thanks very much - I will try all of your suggestions and see what
transpires.

Kay Lancaster wrote:

If they're fully imbibed, not rotting, and not sprouting, you've either
got a soil temperature problem (what is it? Stick a thermometer in the soil!)

what should the temperature be? I do have the peppers on the heat mat...

DO NOT SOAK THEM -- most people soak seeds in too-deep a water, and they
strangle them from low oxygen tension. At this stage, of germination, it
would probably be fatal for them.

How wet should the seeds be kept? - the directions always say "moist not
wet" but I have always wondered about this. I do make sure the water
runs out the bottom and there is no standing water but they always
follow up with "do not allow to dry out".

Now put those seeds on several folds of
coffee filter or plain paper towel, cover with another thickness of paper,
and put it on a saucer. Cover the paper with a custard cup or a bowl, to
keep the paper from drying out. Continue to water the other seeds, and
keep the paper moist, but seeds not in standing water. Instead of paper, you
can use plain old sandbox sand -- that's the gold standard for laboratory
testing of germination, though rarely used because it's a pain to handle.

I will surely try this.

If the seeds in the paper sprout, you've got an inhibitory batch of soil.
If it's commercial soil, it may have been made with compost contaminated
with something or other -- caffeine is one of the more common seed inhibitors.
One of the suppressant herbicides may be another possibility.
Or you may have gotten soil that was heat treated poorly and has become
inhibitory. If you heat treated it yourself, you may have created the
problem, too...

I have two different brands of seed starter material and I am also using
jiffy pots. The thought that all three different sources could be
contaminated would be odd but certainly not impossible.


At any rate, you've got seeds that sound like they're primed for germination,
but they've only made it to the earliest stages. The major factors in
germination a
-- water
-- oxygen
-- temperature (some require alternating day/night type temps)
-- lack of inhibitors for some seeds (that's part of what stratification is
about)
-- time
-- seeds capable of growth

Generally, if the temperature is too high, some seeds can be pushed into
deep dormancy. That sounds unlikely here -- the usual issue is too cool.
Too cool a germination regime tends to prolong germination time, and you
often get results like yours.

It may well be a soil temperature problem, even with the heat mats. It
has been very cold here in Atlanta (down in the twenties)and I did start
these seeds two to three weeks before I usually do. I don't keep the
house really cold but with the price of gas, I cannot keep it really,
really warm!

Kay