thanks, more of what lights, & a little more on heat. I think I'm only looking at a few permanent plants. A dual tube regular 24" long 2 x 20W with reflector seems to get 70° to 80° for germination, and may do what: 1-3 of these plants? I'll be more specific and have questions: I think I would be the coolest guy on the block to say I have to grow my own peppers for my killer wing sauce preference. I have tried all kinds of commercially available sauces (a liter of Tabasco is to drink), and I need major heat not available anywhere but in the hottest of fresh peppers. So I have found where I can purchase a tray of fresh Scotch Bonnets (which are near the hottest of all; maybe half by average) and depending on the source, they vary from weak (useless) to hey, I need some ketchup here. Additives to the sauce may or may not be necc., and the taste may vary. I want to know the consistent heat too. So I have narrowed down, through research - incl. 'Hot Peppers' forum, the hottest on the planet, but their are factors, of course. They are Red Savina, Chocolate Hab, Devil'd Tongue, Caribbean Red, Red Fatali, in no order. I will mail order the seeds of these 5 peppers, which are not avail as plants here. Scotch Bonnet is available as a plant also here in Toronto. And I've got Scotch Bonnet seeds. I may also do small flower seeds, whatever, but that's another story - pansies... In order to get a taste of these 5 or 6 pepper varieties, I'll need to start more than one seed each, and probably start at more than one time. Say 6x2x2= 24 8oz. styrofoam coffee cups. The size of a case of beer. With the size of enclosure I was planning I will have some room for the pansies. eg 24" long. But in the long run, after I have tried them all, I will probably only want to keep tied to one or two plants in pots 365 days a year, as long as they last. If they die, I'll start again with seeds of the same type/source. I can always buy trays of fresh SBs. Hmm, I also may not know which ones I prefer to keep alive more than one year for some years. I understand some may grow 3 or even 4 feet, and last 3-6-10 years. I DON'T know. Never seen one. In regards to the box for germinating. In my head I have pictured (at this moment): A cardboard box, about the size of a 20" TV set, and maybe 15" high. Inverted to easyily lift off. Holes for spying, temp gauge, ventilation. On a board. All lined with tin-foil. The light suspended for adjustment. May cost....nothing. Any good? I am curious now about using the same fluorescent for heat also. I have recently seen a picture of an incandescent, in a similar box, with 25 cent garage sale type-fixtures. A 15 or 40W regular light bulb puts off a lot of heat as you can tell with your hand. I know you need the fluorescent when they poke through the ground, and to get them to the next outdoor growing season. Now what to do with those styrofoam cups for drainage and how to cover them before the seedlings poke through? And I'm really not clear on what it is to keep them alive or keep them fruiting to the next outdoor growing season.

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.

Last year, I had "Wild Bird" seed from Fiedlermeister. I was out of room in the trays and just put 6 seeds in a small plastic container. I don't remember if I soaked 'em or not. I did get one very healthy plant, over 2' tall, with loads of tiny tasty hot peppers. I recommend germinating inside on a heat mat. I still have 8 seeds left, will share half (4) if you want em. email me @ kj5kb@hotmail.com

Sherri, There are many reasons that peppers rot and fall off the plant, so you will have to do a little troubleshooting. Pepper plants can drop pepper pods as a reaction to ANY stress, including being too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc. So, about the most you can do here in Oklahoma in the summertime is to keep their soil evenly moist--not too dry and not too wet. I realize that this year's weather conditions have made this an almost impossible task. Of course, you CAN prevent soil from getting too dry, but you can't do much to prevent it from being too wet if torrential rains (sound familiar?) are falling. There are two pests that can cause peppers to drop--pepper weevils and pepper maggots--tunneling in th fruit and causing rot to set in. Peppers are susceptible to blossom end rot, so look at your peppers and see if the rot sets in on the blossom end of the pod. Peppers often abort peppers when there is a lack of fertility. As much rain as we have had, it is possible that your plants need to be fertilized--all the rain may have leached nutrients out of the soil. (To me this is the most likely possibility since your peppers get to a certain size and stop growing,) Peppers are heavy feeders so they do appreciate being fed every now and then. If you have sandy soil, you may have nematodes which are damaging your plant roots and preventing proper uptake of water and nutrients. If the rot starts as a small dark brown or black lesion that then spreads, your plants may have anthractnose. If you have foliar spotting, your plants may have picked up a virus. If you have tunneling on the leaves, it is caused by leaf miners and can defoliate the plants completely if it is a severe infestation. Usually, though, leaf miners don't hurt the plants enough to cause the pods to drop. One of the worst pepper diseases is pepper mosaic virus, which really is a complex set of viruses that are spread by certain leaf-feeding insects. If you have mosaic virus, your leaves will be discolored with that characteristic mottling of the leaves that you also see with tomato mosaic virus. This virus can cause oddly shaped fruit that often fails to grow and mature. Wow! After typing the above list of all that can go wrong with peppers, my initial thought is 'it sounds like it is hard to grow peppers'. Really, though, peppers aren't any harder to grow than anything else.....it is just that I had to list all the options I could think of since I can't see your plants (which might or might not help) and don't have first-hand knowledge of your specific growing conditions. I hope this info is helpful in diagnosing the problem. Dawn