I guess it is quite a bit of work. However, it would not seem nearly as labor intensive, if I was successful. I LOVE gardening. I also have an outside garden using raised beds. However, I prefer the clean environment growing inside provides. I cant stand having to fight off blights, pests, PM, and the other outdoor garden maladies. Most of these problems came to the fore after consecutive days of heavy rain, or high humidity. I prefer having the ability to control the indoor environment. It felt fantastic having garden fresh cherry tomatoes for salads from January through March this past winter. I had great success with Sungold cherry tomatoes last summer. I absolutely loved the taste of Sungolds, and so did my parents, I would love to be able to surprise them with a decent amount of them this fall. However, I was not able to acquire Sungold seeds in time for the raised beds this summer. I have tried starting my seeds under HID light, HO T5, and standard fluorescent lights. That's why I am starting to question the cleanliness of the air quality in my growing areas. My starts stunt almost immediately upon emergence. They stunt whether close to light or far from light, fertilizer or no fertilizer. The problem looks the same every time. I have seen other threads and pictures on the internet with people having the same looking problem as mine. The consensus seems to be a P deficiency. It cannot be P though, I have used Bloom fertilizers upon emergence to try to give them adequate P. I have provided a humidity dome and heat mat to avoid cooling that could possibly have been occurring. I have made sure the water has been at least somewhat warm when irrigating. I am likely going to start some seeds near a sunny window in my home to see if it just the localized air quality of my growing environment.

Ballplayer, Sure looks like you keep trying. I'm not sure what the problem is but I can tell you how I do mine. I usually start 500-600 seeds a year, FWIW. First, I get one of those plastic to-go trays with a lid from a restaurant. Drill small holes in the bottom of it. I like Ferti-lome Ultimate Potting Mix though every once in a while, I find a small piece of bark or a twig that needs to be remove. I add about 1.5" of this, then use a tweezers to place each seed individually, just barely in the mix. Cover that with a thin layer of potting mix, maybe 1/4". Set the entire thing in a tub of either rain water or aerated (for 24 hours or more) tap water. Let it sit until the mix is sopping wet. Remove it, put the lid on the tray and either place it on a heat mat set to 85 degrees or during summer, just on a bench. I do not water it again, at least not for a week or more. Usually within 3-5 days, the first seeds germinate. As soon as they do, I put them under CFL bulbs, as close as I can after removing the lid. When the mix is almost dry, I set the container back in the tub but usually add a very small amount or Tomato-tone fertilizer. This is lower in nitrogen but high in other ferts plants need to develop good roots. Put it back under the lights, then repeat as necessary. Once the seedlings develop at least one good set of leaves but usually two, I prepare nursery trays. Fill with potting mix, set in that tub of water and compact the mix, then refill and compact again. Let it sit, usually for an hour or more - however long it takes to throughly soak the mix. Remove it from the tub, set it aside for the evening. By the next day, excess moisture has drained off. Using my finger, I poke a hole in the mix. I gently remove the seedling (it helps to have that mix damp, but not wet) and place it in the hole until just the leaves are showing, then tamp the mix around it. When I finish a tray (6-36 plants) I put it under lights, again as close as I can. Then, I let the plants grow, watering them only when the mix gets dry (usually the plants will start to wilt a bit). Once the plants get 8-10" tall, I transplant them into 5-7 gallon pots. That's for my dirt plants. Next is the hydro ones. HTH, Mike

Interesting data. I don't have any "official" data, but I noticed my Burpee Jalapeno M were some of the first to pop up. They aren't the early ones per say, but they are usually the first variety that produces ripe fruit for me. Probably around 8 days if I had to guess to pop up(based on the 4-5 days it took for the 'maters). California Wonder, Big Dipper, and Chianti were about a day later. Anaheim were a little slower for some reason. Corno di Toro never germinated at all, as you know.

An EarthTainer holds 3.3 cubic feet of grow media. My Combo Mix is made up of 3 parts Potting Mix, 2 parts Decorative Groundcover Bark, and 1 part Perlite. I use Lowes Sta-Green Potting Mix which costs $3.50 per cu. ft. Bark is $2.25 per cu. ft. and Perlite runs about $4.50 per cu. ft. So, if my Math is correct, that works out to be about $9.75 per EarthTainer for the total Combo Mix. As the EarthTainers warm up much earlier in the Spring than my in-ground bed, I get tomatoes and other vegetables 4 to 6 weeks earlier. This alone is well worth the extra cost of the Combo Mix. I add about 1 cu. ft. of new Combo Mix at the start of each new Season, and expect to get 4 years of useful life before I start again with 100% new Mix. Raybo