them open and pull the seed pods out and place on a paper plate. I then put the paper plate in a dark part of my house until they are dry. Usually at least a month or two. My house stays around 73. They are then stored in zip lock bags a put with the rest of my seeds in my sock drawer. Do you see any problems with this method?

Hotwired I checked my log for last year and I had 50% germination in 6 days. There was no mention of any distress over lack of germination although I can recall times when Nardellos were a bit stubborn. After reading your comment, I won't give up. I'll turn the heat mat back on and see what happens.

Thanks for both of your comments. Much appreciated.

[Doug9345]

No I don't. I didn't know if you were using some kind heating drying system that could of over heated without you knowing it. It's hard to know why sometimes they just don't germinate. Do you have enough seed to try some more. I've planted seed from a batch and then replanted more seed from the same batch and seemingly same conditions and had totally different germination rates.

[recruiterg]

I think you should be able to soak the seeds in water overnight. The viable seeds will sink to the bottom while the non-viable seeds will float. Then you can separate the good seeds from the bad if you decide to start over.

I also think you can germinate peppers using the paper towel method, then transfer to pots once they have germinated. This seems to work better for me than trying to germinate utilizing the traditional method.

[snappybob]

Originally Posted by recruiterg

I think you should be able to soak the seeds in water overnight. The viable seeds will sink to the bottom while the non-viable seeds will float. Then you can separate the good seeds from the bad if you decide to start over.

I also think you can germinate peppers using the paper towel method, then transfer to pots once they have germinated. This seems to work better for me than trying to germinate utilizing the traditional method.

Good point. I seem to remember, now that you mention it, reading something somewhere about soaking in a Hydrogen Peroxide solution. I'm going to go google and see if I can find out more. Thanks for jogging my memory.

[snappybob]

Found something about it on Dave's Garden. I'm soaking in it now. Well, my seeds are anyway. So far they are all swimmers after 4 hours.

[z_willus_d]

I'm going to try the paper towel method this year. I had erratic and low germination yields on most of my peppers last year. I've just finished zip-locking ~8 pepper varieties and 4 eggplant. I'm using napkins from the kitchen, soaked in water with a squeeze of hydrogen peroxide.
-naysen

[b54red]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

I'm going to try the paper towel method this year. I had erratic and low germination yields on most of my peppers last year. I've just finished zip-locking ~8 pepper varieties and 4 eggplant. I'm using napkins from the kitchen, soaked in water with a squeeze of hydrogen peroxide.
-naysen

Try the DE that Ray has a thread on. It is called UltraSorb and can be purchased from Auto Zone. I had 100% germination with my Pappadew peppers and nearly that high with spinach. I have never had that kind of germination with those two. I have been experimenting with it since last fall and the results have been amazing. I was nearly ready to quit trying to grow spinach before using the DE. I think you will be amazed at the speed of germination and the percentage as well.

[z_willus_d]

Thanks for the hint Red. I've already got 12 or so baggies going with my kitchen napkins, but I'll try and locate the better alternative for my next round.
-naysen

[feldon30]

Somehow I got the impression that while tomato seeds were good for 7-10 years under normal conditions, pepper seeds got dicey after a few years. Hmm.