valley
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Best Way to Make Pepper Seeds Sprout?

My pepper seeds do sprout but not as well, % wise,as I would like,sometimes one or two out of six will sprout. I've planted several types this year with some but not great success. The best sprouting has been with seed I've collected from peppers we've eaten.
If you have any thoughts let me know. Thanks

Richard

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rainbowgardener
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Peppers need heat to germinate, like a soil temperature of 80 degrees. I start mine on heat mats and generally get near perfect germination.

lily51
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We're the seeds old? Even one year old can cause poor germination in peppers.
Like Rainbow, I start mine inside and grow in the greenhouse for a while before transplanting to garden.

valley
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Hi, Sorry for not being here, had much to do. Thanks for posting. I started them in the greenhouse I'm guessing the soil was warm enough. I've no fan in the greenhouse, just flow through, so the inside temp is quite high. Some of the seeds were older but the older ones seem to do best, also the ones I saved from the table did well. I had sent for seeds of a type of pepper I very much like, I have a couple growing but not as many as I would like. Thanks again for posting your thoughts.

I've exhausted the supply of certain seeds, two types I may have to reorder, others I still have I'll plant more of.
I may try a heated pad.

Richard

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make sure you don't over water or they will dampen off. Some pepper seeds are harder to germinate than others. Some people get better results soaking seed in potassium nitrate first.

For the most part all I do is make sure that the night temps are in the high 60's. I plant in community pots first, so I broadcast a few seeds on top of peatlite with a little osmocote and press them into the soil. I do not cover the seed with soil. I start my seeds on an open bench outside, so it is in bright light. I do have to protect my seeds from birds or they will pick them out of the pots. The pots are watered daily and not allowed to totally dry out, but should not be kept very wet either. Most of the time the pepper seeds will germinate withing two weeks. The only peppers I find take longer to germnate are the habanero and ghost peppers. They are a bit slower. The ghost pepper does not produce a lot of seeds either.

The only times I have failed to germinate peppers have been under these conditions
1. The birds ate the seeds out of the pots
2. pots stayed too wet for too long.
4. Starting peppers when the day or night temperatures were below 68 degrees.

valley
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Greetings, Yes, I did have some damping off, in a couple six packs. I could have done just that: over watered. I found a few more seeds of the peppers I want most to grow. I'll plant them and try not to over do it, it's a fine line.

Richard

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rainbowgardener
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It is a fine line. You can't let your seeds or little seedlings dry out or they die, but if they stay too wet, they damp off and die. I find it is easier to manage with bottom watering. If your pots are in a tray, you just put A LITTLE bit of water in the bottom of the tray, just enough so that the water touches the bottom of the pots, so the soil can soak up what it needs.

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applestar
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I think there is a dramatic difference in pepper germination when consistant/constant soil heat is provided. I imagine temp fluctuates pretty wildly in the greenhouse especially during colder season depending on the sun.

valley
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I do bottom water to start but feel it is easy to over water that way. I tested the soil in the pots and beds inside the greenhouse yesterday, it was 80 or slightly above but earlier it could have been lower.

Richard

Mahevish
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I have the same problem! I planted the seeds but the din't germinate. I don;t have a heating pad or a greenhouse, but my terrace is on the 4th floor and the building's on a bit of a hilly area. We get strong sunlight for at least 6 hours and how much should I water the pot?
Thanks for the help

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Ozark Lady
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I don't have a heat mat for plants either.
I use the top of my refrigerator.
The motor running on it, makes the whole top warm.
No matter what I do, peppers are s-l-o-w to germinate... just their nature, maybe?
I give them two weeks, then start the tomatoes.

filmnet
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Paper towel method works also, I will try this now, I have some seeds I need peppers this summer for new seeds from the plants

applepie18
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rainbowgardener wrote:Peppers need heat to germinate, like a soil temperature of 80 degrees. I start mine on heat mats and generally get near perfect germination.
How long do you keep them on a heating pad?

