when to start sweet peppers?

[tjg911]

i start tomatoes here on 4/5 and they go out on memorial day. peppers would go out on memorial day too. for sweet peppers, not hot, do i start the sweet peppers 4, 5 or 6 weeks earlier than tomatoes? i doubt they are started at the same time as tomatoes but i am not sure.

never grew peppers from seed. hot peppers i am starting this week. i think sweet peppers germinate quicker and don't need to be started as early as hot peppers.

tom

[barkeater]

tom,

I start my peppers and eggplants 10 days before tomatoes, mainly because they generally take twice as long to germinate than tomatoes. If you don't have a warm place to germinate them they can take even longer though and you'll have to adjust accordingly.

I haven't seen a difference in germination rates for sweet vs. hot peppers, except for hybrid vs. open pollenated. For some reason my OP sweet or hot peppers germinate slower than the hybris, unlike with tomatoes where I see no difference in germination rates. Hope this helps.

[Petronius_II]

Peppers don't necessarily take all that long to germinate if you use degassed water. Using degassed water, I get lots of pepper seed to germinate in 5 to 7 days. (Of course, using the same degassed water, I'll likely get some tomato seeds just starting to sprout in 3 to 5 days.) I'm talking here about pre-sprouting in moist coffee filter paper, not in potting mix, where you don't know germination has occurred until it's well on its way. I count germination as having occurred the moment I see the first little taproot coming out of the seed.

The well-domesticated peppers are generally always quicker to germinate than most of the semi-wild varieties, i.e. habaneros, bhuts, etc.

The only possibly significant difference between sweet peppers and hot peppers that I know of, my general impression is most sweet peppers can't handle the cool weather of spring as well as the hot peppers. So I would seriously consider planting out my sweet peppers a week LATER than my tomatoes. Then again, I've never had much good experience with sweet peppers, so I really can't say. As another gross generality, sweet peppers just generally seem to want to be babied along a lot more than hot peppers generally do.

[b54red]

I like to start my sweet peppers at least a month ahead of my tomatoes because the production of most seems tied directly to the size of the plant. I like to get them growing as early as practical and get them in the ground as soon as possible. The biggest problem I have with my pepper seedlings in the early spring is aphids. The ones that hit mine last year were so close in color to the plant you could hardly see them at first glance and they would literally cover the new growth and severely stunt the seedlings if not dispatched quickly.

[nctomatoman]

I've been tracking germination data on tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, and eggplant for many years. (just use tap water - I am a firm believer in KISS). Shallow plant, loose plastic cover, heat mat, in front of south facing window.

the following is for the vast majority of seed planted - typically 50-100 different types, all sorts of seed ages, 20-30 seeds per cell.

2011:

hot peppers: 6-8 days
sweet peppers: 5-6 days
eggplant: 5-8 days
tomatoes: 3-4 days

2010:

hot peppers: 4-6 days
sweet peppers: 5-7 days
eggplant: 5-6 days
tomatoes: 4 days

2009:

hot peppers : 5-7 days
sweet peppers: 4-7 days
eggplant: 5-6 days
tomatoes: 3-4 days

So this provides a general guide. Variability is likely small differences in planting depth, and number of sunny vs cloudy days during time in front of the window.

I tend to use months per major activity - so a mid Feb seeding allows a mid March transplant to 4 inch pots, leading to a mid April garden ready seedling.

[z_willus_d]

Craig, thanks for posting your data. I just seeded most of my pepper, eggplant, and tomato seeds for next season. They're all in the same tray, and I was curious what kind of growth disparities I'd see between the types. I should be able to pop out the plugs as they're ready to pot-up, but I wouldn't want to pull the whole structure out unless I had a good number of plugs to remove.

I've got them all on a Hydrofarm heat mat under T5 shop lights. Do you think there is any danger/benefit to running the light 24/7? I don't want to cook the seeds, but I expect the extra warmth and light might cajole them out sooner.

BTW, you can see the seeds about 1/5-1/4" down in their small dibbles (center of plug). That means the light will be hitting some part of the seeds from above. I'm not sure if darkness or exclusion of light on the seed is necessary in the equation.
-naysen

[Fusion_power]

Keep the temperature under 95 degrees. Pepper seed are sensitive to temps above 95 and slow down germination.

