Tepin seeds can take up to two months to germinate, so be patient with them. Also, pepper seeds should be planted only about 1/4 inch deep.

Since you planted five seeds to each pot you should transplant the extra ones that come up into their own cups/pots a couple of days after they sprout so their roots can spread out as they grow.

Alan

Those puppies are gunna take like 90 days minimum to germinate. The 30 days for habs tortures me which is prolly why I haven't tried tepins.... yet. I will though. Thought I would do it this year.

Keep them moist, warm and warm. Also don't forget to keep them warm. ;P

Wanna trade seeds next march?

Habbob, I did not know tepins could take that long. Guess there is hope for mine yet. The family is starting to laugh at the empty pots I keep watching and watering.

Thanks for all of the replies.

habbob - I would love to trade seeds next spring.

Keep in touch

Maybe I'm off, but I'm not sure where the stigma of Tepins taking 30-90 days comes from. I am growing 40+ types of bird peppers this season and my longest germination time was less than 3 weeks. Most Tepins are up in 7-10 days!

I think a company called Ecoseeds posts information that is a bit exaggerated. I know others who say germination time is much less too.

Chris

I plant Tepin and Piquin seeds just pushed in the soil,barely covered then I put plastic wrap over them-right on the soil.
Whenever I've burried them they don't come up as well.
I figure if a wild plant can grow out of a bird turd with a seed in it they don't need much of anything covering them up.
I've read that light might help some kinds of them germinate but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
That might have come from people who plant them too deep...
I have more trouble keeping the sun from cooking small sprouts than germinating them in my south facing window on a hot day.

It's my understanding--from reading, not growing--that there is a variety of Tepin that is considered a "wild" variety, and another variety that is considered a more "domesticated" variety. The "wild" Tepin seeds supposedly can take as long as 6-8 weeks to sprout, while the "domestic" variety supposedly sprouts in about a week, or so.

I grew some Tepins a couple of years ago from seeds I got from EcoSeeds and they took over 6 weeks to germinate.

Alan

As far as I know, all tepins are wild. The domesticated varieties are called piquins.

I just germinated a bunch of tepins in less than 10 days. The long germination times are a myth, I think.

I have grown lots of tepins and most germinate in about the same time as other chile seed.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I bought these from ecoseeds. I checked the label and it did state a minimum of 3 weeks to sprout. After reading the comment from smokemaster, I think I buried some of the seeds too deep and might have packed the dirt too tightly. In the future, I will try and mimick nature a little more closely.

Anyway, 6 full days have passed without any results at all. I am looking at 4 small pots and all I see is soil. I'll keep everybody posted.

Thanks again!

Later

You can allways dig up the seeds in one pot.
If you find seeds with roots that are really long you know they were too deep and have sprouted roots some time ago to have grown such long roots.
If you find sprouts just burry the root and leave the seed near or on the surface.
If you only find seeds that look ok but don't have roots they have not sprouted yet.
If you find seeds that aren't healthy looking or have rotted roots you either kept them too wet or they are too deep and used up all their energy trying to pop through the soil.
If you get sprouts that are week looking you also planted the seeds too deep and the seed has nothing left to grow the plant.It used up all it's energy to just pop through the soil.
Either way it will let you know whats going on with your seeds.Just be carefull digging them up.
I use a small bamboo skewer to loosen the soil,break it apart.(Do it gently,if there are roots try not to mess with them if you can help it.)Then I tilt the pot and let the loose soil fall onto a newspaper or whatever in small amounts until I see something-seed,roots etc..
Usually you'll see the seed,rooted seed or wasted seed when it gets uncovered.
If its rooted just leave the very tip of it uncovered or slightly covered so it can grow a plant and not have to push through any more soil.After the leaves form etc. you can put it in another pot or add more soil.

Thanks again Smokemaster.

7 full days have passed - Still nothing but soil showing. I think I'll take your advice if I don't see progress in another week or so.

8 full days have passed.

There may be a little progress, but I am not sure.

