John Weiland wrote:Catie, It's not clear to me.....are all of your seedling start attempts with these peppers being done in moistened paper towels or in potting mix? As with yourself and several others here, we need to use a heating-mat-for-seedlings to get peppers to germinate and yes, they can take weeks to emerge. We keep them in soil the whole time and keep the 'gro-lights' turned off until they do. They should be moist, but not overwatered since in that warm environment, the mold issue may get worse. And when you say 'warmest window in the house', this is still with the heating mat underneath it for when the sun is not warming the soil, yes? Here's to good luck this year!
I have tried several methods - this year is in a covered dome seed starting tray in the warmest room of the house (top of stairs with a South facing window and a heating vent). No heating mat (dog warming bed) as i can't find it.
Last year we tried :
- random pots in side porch - some success
- damp paper towel on top of fridge - mold, mostly failed to germinate
-damp paper towel on heating mat - mold, mostly failed to germinate
- soil on heating mats - failed to germinate except chilis
- transplanting started seeds from paper towel into soil both on and off heating mat (mostly failed)
In the end, the only things that produced a seedling were method 1 (stripey bell) and chili peppers produced in any of the above methods. The Chilis just seemed very vigorous.
So I have bought a few more packages of fresh seed , and am trying many varieties (6, for now) and am hoping that a few will produce and then I can save seeds from them, selecting for 'actually will start for Catie'. I will start more in 3 weeks or so from some other saved seeds I have, if I don't get enough from this attempt. I grumble about having to coddle something this much!