Bkay- I think you got a dud. Even the first year I got mine (2002)it had wider margins than those weanie edges. All the years I grew it, it had a much wider margin and looked almost exactly like Paradigm, but Paradigm was such a more vigorous grower. I couldn't justify have both with my limited space. You could always keep it and give it the 3 year test. All hostas change in that first 3 years, some more than others, but you will be able to see if it is going in the right direction. However, since you have that nicely recovered smushed Paradigm, I'd give that SS to a friend. ;-) -Babka

Personally, I restart seeds after about two weeks or so. I will still keep the originals to see if they finally pop, but I don't want to get too far behind in case they never do sprout. It has been my experience that most all peppers (with a few exceptions) will sprout within two weeks if they are going to at all. Like I said, there are a few exceptions but even most super hots will pop within two weeks if they are under proper conditions. Heat and moisture are the two biggies. Too little or too much is not good. 70 to 85 for soil heat and constant moisture without being soggy is good. If you grew several other varieties of peppers and they sprouted fine, then I would consider it a problem with the seed. If you had wide spread failures to sprout, then I would look more at your setup. My 7 Pot Brain Strain-Yellow seeds that I got from the trade actually were the first to sprout for me. They were going strong at 6 days. The photo below shows my early sprouts. Notice the ones that sprouted first were near the center of the heat mat that I had them on. That probably had something to do with it. I expect it was just a bit warmer there than on the outside cells. If you click on the photo it should open in a bigger size so you can see it easier.

tropical peppers need temps above 55 to grow otherwise they become dormant..Night temperature above that is critical.They dont like wet feet use Foxfarm Ocean Forrest soil.Dont overwater.They also need at least ten hrs /day sunlight can be grow light.Flower takes twelve hrs optimum.I grow year round in a greenhouse.You can purchase grow tents that would work in your basement. Hot peppers are heavy phosporus feeders .I use Herculian Harvest liquid bone meal every time I water.This is a Carolina Reaper just ripening Oct.30.I was just in Murphy NC in August beautiful.

A weak and stressed plant is an open door invitation for many pathogens but some only require the right conditions to infect your plant. You may notice a row of landscape conifers with one brown or yellowing plant sticking out like a sore thumb and is likely the result of a phytophthora root rot of one phyto species, but all the other conifers are health and unaffected even when all are susceptible. That one brown Taxus conifer may be sitting in compacted soil with bad drainage and dead meat for the Phyto. At least a few of the 100's of Phyto species will be in any given soil so always assume there may be one that can attack your plants, and if you have that special Phyto spore they're having a hay day swimming through your water logged soil to get to your plant roots. (They swim and are attracted to chemicals from the roots of plants.) If you want to confirm or eliminate Phytophthora you can buy a rapid test kit for about $12 to test infected plant tissue and takes about 10 minutes. But a single kit can't be found and sellers require a 5 kit minimum. Maybe they have them at your work? You can also bait the soil to see if phyto is present. Search phytophthora baiting on youtube to learn how. You only need an organic apple or pear. Neither test will tell you what species it may be. I Kind of suspect you have poor drainage just from the nice flat ground your plants sit in from the pics in your other thread. And your layout suggests you do a lot of walking through the garden to get around, and with every step you compact the soil. Kindly take a bunch of pictures of the entire site (yard) from all corners and post them. I spent thousands on my gardens moving 100's of yards of dirt, grading and digging washes to flow to containment area's to drain my gardens. (big gardens for veggies) I break up subsoil compaction down to 14 inches, till down 6 inches and raise the beds 6 inches with hilling discs to insure good drainage because of the type of soil I have. I never walk on any ground within 1 1/2 feet of my transplants to avoid compaction, you should do the same. I think you said it's always moist, but how moist. If you can't push a stick 4 to 6 inches in the ground by hand it's compacted. Dig a hole 12 inches by about 8 inches wide and fill with water, then 12 hours later fill again and time how long it takes to drain. If it drops less than 2" an hour your have a drainage problem. less than 1" a very serious drainage issue. You may need to haul in dirt and build berms to plant on (and may look better). But first do the tests to see. No guessing. Concerning verticillium wilt you need to determine your plants susceptibility to the pathogen. Look for a common links, or a broken link if a resistant plant is also infected. Are any of the neighbor's plants on the other side of the fence showing problem? Does the neighbor's property drain into yours? Pictures, show me the pictures of the entire site.