• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Chocolate habaneros

D

Dantheblue

Hello, new to this blog as I stumbled upon it really! All of my peppers have germinated and are growing like crazy... Some we are even eating already! However, the one I wanted to grow the most (I love chocolate yes I know it won't taste like chocolate) is the chocolate habanero but they simply won't germinate. I've tried a peat moss cup with organic soil, the peat moss pellet, and a peat moss cup with foxfarm soil (the pot farmers in Nocal blended this!) all in my greenhouse and outside. Now I'm resorting to soaking the seed in wet napkins and keeping them in the door for a few days...
Does anybody have a suggestion to get these beauties germinatingP?
 
Welcome! Yep, chocolate habs can be tricky to start, but once they get going they are really strong plants.

I've used both the bag and cup method described on this page with success:
http://www.growhotpeppers.com/starting-pepper-seeds-tricks-to-get-them-to-germinate

Hope this helps.
 
I love Choc habs but have never had issues germinating them. But other brown varieties I have had issues with including chocolate bhuts and douglahs. Don't know if it has anything to do with the colour but that was my experience.
 
I have not ever had a problem with germinating them or growing them. What I mean by that is, I guess I got really LUCKY with the seeds that I got. I cannot for the life of me remember where I got them from, BUT if you give me 2-3 weeks I will have some seeds from my Choco Hab and could send you some to see if that is truly the problem. I have heard that they are tricky to grow and a co-worker of mine is have issue with growing them also, but cannot figure out his problem either. This is the 2nd year of growing them and have had no problems at all. I'm not doing anything out of the norm. Hell, I even used Jiffy Peat Pods that everybody hates and they grew like champs. By the way, they are VERY tasty pepper to grow!
 
if the medium you are starting the seeds in stays moist and is at a constant temperature of 80-86F (28-30C), you should see "hooks" anywhere from 7-21 days...if you are achieving these "requirements" and not getting a good germination percentage, it may be your seedstock...

the plastic baggie method works well for hard to germinate seeds...

paper towel or coffee filter that is damp, fold it over and put the seeds in the fold, put the paper towel or coffee filter in a plastic baggie...seal it and put in somewhere that your temperature stays between 80 and 86F, and check in 3 or 4 days...when the seeds germinate and sprout, plant in a seed starting medium such as hoffmans or jiffy...
 
+1 AJ
If they are good seeds, they should germinate just like any other C. chinense. Chocolate habs(actually congo blacks) are usually late producers for me but I've personally never had germination problems however I imagine some people pick brown pods before they are fully mature/dark brown which may be a reason for poor seeds
 
In May I'd planted an entire packet of choc hab seeds that I'd ordered, and not a single one came up.

Got the seeds replaced and now I'm trying it again, though it'll be too late for this year....
 
POTAWIE said:
+1 AJ
If they are good seeds, they should germinate just like any other C. chinense. Chocolate habs(actually congo blacks) are usually late producers for me but I've personally never had germination problems however I imagine some people pick brown pods before they are fully mature/dark brown which may be a reason for poor seeds
Click to expand...

That explains why only one germinated for me as well. At least I got that one. I will wait until the pods are almost squishy to get seeds out of them and I will spread them like wildfire this year just so people have good Choc. hab seeds.
 
i bought what was supposed to be scotch bonnet seeds from a random amazon seller, they turned out to be some sort of chocolate hab instead. i let the seeds sit for over a year before i planted and i got 90-95% germination using a cell type seed starting tray and a heating mat. the only special thing i do is soak them overnight in distilled water before planting. the peppers themselves turned out to be the hottest thing i grew last year and were super hardy. i saved some seeds and grew a few this year as well with similar germination rates. i like these peppers quite a bit.
 
Thank you for your comments, even you mr negativity poop boy! :-). I'm a persistent dude so they are going to grow in my yard one way or another.
 
Probably bad seed. I went through this with okra this year, kept thinking I was doing something wrong then gave up and ordered more seed from a different place without any other changes and it grew fine.
 
I had about 30 seeds for this season, not a single one germinated while everything else germinated fine in the same setting. Was for sure bad seeds in my case, will try them again next year I think!
 
DSC04816.jpg


DSC04818.jpg


So far so good. I am saving seeds from this plant. Second year in a row and had not one problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top