DarJones

[nctomatoman]

Just to add a bit of temp info - thanks, Fusion, for the reminder - the temp in my office, where I germinate seeds, is typically 65-70 degrees - the heat mats are not variable temp but tend to run at 80 deg or so....therefore, maybe give a few degrees rise to the soil temps. When the sun shines in, the temps must get nice and toasty under the loosely draped plastic....I've never measured it. I do flip the plastic once a day at least - you get quite a bit of condensation with the delta between surface temp and room temp toward the end of the day.

[z_willus_d]

It doesn't look like folks are concerned about constant light on the seed starter. I'll leave the glory shining down in that case. Thanks for the temperature input.
-naysen

[Petronius_II]

For my situation, using degassed water to enhance and speed up germination IS the simplest method. Heating mats and grow lights cost a lot of money that I don't have. Putting unsprouted seeds into six-packs and four-packs, and then waiting two or three weeks to see which cells I'm going to have to replant, costs me time which I don't necessarily have either.

As I just e-mailed to Weeks Seed in North Carolina, last year I tried pre-sprouting some Banana Melon seeds of theirs that I bought ten or eleven years ago. It was either that, or throw the whole packet in the garbage and spend the rest of my life wondering if I somehow could have gotten some life out of those seeds. And kicking myself in the butt a little bit, for not even trying.

So... it was sort of a "forlorn hope" kind of proposition. Much to my amazement, I got two sprouted seeds out of about ten , one of them a much larger sprout than the other, and then planted all ten in a group in my "Three Sisters" rows in our church garden. Along with numerous other varieties of melon, squash, and cucumber.

But that's not even the best part of this tale.

The two Banana Melon plants were the only cucurbits to survive our massive summer heat wave of 2011. I've lived in Albuquerque for ~35 years, and this was the hottest summer yet. Our, um, friends? from Texas know exactly what I mean.

I got exactly one substantially sized cucurbit fruit from my Three Sisters rows. A big, beautiful Banana Melon that smelled and tasted absolutely marvelous. Like a banana and cantaloupe fruit salad.

If I ever trade or market seeds descended from that one melon plant, I'll no doubt label it the "Sole Survivor Strain." I strongly suspect I couldn't have gotten it at all, without using degassed water for pre-sprouting in the first place.

[afrance30]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

It doesn't look like folks are concerned about constant light on the seed starter. I'll leave the glory shining down in that case. Thanks for the temperature input.
-naysen

The light doesn't matter before seeds sprout (it doesn't do any good), and best to put the light on a timer. Seedlings do best with light on 18 hours, then off 6 hours. They have to have time in the dark.

[z_willus_d]

afrance- I knew about the on/off cycle benefit, but I'd somehow forgotten as it applies to seedlings. I need grab another timer, you're right. Thanks for pointing this out.
-naysen

[lurley]

I started my peppers last week, a full 3-5 weeks before the tomatoes. It lets me set out pepper starts that are about a foot to a foot and half tall with roots that fill a 4 1/2 inch pot. Eggplants get started this week also for the same size transplants. I started dropping peppers(and eggplants) MUCH earlier because here, 5b tho now they say 6a, I was only getting a few fruit per plant before frost when I set out transplants that were the same size as those from the garden centers, those in 6 or 9 packs. Now, since I set out the larger plants, I get good amounts of harvests from each plant, and my pepper and eggplant production has quadrupled.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Great story, Petronius. Like the new name, too. That was one determined plant.

[Father'sDaughter]

Lurley, Thanks for posting that. Last year was my first attempt growing peppers from seed and everything I had read so far said to start the hots earlier, and the sweets around the same time as tomatoes. Following that advice, I had Italian Cayenne and Calabrese plants that put out a ton of peppers, but I had to wait a lot longer for the sweet peppers, and I only got about two peppers from each plant. My eggplant were on the same schedule as the sweet peppers and had the same low production. This year I started all my pepper and eggplant seeds last week, so it's good to hear you've had success with this schedule.
Gina