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seeds Tabasco seeds frustrating me

H

HotHabaneroLady

So this year I am trying to grow a few tabasco pepper plants from seed. It has been a difficult year to germinate peppers because of cold, lack of rain, and the fact that I do not have (and normally don't need) a setup with a grow light and heating pads. But I am getting absolutely no germination from my tabasco seeds.

I am finally getting steady germination from my sweet peppers (orange bell & California wonder) as well as my habaneros and Chinese 5 colors. Tabasco peppers are planted right next to the others under identical conditions. They all get water at the same time, have the same sunlight, etc. Is there a different requirement for germination that I might be missing?

Angie
 
I'm having the same problem with tabascos... I've had exactly ONE germinate and grow to a point where I just transplanted this morning, and it's still tiny. I still have more seeds if I need them, but not sure how well it's going to work out. I got my seeds from Burpee. I've had bad luck with germination this year
 
Have you tried in a tupperwear dish with a wet paper towel in it? and just put it somewhere warm...  top of fridge?
 
Usually people can get away from putting it on there cable box or cable modem they both get pretty hot...
 
Just don't get any water on it......  <------ because you know someone will pour water on there cable box and complain they were told to... hahah
 
I have 30-40 seeds in condiment cups with paper towel under my light with my other peppers... that works also.. it builds a little
greenhouse and the seeds form shoots and i drop them into 72 cell planters.. or right into rockwool or grow plugs.... that work well for hydro or straight into my promix.
 
My Tabasco pepper seeds sprouted just fine. I did soak them in Salt Peter first and RO water first. This helped soften the seed coat first.
 
First off - are you sure they came from ripe pods? If not, they may  not be viable.
 
Soak them in either straight hydrogen peroxide or a watered-down solution of hydrogen peroxide before attempting to germinate, in order to eliminate any hidden pathogens. If using straight, soak them for maybe 10 minutes. If using water/hydrogen peroxide solution, you can soak them up to overnight.
 
The "paper towel" method works well if you use damp coffee filters instead of paper towels. The weave on paper towels is too loose - if you don't catch it in time, the roots can dig into the weave. I always germinate seeds between two damp coffee filters stuck into a clear plastic tub set in a warm area. That way I can see the seed casing thin out (you can often see the plant spiral through the seed casing) and as soon as it opens and a bit of root sticks out, I move them to starter mix. This way I also only use one seed  per cup, since I know it's sprouted.
 
Roots frequently get in the paper tower. I solve the problem by planting the seed and some of the paper towel.....it's gone in a week.
Roots frequently get in the paper tower. I solve the problem by planting the seed and some of the paper towel.....it's gone in a week.
This is by far the worst software I have ever seen for editing a post.
 
geeme said:
First off - are you sure they came from ripe pods? If not, they may  not be viable.
Click to expand...
I bought them from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company along with most of my other seeds, so I would assume they came from ripe pods. But I guess Baker Creek might have messed up a batch.
 
Soak them in either straight hydrogen peroxide or a watered-down solution of hydrogen peroxide before attempting to germinate, in order to eliminate any hidden pathogens. If using straight, soak them for maybe 10 minutes. If using water/hydrogen peroxide solution, you can soak them up to overnight.
 
The "paper towel" method works well if you use damp coffee filters instead of paper towels. The weave on paper towels is too loose - if you don't catch it in time, the roots can dig into the weave. I always germinate seeds between two damp coffee filters stuck into a clear plastic tub set in a warm area. That way I can see the seed casing thin out (you can often see the plant spiral through the seed casing) and as soon as it opens and a bit of root sticks out, I move them to starter mix. This way I also only use one seed  per cup, since I know it's sprouted.
Click to expand...
I will give this way a try today! Thank you all for the ideas so far!
 
willard3 said:
Roots frequently get in the paper tower. I solve the problem by planting the seed and some of the paper towel.....it's gone in a week.
Roots frequently get in the paper tower. I solve the problem by planting the seed and some of the paper towel.....it's gone in a week.
This is by far the worst software I have ever seen for editing a post.
Click to expand...
I blame the end user ;) 
 
HotHabaneroLady said:
I bought them from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company along with most of my other seeds, so I would assume they came from ripe pods. But I guess Baker Creek might have messed up a batch.
 

I will give this way a try today! Thank you all for the ideas so far!
Click to expand...
 I've had great germination with baker creek but tabascos have been troublesome for me as well.
 
I saved my seed from the last season and I got four out of four to germinate, conversely some of my chinenses were a pain in the A$$ to germinate!
 
I also used Baker's Creek tabasco seeds and failed the first two times I tried.  I use a seed starting station I built myself with shop lights, but it wasn't enough heat for the peppers to germinate.  After touring a farm greenhouse, I picked up on something that finally did the trick for me.  The farm used a very shallow soil block for starting seeds, much shallower than a normal seed tray.  I filled a small plastic salad container with about a half inch of seed starting medium and bought a heating pad.  I still had to be patient, but just about every seed germinated and thrived.  The top of the fridge sounds like a great idea if you don't want to get a heating pad (mine was $20 at a nearby hydroponics shop, nothing fancy).
 
We won't talk about how many I killed when I transplanted them too early, but I had a great crop on the one plant that did make it!
 
I did around 10 varieties from baker creek just a few months ago, around 80-90% germination on all types - even the trinidad scorpion.
 
Tabasco seeds are pretty small, so you have to be careful when watering that they don't go too deep. Any small seed type pepper tends to be a bit more difficult, in my experience. The same goes for those with longer maturity dates - but that is just a generalization I've noticed. Getting the temperature right is the key to high germination percentages, along with adequate moisture while they are young.
 
When the seeds are small, it seems like they don't have quite as much energy starting out, as compared to larger seed varieties. Thus, less rooting strength at first, as well as smaller leaves for photosynthesis to get the plant moving. 
 
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