Centexan, I used one last year and had some of the worst germination I've ever had. So, I gave it to a friend and decided to go back to just using the plain old mats. I think the biggest problem is the variability across each mat. I just decided that I had the best results germinating in paper towels (actually coffee filters cos the roots didn't get stuck in them like towels) then transplanting to soil once the roots were out.
Pam

Very nice setup. You've got yourself a good germination system. I thing the thermostat is at the core, eliminating the guess work. When the germination is over (soon) Then comes GROWING under light which you would need lower temps but lots of light and maybe a low CFM fan, just to move the air and prevent stagnation.

Good Luck !

Seysonn

I just joined the ranks of seed starting, I started Jan 19th so far nothing sprouted yet.

Pepper varieties

Chocolate Habanero
Chocolate Bhut
Reaper
MOA Scotch Bonnet
Galapagos CGN 22208
Tepin

Looking good everyone great pics and look forward to more as the season goes on.

Mark

here's an update on mine

youtube link

habjolokia.. good luck with those Galapagos. I hear that is a tough one to grow.

Ron

After six days, I've got Fatali, Lemon Drop, and Red hab sprouting. Probably be more this morning when I look...

Yes, as of yesterday. Am 100 days out, per 2015 Farmers Almanac to spring. Come May we should be cooking.

400 seeded of 40 diff varieties

Johnny

I have a few that have already sprouted. A few that are in need of potting up.

And a whole lot more I am waiting to see them poke up above the soil line.

I have 2 Trinidad Scorpion Cardi, one's a helmet head, 1
Red Hab, I Chocolate Hab. Just put 2 seeds each of
Birgit's Locoto, and Aji Amarillo in rapid rooters.

I have germinated and transferred into pots 15 varieties , one or two of each. About half of them have true leave already.
I have to do about 8 more.
My germination rate has been about 80%. Average time about 9 days.

Seysonn

Update on mine with 2 weeks worth of growth.

Rob, Good job.

For 2 weeks those are healthy and strong seedlings. Come Aprill they are garden ready for you, in South Carolina.

Seysonn

I was thinking the same thing, seysonn. Wow, Rob, those look great for 2 weeks old! I must've done something wrong last year...

Let me clarify a little. That's 2 weeks from my earlier post. I think around three weeks total from the first cotyledons.

Here a picture showing some of mine.
Most of them are real small and the cell phone did not show them clearly.

Seysonn

These are the 2013 seeds that I planted Christmas day and germinated last week. I have restarted the rest of my soil blocks with newer seeds.

Wow looking good everyone!

@Ron I know, this is my third year trying to get the galapagos to sprout, we will see, so far not looking good

The seeds of all my peppers for the season I started on Jan 19th have done nothing :( I will give it until this weekend then a new batch will be started.

I like the pics of all the seedlings and am jealous, wishing I had sprouts now! Keep the updates coming it gives me hope.

Mark

Mark,
If you have sowed on Jan 19, by now (Jan 27 >>8 day) should be getting some sprouts. 8 days is just about average if you use heat mat. In room temps ( 65-70 ?) it will take longer. So hang in there and be patient and make sure the media (soil, paper towel,..) is moist (not too wet).

Seysonn

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Jan 27, 15 at 21:55

Seysonn,

Thanks for the advice., I am using paper towel as soil did nothing either. Last night I checked and two MOA Scotch bonnets sprouted tap roots will get those potted when I get home. While that's exciting 40 other seeds are doing nothing. I will go ahead with a new batch this weekend.

Mark

Got almost 100% germination in 11 days. A few Fatali's may pop up.

With the first of February tomorrow I can finally start thinking about planting but what to plant!? Last year I had about pepper 350 plants because I couldn't decide. All of the extras found good homes but a promise was made that that wouldn't happen again. After the incredible pepper trades I think that promise will be broken.

Transplanted this one today.
Randal

I potted up a few since my last post. Also I have had a lot more sprout since then as well. Now there is less open space on the shelves.

Some of the newer sprouts.

Full Steam Ahead !

Going good, Nate. You have some very nice seedlings. They seem to be just yearning to take the world.
Mine are doing ok. I really don't want to push them at this point. I have looong time till plant out

Seysonn

Last Batch.

I have about 15 varieties under light that some look like real pepper plants.
On 1/27/15 I started 8 more, after soaking over night. After 6 days they are all sprouting. This tell me that pre soaking can make a difference. Germination of NON soaked seeds do not germinate all at the same time while pre-soaked seeds germinate almost the same time.

Seysonn

EDITED: to add varieties

MANZANO, , CUMARI,, FATALII (red) ,, HHW, , GOLDEN CAYENNE ,, SANGRIA ,, BELLINGRATH GARDENS

This post was edited by seysonn on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 17:32

Good to know about the soaking stage.
Thank you!

