I've generally started growing my seeds indoors early for transplanting
outdoors when the weather gets nice enough. That works fine for everything
except peppers. For those, I get stubbornly empty trays time after time. I
just can't seem to figure out the proper combination of heat, moisture, and
soil to get pepper seedlings. Anyone successfully done this? If so, do you
use potting soil or garden soil? Keep them inside or outside? Heating cable
or pad? Keep the soil wet or damp or allow it to dry? Any pointers
appreciated.

"Dennis Edward" wrote in message
news:hqsle.1487536$Xk.1189815@pd7tw3no...
I've generally started growing my seeds indoors early for transplanting
outdoors when the weather gets nice enough. That works fine for everything
except peppers. For those, I get stubbornly empty trays time after time. I
just can't seem to figure out the proper combination of heat, moisture,
and
soil to get pepper seedlings. Anyone successfully done this? If so, do you
use potting soil or garden soil? Keep them inside or outside? Heating
cable
or pad? Keep the soil wet or damp or allow it to dry? Any pointers
appreciated.

Tougher for me to start than tomatoes. I put in tray with moist potting
soil covered with plastic wrap and put on top of water heater. When they
sprout, I'll put in sunny room and remove plastic. Then, I transplant
seedings to peat pots. This year took maybe 3-4 seeds to get one plant. I
would discard unused seeds after 2 years and 2nd year germination rate will
be worse.

I've had success earlier with this year by using some good soil,
combined with peat. The seeds I've messed with are green belle
pepper seeds and red belle pepper seeds from the ones out of
peppers at the grocery store.

I have about twenty belle pepper seeds outside now. Some are
placed in the soil (ie, sand outside) and some others are in some
composted soil. The ones in the composted soil are a couple feet
tall now and the ones in the sand are struggling to grow. So that's
telling me that a good rich soil helps, esp. a soil that holds moisture.

Also, the heat outside causes them to sprout within a week hear
in Florida. The ones in the pots are 18" high now and the ones in
the sand are 2" high, so you can get a good idea in the comparison.

Furthermore, I had one in a very small pot with composted soil.
It outgrew the pot pretty quick and last week I moved it to a sandy
soil area and it's starting to sprout pretty good and is about 18" high
like the other peppers in bigger pots. So you can start them out in
very small pots with nicely composted soil and then move them to
another unenriched area after they reach 8" to 9" and they seem like
they'll take but the peppers will take longer to come about.

Also, I've had to move all my potted peppers to shaded areas.
They don't seem to handle 90 degree temps too well in full sun.

Hope that helps.

--
Jim Carlock
Please post replies to newsgroup.

they are amongst the toughest seeds to take to completion. Erratic,
late germination, disease prone, weaker seedlings. Planted at the same
time, my peppers are one to two inches, and my tomatoes are 15-20
inches. You can improve your chances by using the freshest seeds,
sterilized trays, and fresh potting soil. Heat helps, though I get it
cheaply from the top of the refrigerator (need to check daily to make
sure they are taken to a light spot as soon as they germinate). I don't
even use fresh seeds, but I keep all my seeds in the freezer, so they
are always fresh.

Dennis Edward said:

I've generally started growing my seeds indoors early for transplanting
outdoors when the weather gets nice enough. That works fine for
everything
except peppers. For those, I get stubbornly empty trays time after time. I
just can't seem to figure out the proper combination of heat, moisture, and
soil to get pepper seedlings. Anyone successfully done this? If so, do you
use potting soil or garden soil? Keep them inside or outside? Heating cable
or pad? Keep the soil wet or damp or allow it to dry? Any pointers
appreciated.

I use peat pellets and bottom heating pad, and sow twice as many pellets
as I want final plants. The pellets are kept in a covered container (I
use trays with lids from a local Thai carryout).

It is imperative to open the lids once the seeds have sprouted (shuffling
the pellets around if neccessary to give the slowpokes and extra chance).
Toothpicks with a small numbered flag (made from bits of address labels)
and a sheet assigning numbers to various varietes keeps everything ID'ed
during shuffles.

I've found that I have particular problems with pepper seeds from one
source, though I really love the company for most other things. Their
seeds just seem to be prone to mold rather than sprout. (Perhaps they
would do better in plastic pots with sterilized potting soil rather than
peat pellets.)

Treated seeds generally have a higher germination rate for me that
untreated seeds. Or maybe it's just that the company with the treated seeds
(Stokes) has superior seeds.


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Okay, not about peppers but tomatoes. I tried growing some big boys from
seeds this year for teh first time. I put them in a container did as the
packaged instructed. It's been 2 weeks, should I have seen something
sprout? I didn't really cover them with anything so is this a problem?
"Dennis Edward" wrote in message
news:hqsle.1487536$Xk.1189815@pd7tw3no...
I've generally started growing my seeds indoors early for transplanting
outdoors when the weather gets nice enough. That works fine for everything
except peppers. For those, I get stubbornly empty trays time after time. I
just can't seem to figure out the proper combination of heat, moisture,
and
soil to get pepper seedlings. Anyone successfully done this? If so, do you
use potting soil or garden soil? Keep them inside or outside? Heating
cable
or pad? Keep the soil wet or damp or allow it to dry? Any pointers
appreciated.

Ottawa - did you keep them watered everyday? How deeply did you plant
them in the soil?