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seeds Germination with peat pellets

samdizshiz

samdizshiz

Has anyone used the peat pellets like in the jiffy seed trays for germination. I saw coco pellets as well any experience with these types and what is your favorite and most reliable germination method
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I love peat pellets. It's what I started out using and continue to use out of familiarity. I plop them in nursery pots with good soil as soon the the seeds pop. I've tried other methods but am more comfortable using peat pellets
 
I have never used them always used soil or paper towels do u think you see the same germination time as paper towels ?

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samdizshiz said:
I have never used them always used soil or paper towels do u think you see the same germination time as paper towels ?

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I've always seen hooks in less than a week for most varieties but it's hard to compare cuz with peat, it still has to push through half inch of substrate before you see any action. Paper towels you see the first signs of germination a lot quicker
 
I grow my own seeds and not all always sprout so I use the paper towel method. Then I know for a fact it's a good seed before I waste my time watering a dud in some soil or whatever.

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I had been starting in paper towels before moving to jiffy pods, but I've decided that I was probably wasting time with the paper towels, and introducing risk (I've had a number dry out, and some grow mold).

Moving forward I'm just going to use the jiffy pods. I typically plant 2 or 3 seeds per pod, and then cull all but the biggest, unless I've got very few seeds of that variety.
 
Edmick said:
I love peat pellets. It's what I started out using and continue to use out of familiarity. I plop them in nursery pots with good soil as soon the the seeds pop. I've tried other methods but am more comfortable using peat pellets
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I agree with Edmick here, though I've had basically the same results w coco coir pellets.  Peat and coir are great for starting seeds.  I use a heat mat and one of the domed seed starting trays and have had good to great luck the last 5 years or so. 
 
I'll start in the pellets and then transplant into solo cups about 4-6 weeks after they pop.  Then 4-6 weeks later they come out of the cups and into the raised beds. 
 
 
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Some of the pellets you can find are peat, some are half peat / half coir and some are pure coir. To be honest, I have not seen any difference in performance.
 
I have four "Romberg" propagators (plastic mini-greenhouses with flat bottoms) that each hold 15 pellets. Also have two of the Romberg 15cm wide x 60cm long "windowsill model" heat mats that each hold two of the Romberg propagators. The heat mats are plugged into and temperature controlled by a Romberg Hortiswitch. The Hortiswitch has a temperature probe that I put inside of one of the propagator boxes. When the inside of the box reaches 30 celcius, the Hortiswitch will flip off the power to the little 3-socket powerstrip into which the heat mats are plugged.
 
Not all of the Romberg mini-greenhouses have flat bottoms, though - some have little "legs" at the corners and in the middle which are meant to facilitate stacking them on top of one another. Those are not suitable for use on the heat mats as they do not actually make contact.
 
Ive had some seeds that would germinate like mad in peat pellets and others that seemed to struggle. The ones that struggled popped in a wet paper towel or some ProMix no problem and even grew better. IIRC it was rocotos i had the most problems with in pellets. Ed's Aleppos cranked out no problem and grew great.
 
Next year i will look for coco based pellets.
 
This year i used mostly wet paper towels and then transferred the sprouts into peat pellets. Most are doing fine now but the Aji Oro is struggling a little. My bonnets did ok germinating in the pellets but not great. Last year using ProMix Organic they were rocking hard with  the same seeds. Both the Dreadies and TFMs seemed to take forever this year in the pellets. Luckily i got enough of what i needed.
 
Maybe pellets might be to compact and not allowing the seed to get air ?

I made a mix that I am trying at the moment
1 part Coco coir
1part perlite
1 part worm castings

Then I sifted and microwaved to sterilize it will turn to a dry powder but once water is added to it it turns back to a fluffy soil I wonder if they can get to much airflow



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ShowMeDaSauce said:
IIRC it was rocotos i had the most problems with in pellets.
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Makes sense given that C. Pubescens are among the most difficult to germinate in any case. I think next year, I'm just going to keep one going as a bonchi and then take cuttings from it mid-March or so. Next to impossible to get them to fruit in the house, though, so they just take up space.
 
samdizshiz said:
Maybe pellets might be to compact and not allowing the seed to get air ?

I made a mix that I am trying at the moment
1 part Coco coir
1part perlite
1 part worm castings

Then I sifted and microwaved to sterilize it will turn to a dry powder but once water is added to it it turns back to a fluffy soil I wonder if they can get to much airflow



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Click to expand...
 

Except for 1 tiny detail. My seeds dont get any more air with a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag. I open the ziplocks every other day to check them. Overall my germination rates are much higher with the paper towel/ziplock method.
 
Checking seeds in them now and i already got MANY germinated. Over 70% so far.
 
podz said:
 
Makes sense given that C. Pubescens are among the most difficult to germinate in any case. I think next year, I'm just going to keep one going as a bonchi and then take cuttings from it mid-March or so. Next to impossible to get them to fruit in the house, though, so they just take up space.
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They are a bit tougher but i had a few do really really well too. I started 2 very late last year just to be safe. Both are doing great inside other than no more flowers for months.
 
Im still zero for 20 on JPGS from RFC. If they are not up by this Friday im just ordering some from Juanitos. He has seedlings pretty reasonable. Pretty much everything has germinated now and i must move on to taking care of sprouts and seedlings.
 
I started seeds in small condiment cups with paper towels.  Pain in the ass.  I'm going to transition to something else next year.  I had zero germination on JPGS during my 1st pass.  We'll see if I get anything out of germination #2 (in progress).  
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
 
They are a bit tougher but i had a few do really really well too. I started 2 very late last year just to be safe. Both are doing great inside other than no more flowers for months.
 
Im still zero for 20 on JPGS from RFC. If they are not up by this Friday im just ordering some from Juanitos. He has seedlings pretty reasonable. Pretty much everything has germinated now and i must move on to taking care of sprouts and seedlings.
Click to expand...
 
 
OFF-TOPIC: I think you can get them to flower inside if you have a cold room and just carry them back and forth every evening and morning. From what I understand, they need about 10 celcius (18 f) of variance between daytime and night-time temps (optimal according to my experience is an ambience of approximately 10c at night and 20c during the day).
 
And since I am new here, my acronym dictionary is not yet working. What is JPGS and RFC? Surely not digital photos and Internet Standards documents...
 
I've used those to sow a few variety's this year. Most did well.
A couple of them didn't seem to sprout as well.. I cant remember for sure, but I think one was a white bhut, and the other a red bhut.. maybe just the variety? 
My experience is pretty limited with peppers. Last time I tried this was some time ago. One of which is still alive. just been living inside for may years.
 
IMG_0915.jpeg

 
I took a photo of the chemical analysis printed on the side of the box of the pellets that I'm using now. They appear to be pre-fertilised quite well for vegetative growth: 18-6-28.
 
Just started about 100 pellets of different varieties for this growing season, so let you know how they are doing after several days or so. 
 
My first year starting from seed, and have used the jiffy pods. Been 80-90% successful.



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For 2 years I was primarily using coco pellets for seed germination.
It seems a better option than peat from my experience.

Paper towel method works great and is a lot cheaper though.

My favorite is the Ikea system called Växer or something along those lines.
Relatively cheap product, 50 open cells for which you can purchase some rockwool cubes.
I have germinated different kinds of herbs, tomatoes and a lot of different peppers in it already.
Even the Pubescens which to me can be quite a hazzle to germinate.
Superhots generally also sprout quite fast.
Seeds are always wet so you wont have to worry about misting them or anything like that.
It's not a perfect system but I really enjoy using it :)
 
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