i went dove hunting last year. southeast of kingsville tx.behind the lodge was the chiltepin bush all aglow with it's green and orange and red delights. i picked about 30 pods and brought them home to dry. sept. 2011 to mar. 2012.planted them about 1/2" and watered good. least to say, now i have more peppers than i can ever eat. seems as though all sprouted. wow! i usually cut them open with latex gloves on and take out the seeds for next years rows of plantings. they are just hot enough for me to stand ,without adding the seeds to do damage. will later on warm up the vinagar and bottle them next seasons prolific growth. going back to texas this year and will look again . what a treat this is .

What's so confusing? In general most peppers germinate at 85-87 degrees in 10 days.(Some stuff says Bhuts like 90+ dgrees but most seeds die at about 110 give or take.) I have no idea what other plant seeds sprout at,I only grow non Bell Peppers. Depending on uncontrollable stuff they might come up earlier or latter. I get ALL varieties except wild stuff to sprout mostly within 10 days,doesn't matter if it's a Chinense or a Baccatun etc. Now if your talking about growth until maturity thats a different story all together. Some take from 2 1/2 months to 6 months to bud and ripen pods. I also don't see what difference it makes to know within a day or two why it would matter if a seed comes up in 10 days , 11 days or 7 days for that matter. It could have been a hair deeper or whatever in the soil or grew more root before popping up. It's like watching Paint dry-most of the time it dries in the time it says on the can,but every once in a while it dries a lot faster or much slower...Just because it felt like it. :) Thats why seed packs only say how long it takes to put out pods AFTER it's in the ground. If seed sprouting was exact all the time it would be on the pack too ,you would get your chart... As it is you'll only get generalities,ball park figures. Too many variables to even get more than a ballpark figure for seed germination. Which for my growing conditions,soil mix etc. is 10 days average for most everything. Thats why they tell you in general to sprout your seeds from anywhere from 3-6 weeks before planting them in your garden. Most all seeds that don't pop in 14 days get dug up and they are usualy rotten or were deeper than I thaught and had sprouted but hadn't cleared the soil yet. I might not be an expert but I do grow a few pepper plants each year(400+ varieties last season.Going to cut down this season,Honest I will...LOL). I've got going on 3000 varieties and strains of pepper seeds and I just gotta grow them all....Always room for another pot...Looks good over there doesn't it? LOL No such thing as too many peppers.

I'm just now seeing your reply Bluevano... I will check out your list & let you know, but I think it's wiser to wait on starting seeds this late in the year. So if I do get seeds from you, I may either start them indoors in AC (I'm right at zone 9A/B, so it's HOT right now, lol), or wait & start them next season

I grow over 16 hot peppers all potted. I take a few indoors each winter. Recently bought a 57 x57 greenhouse and plan to put some there this winter. Not sure how they will fare, thinking to put solar heat in there. I have many Jamaican Chocolate Scotch Bonnet, yellow scotch bonnet, cayenne chilli (long and pointed) and a round cherry pepper that grows bottom up. I will exchange some chocolate scotch bonnet and other seeds for any hot pepper seeds I don't have.