How to start bell peppers indoors

Having fresh veggies is one of the many benefits of organic gardening. One particularly veggie to grow is bell pepper. Bell Peppers are one of the most disease-resistant types of peppers, they are easy to grow for beginners. Knowing how to start bell pepper seeds indoors can reward you with healthy, robust, prolific plants and amazing fruits for your patience!How to start bell peppers indoors

Bump this. There are lots of great tips in the link, thanks.

A gentle reminder: although many pepper seed packs say starting indoor 4 to 6 weeks before last frost date, given peppers are slow growers, you may want to start 10 to 12 weeks ahead.

Also I had a surprise from the 20 cent cali wonder pepper packet from Walmart. I soaked the whole pack of about 50 seeds overnight and put them on wet paper towel. I saw one seed had root development just after 24 hours, and two more the next day. I am going to select just the earliest 5 of them, hopefully the seedlings will be more vigorous too.

May Lotito wrote:Bump this. There are lots of great tips in the link, thanks.

A gentle reminder: although many pepper seed packs say starting indoor 4 to 6 weeks before last frost date, given peppers are slow growers, you may want to start 10 to 12 weeks ahead.

Also I had a surprise from the 20 cent cali wonder pepper packet from Walmart. I soaked the whole pack of about 50 seeds overnight and put them on wet paper towel. I saw one seed had root development just after 24 hours, and two more the next day. I am going to select just the earliest 5 of them, hopefully the seedlings will be more vigorous too.

Good point about starting peppers seeds extra early. I also have to start eggplant really early too. This year I'm going to keep them both in pots so I can over winter them.

Sometimes the cheap seeds can do surprisingly well! I save my money but ordering the unique varieties from my favorite seed companies and the standard common varieties from the dollar store for 25¢. (And I save even more by saving my seeds.)

Especially bell peppers need started early,
because they take so long to mature especially if you wait until they are red.
My neighbor gave me some seeds that have more of a point to them.
Sometimes hard to tell what I'm going to get.
A few are more like banana peppers, some are more bells shaped.
So we named them Red Cross, ha.

Most of them are pointed and they all have that great sweet red pepper taste.
Since bananas produce more and earlier it's nice to have that gene in the mix.
They produce many and earlier than bells.

They do cross with other peppers so I don't plant them close to hot peppers any more.