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PunkRotten
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Until all the seeds have sprouted.

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Ozark Lady
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My pepper seeds are not sprouting, they are growing a fuzzy mold on them.

I think that I will sterilize the soil, and try again with new seeds, maybe started on paper towels... tomatoes have already gotten up enough to need light, and no peppers...

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rainbowgardener
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I usually keep them on the heating pad until they have true leaves.

Peppers take a bit longer to sprout (for me it was 3-4 days for the tomatoes and a week for the peppers), but the mold is not a good sign.

valley
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I used the heating pad for the first time, works well.

Richard

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Ozark Lady
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Oop?!
My tomato seedlings are up and going... peppers slow and some showing mold...

Okay, so their time is up, they aren't going to germinate obviously.

So, I H2O2 the soil, remove all moldy seeds.... wet the soil really well, and start them again, on March 20... for good measure, I used a 'human' heating pad with newspaper on it and set the peppers on it...

Yikes, now I have condensation like crazy so it is open the container, close the container...

I tried to replant into the same container, and reuse the labels.... in less than 24 hours I have a few peppers up....

This doesn't seem possible from the new seeds, it must be the old seeds?! I was concerned that there might still be some old seeds deeper in the soil, but I didn't know for sure, that is why I tried to replant from the same seed packet. I knew the H2o2 is good for seeds, and bad for mold...

But less than 24 hours... What do you think? My impatience? Or the heat and H2O2... I never tried either of these before...

It really doesn't matter, at least I finally see pepperlings... same soil, same seed packets.

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rainbowgardener
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I have seen that before. Seeds that were sitting there doing nothing and I put them on the heat mat and literally overnight, less than 24 hrs, they have sprouted. I think that the sitting there doing nothing period, they were soaking up water and getting ready to sprout, but then the added heat really triggers it. That change from cool soil to warm soil is a real signal for a lot of plants.

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Next time you try to grow your peppers, start them inside and use bottom heat for them. Make sure your greenhouse is 85F.

Mahevish
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I planted mine during the monsoon in india, but I covered the pot with a plastic bag to make a greenhouse. there wasn't an sunshine for weeks but the seeds germinated and they are about 5 cm tall now

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I actually don't like six packs. I always have problems with dampening off that way. I use a large tray or 4-6 inch community pots. The trays are usually the kind for holding pots but you could use a shallow foil pan to do the same thing. Put lots of holes in it so it drains well. I like to put holes in the sides of mine as well. I use a 50/50 peat/perlite mix and I only have 1-1 1/2 inches of soil in the tray. I scatter seeds on top and I do have to cover it with another tray to keep the birds away, but it would be better in the light. If you want to start single seeds in a cell, use egg cartons instead. Make sure they have drain holes too. Moisten the soil before you put it in the container so there aren't any dry spots and your seeds won't float up that way. All my seedlings are started on an outdoor bench or under it. I water every day, but the air circulation is good and the soil mix is light so the trays are dry or nearly by the next watering.

In closed areas like a greenhouse, especially if your vents are closed, the soil may not dry out as quickly as mine. Gauge watering by feeling and weighing the pots. If the soil is still very heavy and damp then, you can extend the watering time, if they are drying out too fast then water twice a day. Watering for me depends a lot on the time of year and how much wind and heat I get.

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after I dry my seeds out in the Fall, I label the seeds, store in a plastic bag, and put in the refrigerator for a couple of months.

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Like to share something that's helped me with pepper seeds. I even used this for hydro this year & it worked great. I use the heat mat, but I have one with vibration/massage. I'd read that seeds often like a little jolt to wake them up and get them growing, so I thought I'd try giving them that in a longer controlled manner. So I used the massage setting on the heating pad, and those things came up like crazy. It's the only way I sprout seed now.

At first I left it on a few hours a day, then longer and shut it off at night. After trying different things what worked best seemed to be putting it on high massage during the day and low at night. So I guess seeds just like a little massage!

