Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Greg

In article

,
gregz wrote:

Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Greg

Start seeds in soil that has been heated (sterilized) to 180 F for at
least 30 min. This will greatly reduce damping off.
--

Billy

E Pluribus Unum

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

Billy wrote:
In article

,
gregz wrote:

Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Greg

Start seeds in soil that has been heated (sterilized) to 180 F for at
least 30 min. This will greatly reduce damping off.

I used to do that with unknown soil. I figured bagged soil was ok, but that
reminds me of stories of living snakes in bagged soil!!

Greg

In article
,
gregz wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article

,
gregz wrote:

Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Greg

Start seeds in soil that has been heated (sterilized) to 180 F for at
least 30 min. This will greatly reduce damping off.

I used to do that with unknown soil. I figured bagged soil was ok, but that
reminds me of stories of living snakes in bagged soil!!

Greg

Glad to reunite you with urban myths, but if you want to free yourself
from damping down, 200F for 30 minutes.
--

Billy

E Pluribus Unum

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 23:54:04 +0000 (UTC), gregz wrote:
Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Covers, without air movement, are almost guaranteed fungus factories.

Try a soil temperature (not air temp) in the 78-85oF range for 10-14 days;
plant the seeds with a couple of inches of decent potting soil under them
and cover with plain 'ol sandbox sand, about 1/4" thick. Top of the water
heater or the top of the refrigerator or on a board over an old fashioned
radiator is about right. Should see sprouts in 10-14 days.

Kay

Kay Lancaster wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 23:54:04 +0000 (UTC), gregz wrote:
Going to try and start some hot pepper seeds again this year. Last year
near the beginning I got lots of mold. I also did not soak. Took over 6
weeks before I goy any sprouts. Too cool downstairs. I'm going to try a
tray and use a cover this time watching wetness, upstairs where it warmer.
Any tips?

Covers, without air movement, are almost guaranteed fungus factories.

Try a soil temperature (not air temp) in the 78-85oF range for 10-14 days;
plant the seeds with a couple of inches of decent potting soil under them
and cover with plain 'ol sandbox sand, about 1/4" thick. Top of the water
heater or the top of the refrigerator or on a board over an old fashioned
radiator is about right. Should see sprouts in 10-14 days.

Kay

Interesting about the sand. I would probably want to heat up also.
Last year I tried soaking a couple seeds in water until the green started
coming out. Took many days, probably more than a week or two. The
transplant failed.

Greg

On Mon, 9 Jan 2012 03:48:29 +0000 (UTC), gregz wrote:

Interesting about the sand. I would probably want to heat up also.
Last year I tried soaking a couple seeds in water until the green started
coming out. Took many days, probably more than a week or two. The
transplant failed.

Presoaking is really a treatment more for plants with hard seeds (and they
often need to be nicked or clipped, too). Big seeds, like most of the peas
and beans, are something I prefer not to pre-soak , though I'll put them on a
screen over a cool mist vaporizer or the like -- big seeds often don't take up
liquid water immediately, which can lead to cracked cotyledons and even
broken embryos as the water is absorbed more rapidly in one spot than another.
Seeds soaked as long as you did often die because the reserves are exhausted
by lack of oxygen, and the initial rootlets produced are not properly equipped
to take up soil water when you try to transplant.

Sand is the #1 gold standard germination medium in seed laboratories. Though
many, many tests are run on substrates like rolled towels or kimpack, when
there's a problem to figure out, or when you're thinking of switching suppliers
to a different manufacturer of towels or kimpack, you run comparisons
on the new toweling or kimpack vs. sand.

The stuff you want is just the coarse freshwater contractor's sand used
in making concrete or putting in sandboxes for kids. In fact, the sand
we used to buy for the seed lab came in bags labeled "play sand". (I always
wondered why we didn't get "work sand" g.)