In one of the pots, I see what may be something trying to pop out of the soil. I am hoping it is a sprout, but it may be just a small stick in the soil that got moved around when I watered. It is very thin and curved. It appears that the bottom of the loop is trying to straighten out and stand up.

Also, 8 days ago, I put an entire pack of seeds in a paper towel and put it in a cup. I soaked the towel in water and put it in a dark cupboard. I'll check up on this in a few days.

I have always had success sprouting larger seeds like this.

I'll keep the board posted.

I enjoy being a life giver!

You are really screwed now.

Every time I set a lot of seeds up to sprout because I think all the ones I did last time were history.
I get 100% germination from both the old seeds and new ones.
I end up with way too many plants.

Also since you have so many plants you'll pick what you think are the best ones and give the rest away.

After a while you'll find out the ones you kept/liked are the ones the bugs and other critters like best too.
They are also disease magnets and won't put out more than a dozen small sickly pods if they put out any at all.

Meanwhile all the plants you gave away grow 20ft. high overnight and have no problems,bugs or otherwise.

They started putting out tons of pods about a week after you gave them away too.They will also overwinter outside -even in Alaska.
Hundreds of pounds of pods per branch....Heck they won't even need watering or fertilizer either.
Kids have rope swings in a couple of the plants you gave away they grew so well.
Your kneibors are set up with firewood for the next 5 years on what they trimmed off their plants in just 1 season.

You should have waited until you were sure the first seeds were dead before sprouting new ones.8 days was too early to write off seeds as no good.Especially if you planted them an inch deep or deeper.

Now your doomed.... LOL

LOL!!!

Dragon,

You didn't plant the pods rather than the seeds, right?

Just kidding...

I was amazed the first time I opened a BB-sized bird pepper and found a dozen or so tiny seeds.

OK - I see Life - I see Life!!

My last post about a possible sprout was definitely a false positive. It was a stick standing up in he soil.

Now, there are clearly 3 green sprouts starting to come up. For those of us keeping track, it took 10 1/2 days. I planted around 20 seeds. It is unclear if the others will not sprout, or if they will sprout later. Also, I am not sure if it was relevant to the growing time, but for at least 3 of the days, there was no sun at all. I am keeping the pots on my windowsill that has southern exposure.

I am such a good "parent" that I am going to suffer without air conditioning until sundown, to give my babies the optimal growing conditions. The packet states to "sew in pots and give 85F soil temp and 60F nights until they sprout.

I have one more question:

Should I fertilize at all? I have some standard 10 15 10 liquid fertilizer.

Thanks

Wait until their true leaves are coming out to feed them. I usually fert right after I transplant to a small pot from the cell tray. A few good weeks in the small pot and their ready for the big one...or the ground.

Glad to hear of your success but keep watering the others, there's still hope.

Congrats!

-HabBob

Patience is a virtue when growing chiles........

Note 1: Your seeds are way to deep, the width of the seed is rule of thumb like 1/8th inch

Note 2: if your trying Chilitepin in NY forget it, These peppers take 220 to maturity, you haven't got that much time in NY. If you have the $$$ for an aborertium, maybe it can be done

Note 3: with a weak tea presoak I got them started in 7 days

Byron,

Thanks for the response. I probably planted most too deep, however, I now have 4 sprouts.

The seed packet states 100+ days. I assume that means the number of days from putting the seed in the soil until the plant produces fruit. If that is the case, 100 days puts me into early August. I probably have another month before the ground starts getting too cold.

My plan is to transplant these outside in 3 to 6 weeks.

I'll let you how it works out.

100 days means 100 days from when you put it in the ground.
Not from seed.Some seeds take a long time to sprout...

Somkemaster - Thanks for the clarification.

I should have sprouted earlier.

Current calculations put place fruiting as early as mid September and as late as early October. With NY Weather conditions, I am cutting it close for the season.

What are the general seasonal, lighting (hours of daily sun) and temperature specifications for this type of plant? Assuming normal seasonal weather conditions at the end of the summer, how late can I safely have these in the ground outside?