I noticed one person had trouble with mold. I used to but started using a spray bottle with a weak solution of chamomile tea, which cleared it right up. Just thought I'd mention in case someone was looking at this later and had the same problem. :)

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Nice work! If you repeated the experiment with a control group of non-vibrated seeds and counted seeds so you could accurately report germination percentages, you could probably publish it.

I looked and found one scholarly article reporting on this phenomenon:

A change in plant growth or development in response to mechanical stimulation is called thigmomorphogenesis. Types of mechanical stimulation include non-injurious touch, wind, vibration, and so on (Jaffe 1973, Mitchell 1996). The stems of mechanically disturbed plants are generally thicker yet shorter and less stiff or strong compared with those of control plants (Jaffe 1973, Niklas 1998). Conversely, the roots of monocot and herbaceous dicot species are longer, stiffer and stronger than those of mechanically undisturbed plants (Crook and Ennos 1996, Goodman and Ennos 1996). Repetitive exposure of Arabidopsis to wind resulted in a delay in flowering, decrease in inflorescence elongation rate, shorter mature primary inflorescences and more rosette paraclades (Johnson et al. 1998).
Vibration is one type of mechanical stress. It promotes seed germination

Effects of Mechanical Vibration on Seed Germination of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh

Oxford Journals : Plant and Cell Physiology Volume 43, Issue 6 Pp. 647-651.

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applestar
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Heh, so maybe it's not just the warmth near the ceiling and from the compressor that contributes to successful germination on top of the refrigerator..... 8)

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rainbowgardener wrote:Nice work! If you repeated the experiment with a control group of non-vibrated seeds and counted seeds so you could accurately report germination percentages, you could probably publish it.

I looked and found one scholarly article reporting on this phenomenon:

A change in plant growth or development in response to mechanical stimulation is called thigmomorphogenesis. Types of mechanical stimulation include non-injurious touch, wind, vibration, and so on (Jaffe 1973, Mitchell 1996). The stems of mechanically disturbed plants are generally thicker yet shorter and less stiff or strong compared with those of control plants (Jaffe 1973, Niklas 1998). Conversely, the roots of monocot and herbaceous dicot species are longer, stiffer and stronger than those of mechanically undisturbed plants (Crook and Ennos 1996, Goodman and Ennos 1996). Repetitive exposure of Arabidopsis to wind resulted in a delay in flowering, decrease in inflorescence elongation rate, shorter mature primary inflorescences and more rosette paraclades (Johnson et al. 1998).
Vibration is one type of mechanical stress. It promotes seed germination

Effects of Mechanical Vibration on Seed Germination of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh

Oxford Journals : Plant and Cell Physiology Volume 43, Issue 6 Pp. 647-651.
Wow, interesting. I haven't noticed any difference in the hardiness of the plants, but will make sure to keep a better eye on that from now on. Gotta say, I have some seed I just couldn't get to sprout, or to live much past sprouting and it just easily doubled or tripled the germination rate, with most making it to go on and do fine. A few were straggly and just kind of quit the first day or two. But since I couldn't get more than one or two to sprout before, (and all of those died off) I can't really say much to the long-term difference in that particular seed.

Might be a way to save some rarer (or more expensive) seed if it's having trouble germinating though, since that did work for me.

Peppery1
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applestar wrote:Heh, so maybe it's not just the warmth near the ceiling and from the compressor that contributes to successful germination on top of the refrigerator..... 8)
Ha ha yeah, your post was what made me think of it. :)

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3 Pound Tomato
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I start mine in a Styrofoam cup full of soil, the seeds are barely covered and the cup is covered with saran wrap.
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Pepper Seeds are the easiest of seed to grow.

Buy seed raising mix.

fill tray like this.

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place seed on top in each section.

place potting mix in kitchen sieve and shake dry seed mix to cover seeds to 4mm of seed raising mix.

Keep in warm dark place.

Mist top with a mist sprayer, every 3 days mist deep, don't let surface dry out.mist until germination.



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