I planted about 40 seeds (double seeds in a few cells) in a 36 cell starter setup on a heating mat on Monday Jan. 26. 7 Pot Douglah, 7 Pot Madballz, Red Brain Strains, and Reapers. Yesterday morning, 3 Reapers popped up and 1 more Reaper this morning. Much quicker than I anticipated. We'll see how long the rest take to sprout.

Mike

I'm doing a bit more than last years grow season. I should be pretty busy trying to provide for all of these little heat monsters. Hope everyone else is ready for an awesome year.

That is fantastic MorugaMan.

Here are couple of TEPINs that I started in mid December, as a seed viability test. Sure thing the seeds sprouted in 7 days. Since Tepins are relatively short and compact, I kept them. Now I have to baby them til mid April inside.

I'm getting pods from mostly Annuums and Frutescens I started in early Nov./late Oct.
I put out a few selected Chinense too for spring/early summer pods.
Put about 60 plants outside recently.
I grow my plants indoors in 4 - 4 1/2in. pots to get a few pods for pure seeds.
Then they go outside.
I grow 2 crops a year.
I'll be getting rid of these by Aug. and putting out my winter/spring stuff by Dec./Jan..

Too hot here after July to get good pod set.
Manzano does great in the winter for an early pod set.
So do Baccatums.
From late July to late Sept. usually sucks,too hot for pod set.
Great time to put out plants and pump out the nitrogen for Christmas pods.
When things go as planned...

Finally seeing the sprouts MOA scotch bonnets, they have a ways to go though. Can't grow too many since we will be moving. I will have about 10 plants to take with me.

I bought a new ballast today I have more plants than my led light can provide for. They are getting their true leaves now and coming right along.
Randal

Done with germinating.

I have about 20 varieties 1 or 2 and few 3 of each.
For the first time I am growing a super hot : TRINIDAD SCORPION BUTCH T. I have a lot in the mid Scoville range and few just as ornamental. In a couple of weeks from now I will start my tomatoes. It is gonna be tough to keep them all inside til early April. I have drilled a bit last year so I know how it is.

Seysonn

Getting a little place ready for a few to go in. My latest project. It is not a raised bed. It is a container. Measurements are 8 feet long. 18 inches wide. By 20 inches deep.

Filled with my own home made mix of 5 parts soil conditioner.(99% composted pine bark fines. The other 1% is traces of composted manure, and super fine sand. The trace stuff runs out after watering a couple of times.) Brand sold here is Natural Earth.

1 part Miracle Grow sphagnum peat moss. (Has the little fertilizer beads in it.)

2 parts Vermaculture (Local store only had large bulk bags of this in stock, and discounted the price to make up for not having pearlite in stock at the time.)

1 Large 2 pound jug of Miracle Grow Shake n Feed for tomatoes.

1 Heaping Table spoon of hydrated horticultural lime per dry gallon.

Topped with a 3 inch layer of No Float Cypress mulch. (They make it from the wood they clear out of log jams in the rivers as a part of flood control measures.)

It took a good while to mix everything up.

Also note the lumber is 2x10. Sides are covered with two layers of weed cloth. The bottom has a lot of 1 inch drain holes. I covered the bottom with fiberglass window screen.

Also I doubled the height of my raised bed from six inches to twelve inches. I amended the soil with the same soil conditioner, and 750 pounds of Black Kow composted cow manure. The garden center also gave me 10 2 cubic foot bags of MG garden soil. The bags were coming apart from too long in the sun. I had plenty of lawn bags put them in for the ride home. Now if the weather will stabilize I can start hardening off some of the earlier tomatoes to make room for more peppers to be started, and to pot up a bunch of the ones that are still in the starter cells.

A pic of the raised bed that more of my peppers will be going into.

Did you guys keep the domes on your seedlings once they sprouted? The paper towel method was great for getting the seeds going. I move them into small containers and I kept the domes on mine, thinking that it was good for the seedlings and helped with humidity but after 2 days, they all looked "moist" and in poor condition.

Any suggestions?

I personally never use dome. But it can be useful to prevent fast drying the soil when the seedlings roots are still shallow. But be aware of the damping out. Once in a while take the dome off and let it air . When you have true leaves, I thing, dome is not needed at all.

Seysonn

2wk germination yielded 36 varieties and 215 plants. Now I have to transplant all these jokers to pots to finish grow before they go into yard (~1st wk April).