Last winter the tepins and pequins were putting out peppers during rain and high thirty to mid fourty degree nights.It was late Dec. early Jan. here in Ca.

Mine are not setting fruit yet but the Firecracker and Purple Tepin and red Pequin are full of flowers now.

I've read that as long as the roots don't freeze they will come back each year.

Usually enough pods fall on the ground when your picking them you'll have new plants all over the place next year if your putting them in the ground this summer or they are growing near an area that the seeds can fall and sprout.
I've got several Tepin and Pequin growing from all over the world this year.
They seem to be quite hardy and accept a lot of abuse but keep on growing.
Several lost all their leaves due to a couple sets of cold nights a while back.
They were just stems,no leaves.
Within a couple days they had allready grown new leaves where the old ones were.
I originally thaught they were as good as dead for sure.
I think 4 or 5 plants that were different varieties all came back.Most were Tepin and I think only 1 was a Pequin.

100 days on these means the time you plant the seed till you seed some green stuff above the soil line

Almost as bad as trying to grow a Pink Lady Slipper (3 to 5 years for germination)

I want to post some pictures to this thread but don't know how. Pls reply with instructions.

Thanks

Look in FAQ of this forum for help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo help

I now have 18 sprouts!

Almost everything was viable.

I am putting them in the ground next week.

Later

Like I said,If seeds don't come up- plant lots more-then all of them will sprout.LOL
What about the pack in the cubboard?
Depending on the number of seeds you planted in soil and however many were in the pack in the cupboard.You should be set up for Tepin peppers in a few months.
Glad they are getting their act together for you.

Seed Starting keep the soil at 86F(30C) for best results

Don't fertilize till the 4th true leaf at 5% the rate recommended

Interestingly enough, the pack in the I tried to sprout in the wet paper towel did nothing. No seeds sprouted at all. In my limited growing experience, I have very good results sprouting small pepper seeds (18 out of around 25) in soil and with the same small seeds have completely failed with an entire pack of them in a wet paper towel.

With Larger seeds, like beans and lemons, I have 0% success sprouting in soil and 100% success sprouting in a wet paper towel. I also have 0% success with both methods, trying to sprout coffee seeds.

My babies are going in the ground on Friday. I'll post some pics before they are taken out of the pots.

Later

Bad news!

Almost all of the plants are dead!!

I put 9 in the ground on Friday morning. After a few hours of full sun (as opposed to my windowsill sun) they were all shriveled up. I put some water around them. Now, 5 are completely dead, and the remaining 4 are looking very dry (they were again watered last evening as part of a watering system) and near dead.

There are 4 or 5 more that I left in their starter pots and left in the full sun. They also had plenty of water. They also look almost dead!!

I can't blame the death on re-rooting shock, as the ones still in the pots are almost dead.

What gives? Could there have been a great shock going from partial windowsill sun to full outside sun?

Yep.

You cooked them. Plants started indoors need to be gradually introduced into full sun. The process is called hardening off.

If you can shade any of them it may help...if they're large enough, they may bounce back in a week or two.

Thanks for the reply.

It is unclear to me whether the few I have in pots are recoverable enough to "shade them." I'm not going to bother trying to recover the ones in the ground.

If I can bring some back to life, I'll keep them potted until next growing season. I won't have 100 days of good enough weather once they are ready to back outside.

A lesson that I learned is that I need to start the seeds MUCH EARLIER. After a month, they were still small, most with only 4 small leaves.

OK- everything is officially DEAD!!

I'll try again next year.

Thanks for all of the help.

I bought some already developed Haberno and Red Cherry hot peppers and put them in the ground earlier.

Before you trashcan all the plants you think you've killed, you may want to make sure they're actually dead. Alot of times, new leaves will be sprouting from bare plants at the base of where the original leaves were. It may take 2 or 3 weeks for them to really start recovering though.

Unless your plants were just crispy, there's still a good chance a few of them could come back.

I'll hold out some hope. I have not ripped them out of the ground.

Thanks