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Four-Pepper False Start Glog

While I'm (successfully) growing plenty of herbs at the moment, the important stuff is obviously the peppers... and, since I'm pretty sure I baked the first set of seeds I attempted to germinate due to underestimating the power of my seedling heat mat after moving it into the grow tent, we're calling that a swing and a miss and moving on with Batch #2.
 
Tomorrow night they'll get the coffee-filter-in-a-baggie treatment and a hopefully-more-comfortable place in a lovely fluffy towel on the mat.
 
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karoo said:
Been there, done that .... a few times!
 
Just hang in there. Always better to have a buffer between your heatmat and seeds or soil.
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Aye live and learn eh...I think the only time I really do not pay any attention to my heat mat is when I am using Styrofoam cups....The extra insulation takes abit more to warm up then most others in my own experience.
 
karoo said:
Biggest loss is the time spent watching for germination.
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Yeah, that's the irritating part. It'd be better if I already had peppers growing and this were round 2; as it is, my prospective eggs are all in one basket.
 
GrumpyPepper said:
Good luck with the second round of germination! 
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Thanks! I'm picking up a couple of thermometers to check the temperature in different parts of the tent, with and without the light running, so this time I should be able to keep them where they need to be.
 
PtMD989 said:
What variety of peppers are you going to be growing?
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I picked up chocolate habanero seeds from a seller on Amazon that I'm not 100% confident in, but they ended up having very professional packaging and promotional materials, so... if it's a scam, it's a really well-done scam.
 
From Refining Fire I ordered CGN 21500 (which I'm the most excited for), aji lemon drop, and alma paprika. He also threw in sugar rush peach and cream seeds; I'm not starting those at the moment, since I'm planning to max out potting at 20L, and with that size I can fit exactly four in the grow tent. The extras will have to go outside, where they'll be competing with my wife's flowers and my own herbs (shiso, peppermint, Italian and Thai basil, lavender, and rosemary), and all we have is a little bit of concrete curb space. So... not much room for extras.
 
Down the line I think I'm going to try giant white habaneros, longhorns, and ghosts. It could be a while before I order those seeds, though. You know, like a day or two. Maybe even three...
 
Delayed the coffee filter start by a day; tonight I'm picking up a couple of thermometers to test areas in the grow tent and around the heating mat to hopefully avoid another well-done batch of seeds.
 
Will leave the first batch in with them, I think, just in case it wasn't as bad as I thought... though ending up with 5+ of each type germinating would result in at least 16 more sprouts than I need. In which case I'll just have to raise them all and hope a lot of my friends have a previously-unexpressed interest in container gardening and hot peppers.
 
Wow. So I got a couple of thermometers and checked things out last night... and promptly tossed the first batch of seeds. I had them at at least 110F for days... turns out I'm really bad at estimating temperature. Sorry, little round friends.
 
Going around the mat and tent testing temperatures, with the equipment I have it's not going to be as simple as I'd like to regulate temp, but I think I'll manage now that I at least have an idea what I shouldn't be doing. Working on getting a day-and-night stable place so I don't have to shuffle them around.
 
For now, though: I switched to coffee filters instead of paper towels, and they are WAY easier to deal with.
 
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A little bit of half-assed origami to keep the markers where they are. This pretty much half worked once I got them wet, but I enjoyed it.
 
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I want 'em all lined up, just like a pretty little chorus line.
 
So those are in The Chamber now, incubating their little hearts out (literally). Fingers crossed.
 
I think that will do pretty well :) (I've also used coffee filters, they're perfect if kept somewhere where they keep slightly moist, evenly)
 
Well, happy surprise! Yesterday, 6 days in, my chocolate habaneros and CGNs germinated!
 
Letting them get a little further along before I plant them, and still waiting on the paprika and lemon drop, but it certainly feels good to see some progress. Particularly with the choco habs, which I was concerned about, given they looked like they'd been harvested by Methuselah some time in his 20's.
 
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Getting a little more organized. The older herbs are in back in the brown pots; in front, the back left is my unbelievably slow peppermint. Further forward, the ones with white tags are all peppers; this was taken last night when the four under the plastic hadn't broken the surface. Two of them came up overnight, so now I have five plants that have sprouted (3 chocolate habanero, 2 CGN 21500) and one of each that hasn't yet.
 
Front right is 3x Thai basil and 1x Italian basil; on the right are two mojito mint cuttings that I absolutely don't need but took anyway, because PLANTS!
 
Still waiting on the lemon drop and alma paprika to germinate, but now I have something to keep me busy in the meantime.
 
Edit: I also placed a seed order from whitehotpeppers over the weekend: Devil's Tongue White, Purple UFO, Bhut Jolokia, and 7JPN.
 
You're gonna need a bigger tent...
 
Looks like I've got at least one lemon drop seed that started coming out of its shell this morning! And everyone else is looking pretty happy, despite two of the habs coming up with seed helmets that I removed with a less-than-gentle touch.
 
Also ordered shelving and a 300W light for the bottom tier, which will be here in a couple days.  :party:
 
Woohoo! All but one of this round came up, so I'm at 3 CGNs and 3 chocolate habs, with another hab that should break the surface soon.
 
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Also, I now have two alma paprika that are beginning to hatch, so that's exciting. Tonight there'll be a major upgrade to the grow tent! Going to need it before long.
 
Looking ahead, I ordered a pack of 3 gallon grow bags. I'd like to do 5, but if I do, I can only fit four per level into my tent, and more than one level of those would probably be unrealistic... so hopefully this is a good compromise that'll give my peppers enough room to produce while still letting me get in a good variety.
 
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UPGRADES! Since my wife doesn't seem to want me to get another grow tent (I'll wear her down eventually), I figured I'd need to organize things, since there are (perpetually) more pepper seeds germinating...
 
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1000W on top, 300W on the bottom. When they're both activated, the TARDIS becomes capable of interdimensional travel.
 
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For now, just using the bottom. Looking forward to getting most of the herbs into planters and giving them a head start on the top shelf before they venture outside, possibly after 'winter' is over... of course, the focus is the peppers, but they've got a little while before they're ready to be promoted.
 
 
Well, things have expanded a bit!
 
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The top is primarily herbs, though my last two Lemon Drops (which just got upgraded from their coffee filter nursery) are stewing in the lower right corner until they pop cotyledons.
 
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Everyone else is up or very nearly so. Final germination count:
 
4 chocolate habaneros
4 lemon drops
3 CGN 21500
2 alma paprika
 
All are in about 60/40 coco coir/perlite. Most of them have at least started on their first true leaves. The 21500s are going quite purple, so I'm not sure if I'm stressing them in some way, but they don't seem to be stunted. Guess we'll see.
 
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