I agree you were able to buy fixtures subsidized by the utility at a good price. If I needed them I would have done the same. I am only responding to get your post moving after three weeks. Al

@ heavenly -, There are 3 things to be considered in trying to start from seeds: 1) GERMINATING seeds: For this step you will need a warm environment: Heat Mat, Top of your frig, Top of your water heater. Depending on How big an operation you needs, you can germinated in paper towel or directly in the starter soil. GROWING seedling: 2) you will need proper lighting. A window sill, is IFFY. Fluorescent Shop Lights are the most practical way to go. Again, depending on HOW much is involve , you will need and investment upward of $20 bucks. I personally have two $20 bucks system( =$40.00) and I will have about 30 pepps, 30 toms, 30 misc. THAT is the number of seeds now. So I can start/grow 2 or 3 of them in one 3 1/2" pot. So roughly I will have about 40 pots. To give my self some training( though have done it in the past) I am test germinating and growing a few right now, so that I won't have surprises down the road. 3) OK. once your seedling started, you will have to give them an environment that is neither too cold or too hot. I would say 60F to 70F should be fine. On the cooler side is better. WHEN TO START: Generally 6 weeks before your average Last Frost date. Say, Your last frost date is May 15: Now count back 6 weeks. That will be like end of March (roughly). First time I did this, I only started a select few tomatoes and peppers that I could not possibly find seedlings for. So I would suggest to start small scale this year. Good Luck !

anyone using 'speedling' trays? they are styrofoam, very rigid and easy to carry, and last for years. The design features upside-down pyramid shaped cells, which are air-pruning type and very easy to pop-out by pushing up from the bottom. I used them years ago and am considering them again. If anyone knows of retail sources(less than case lots) for speedling or winstrip trays, I'd like to know.

t bob, that's good feedback on my feedback. I guess the ultimate solution is, one does whatever will work in the area you happen to live in. Somewhere on the arctic circle is some guy with no web access to Garden Web and no information growing a jalapeno and getting a pod or two...LOL I heard the "55 rule" from a grower at a big nursery here called Debaggios. I was looking to do an early to mid May transplant, and he said, no, wait for consistent > 55 nighttime temperatures, to around May 20. He was right...my earlier plants had fewer and smaller pods than the ones that waited for the higher nighttime temperatures. We recently had 2 nights in the 40's and that seemed to bring the pod growth to a screetching halt. They were happily producing a robust 2nd harvest until those cold nights last week, but they really seem to have called it quits now in terms of new growth. However, along the lines of your post, I think one can get wrapped too tightly around the web-recommended metrics when you just have to try things out to see what happens. For instance, I read from many sources that peppers want 6-8 hours of direct sun, and won't even waste their time with less than 4-5 hours. Well, I only have 50 square feet available that gets 5 hours of direct sun. Another 10 sf that gets 3 hours, and then around 60 sf that gets no more than 2. That latter area is trapped between a house and woods, blocking the sun except between 11:30 to 1 pm, but is the largest space I have for gardening. And guess what, every single square foot on my property produced peppers this year. Now, the area with the real sunlight produced more, better peppers. But even the area with the 1.5 to 2 hrs of direct sun produced a fatali with > 40 pods, a Jaloro with > 30, a handfull of cayennes and serranos with 10-15, and a yellow drop with 20. So it can be done, if not perfectly, the moral of the story being to give it a shot and see what happens. Zenit: I think if you grow indoors under really good lights it'd probably be OK to start some super-early to see what happens. Here's the experience I had growing indoors with plenty of lead time (around 11-12 weeks). My lights were weak. So the plants got super-super leggy and tall. Then, when they were transplanted, they stayed with that theme of growing up and up and up. I have several 6 foot tall peppers that are supposed to be 24-36 inches. But that is not a good thing. That unusual vertical growth comes at the expense of filling out the foliage in the middle, and ultimately leads to low yield / small pods. Thus, I had a half dozen plants this year that were taller than me and yielded 5 to 8 pods, instead of the expected 25-30. So.....it's worth trying as an experiment, but mother nature's design is hard to mess with successfully. She wants to see 8 to 10 week old plants at transplant. It all comes down to the lighting - you need a strong light, right in the face of those plants; every inch away from the leaves that those lights are will cost you severely in terms of legginess and, down the road, poor pod development. The young plants crave sun, and they react strangely to 0.01 of sun, which it seems is what a cheap flourescent light too far away from the leaves delivers. But good luck and do share your results here if you try it