No luck with my peppers

[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.

[newatthiskat]

I just started mine on top of the dryer. It was cold. They still grew

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by newatthiskat

I just started mine on top of the dryer. It was cold. They still grew

But it wasn't too hot ...

Originally Posted by luigiwu

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

I germinate great with tomato seeds, but always experience some problems germinating pepper and eggplant seeds. This year, I planted twelve seeds each of twelve pepper varieties. I don''t use a heat mat. I just keep the germinating room temp at about 68 degrees F with a ceiling fan running on low speed. I started all of the pepper seeds in coir with the clear plastic domes. Within a week, all of the coir was covered in fuzzy mold. I removed the domes and brushed the mold away with my finger since nothing had germinated. Germination began in about two weeks. It's interesting how most of the seed of each variety seem to sprout at about the same time. A few didn't sprout for about four weeks. Of the twelve varieties, ten germinated well and two didn't germinate at all. All conditions were identical for all varieties. All of my seed was purchased from vendors with the exception of one variety which was given to me. The gifted variety sprouted fine.

Ted

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by tedln

I germinate great with tomato seeds, but always experience some problems germinating pepper and eggplant seeds. This year, I planted twelve seeds each of twelve pepper varieties. I don''t use a heat mat. I just keep the germinating room temp at about 68 degrees F with a ceiling fan running on low speed. I started all of the pepper seeds in coir with the clear plastic domes. Within a week, all of the coir was covered in fuzzy mold. I removed the domes and brushed the mold away with my finger since nothing had germinated. Germination began in about two weeks. It's interesting how most of the seed of each variety seem to sprout at about the same time. A few didn't sprout for about four weeks. Of the twelve varieties, ten germinated well and two didn't germinate at all. All conditions were identical for all varieties. All of my seed was purchased from vendors with the exception of one variety which was given to me. The gifted variety sprouted fine.
Ted

Sounds about right for peppers. Think though, about the native environment. For example, go to the Weather Underground and look at the temperature in Caracas any time of day in March. For heavens sake it's 70F at 3,000 ft elevation at 2am local time. The ideal temperature for chili pepper seed sprouts is near 80F. But ... as our hero luigiwu learned, it's not 110F !

[luigiwu]

Richard, I stuck a digital food/meat thermometer in the soil of one of my seedling cells and the temperature matched the regular thermometer I had next to it - that's been giving me reading of 77-86, depending on the ambient. Last night, it was 86 on both. So I am confident it hasn't been 110 ever, but I didn't think 86 was "too" much. First time and learning...

I've put a cookie track on top of the mat with the new seedling tray on it. Reading now says 73... better low than high I guees - Fingers crossed now...

Hi Ted, my tomatoes did great too! I started Eggplants over the weekend hopefully the damage isn't done. Is the key to germinating an even temperature, ie. not something the fluctuates? Should both peppers and eggplants take a week or two to germ?

[drew51]

Peppers can take as long as 30 days. most do not, but I have had some come up at 20 days to my surprise and delight! My temps fluctuated a lot, didn't seem to matter. what mattered the most was moisture, if they got a little dry, they were done. No germination.
My peppers are now outgrowing the 3 and 4 inch pots, Argh! I can't plant out for some time. I bought another light, but it will be easy to fill it up. I need pots now too. Like 6 inch pots and hopefully that will be enough till plant time. But I have almost 30 plants total.
I started my tomatoes, and the hybrids sprouted in 3 days. The OP's one sprouted today, the rest have yet to come up. The hybrids are Sunsugar and Sungold. The OP that came up is stump the world, and I forgot also Amish Paste. I want to make sauce this year, so I have a few cherries for the wife, some regular tomatoes for the neighbors and friends, and paste types, and some Italian ribbed types for my sauce.
Anyway I need another light, so holding out till it arrives. UPS ground may be here by next week, I need it yesterday!

Days to germination seems to be dependent on variety, age of the seed, and how the seed was processed when harvested. As I said, a couple of my twelve varieties germinated between one and two weeks. Most germinated between three and four weeks. One single seed germinated at eight weeks.

I started them a full month before I started my tomato plants. I like my pepper plants to spend a lot of time indoors before moving them outside. They don't get leggy the way tomato plants do. My peppers have now been outside in their small containers for about one week. Most have started blooming and some have small peppers on them.

My peppers always seem to react well to a little fertilizer before plant out. They become dark green and the main stem and branches become thicker and stronger from the fertilizer. Tomato plants given the same amount of fertilizer, simply become tall and leggy.

Ted

[luigiwu]

Originally Posted by drew51

The OP's one sprouted today, the rest have yet to come up. The hybrids are Sunsugar and Sungold. The OP that came up is stump the world, and I forgot also Amish Paste.

How odd! the stump seeds I planted did terrible - its been a couple of weeks and only one germinated for me! Buddy Runyon from Carolyn's giveaway did the worst. Not one germinated.

[drew51]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

How odd! the stump seeds I planted did terrible - its been a couple of weeks and only one germinated for me! Buddy Runyon from Carolyn's giveaway did the worst. Not one germinated.

One out of two came up, but it looks like the other is coming. Altough the seed shell was attached, and while trying to remove I broke it off, so hopefully the other will sprout. I only planted two of each. They are all starting to come up, well not all but many. I probably will have to plant more. BTW my STW was purchased From Delectation of Tomatoes.

[AKmark]

I have already sprouted about 300 this year, and temps around 80 degrees works very well for about a 90-95 percent sprout rate within 10-12 days from planting. I just use Jiffy seed starting mix, wet it, plant seeds, then water them in. I have 400 watt HPS's about 3 ft above the trays, tomatoes peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant, all plants do great, and many are now in the greenhouse and moving right along. One light can handle about 20 trays of 4 packs at a time, or about 1000 starts, so they are quite cost effective, as well as being very effective for getting nice big starts out at the beginning of the season.

[feldon30]

All of the seeds I purchased from Tomato Growers Supply this year came right up. My Sungolds were TGS from 2007 and they took maybe a day longer than the fresh seeds.

[luigiwu]

FINALLY, I GOT ME SOME PEPPERS!!! WOOT!
Shi-shi-tos came up - 5 out of 5 (YAY baby!)
A single Big Jim (one is enough for me)
Jimmy Nardellos!

I swear there is something wrong with my heat mat. Sometimes is too hot and other times its just lukewarm. I was SCARED when I came home and saw the temp was 88 degrees! Its been around 75-77 for a week now... but I opened the lid and was SHOCKED to see seedlings!

Will the cold-ish ambient temperature (around 62-65) slow down the growth of my peppers now?