7 Pod Brainstrain (Yellow)
7 Pod (Bubble Gum)
7 Pod (Primo)
Cayenne (Red)
Aji Dulce #2
Aji Panca
Bhut (Caramel)
Bhut (Peach)
Bhut (Red)
Carbon Bhut x 7 Pod
Carolina Reaper
Defcon 7
Fatali Gourmet Jigsaw
Ice Scream
Habanero de Arbol
Habanero (Peach)
Golden Greek Pepperoncini
Infinity
Habanero (Lemon)
Jays Ghost x Scorpion Peach
Moruga Scorpion (Yellow)
Madballz (Scorpion F1)
Moruglah (F2)
Morugah UV
Naga Jolokia
Murupi Amarela
Explosive Ember
Naga Viper
Trinidad Congo (Albino F1)
Tabasco (Red)
Purple UFO
Trinidad Douglas
Trinidad Scorpion (Butch T - Red)
Yellow Mushroom
Trinidad Scorpion (Peach)
Chocolate Naga BrainStrain

Wow, Johnny ! 215 seedlings ? Potting 250 seedlings is some job. I bet you have a big garden in your new house.

@ Nate... you are are almost there.Zone 8, West Texas !

Good luck and happy gardening !

Seysonn

Seyson the thing is I am in the Central part of the state. (Born in a hospital in the oak woods of the Western part of the state though. I am a West Texas Cowboy by upbringing.)

I just finished up working on my 4x4 bed, and 2 of my large box containers. (Box containers are 2 square feet x 18 inches tall.) I have been getting my ghetto low tunnel ready to start putting plants out. I have some tomatoes on the porch working on hardening them off to go into the low tunnel.

My plan is to keep them in the low tunnel at night. Out in the day. If it looks like it will be an extended cold snap I will bring them back into the house. When I opened the low tunnel I saw signs of life from two of the geraniums I gave up on as dead in late November.

My overwinters are outside as I type. The wind has ripped, and shred a lot of the leaves on them. I am not worried about that. They would have fallen off anyway. I just want to harden off the new stem growth.

Last year turned into a big PITA covering, and uncovering everything. I lost some plants as well. So this year all will stay in the low tunnel, or in the house for the extended cold snaps. Our LFD here is projected as 20 March. We had our last frost last year on April 12. (9 frost in the days between.) 2 Ice storms happened between the first week of March, and the projected LFD. One of them the temp went from 75 and sunny to 34 and raining in 25 minutes. An hour later the temps dropped into the single digits. Ice started, 3 days of below freezing highs. Lows in the single digits. Then the warm weather came. Back to highs of 70+ with lows in the upper 40's.

To grow here one has to be like a gambling addict. Keep going no matter how many times dice do not go in your favor. I had to replant 3 times last year. The end results were well worth it.

Oh and to make sure it is on topic. I still have some still on the heat mat. I will start another 36 cells today. I am going to sell some of the surplus plants in an attempt to recover a small fraction of the cost of what I have spent this year. I am doing the same with some of the tomatoes I planted.

I started in 3 batches .
Here is a picture showing some seedlings from the first batch, started about 5 weeks ago.

Seysonn your plants look great! Mine should look like that by now, but unfortunately fungus gnats invaded my workshop. The plants are so stunted I've had to start over in case the originals don't come out of their current coma.

Oh well, I probably started too early any how.

Growth update: First photo can be found above but I'll repost so you don't have to scroll up. 1/26 to 2/17:

very nice, SCR. Some of mine are about the same size,

Seysonn

In pots, I started 7pot on Feb 1, and fatali, lemon drop, devils tongue, and Mcmahn's Texas bird on Feb 6. None of them have done anything yet.

Since I've never tried growing any of these before, I have no idea if they are supposed to be taking this long or not. I don't have them on a heating pad, but rather on a rack above my heat register, in my sunniest south window. I've had success with other pepper seed sprouting in the past, and with worse heat and light conditions, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and plunging ahead with my plans to start some more seed of other kinds later in the week- though I am seriously considering trying the pre-sprout in a paper towel action to help things along.

beesneed , ... It takes a while. When they have 3 or more true leaves then they start growing fast and faster. Just be patient. In zone 6 you've got plenty of time,

Seysonn

After one month. Three of the Fatalis didn't germinate. Most everything is 100%. Will re-pot out of the tobacco tray soon. Wish the peppers grew as fast as the 'maters...

Hi Tom
I also had hard time with Fatalii (yellow). It finally did germinate when I was just about to give up on it.
About the growth rate, I wish the opposite : I want them to slow down. I've got 5 more weeks to take the outside for training. I shoul've waited a couple of weeks to start.

I did a write up about my experiment with the paper towel method for pepper and eggplant seeds if anyone is interested (the link is below).

In just 9 days I had poblano and bell pepper seedlings, which is a record for me (the space we have for the seedlings is in a cooler part of the apartment).

Speeding up pepper germination