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seeds Germination and early growth: Jiffy Pucks Vs Seed Raising mix Vs Coir peat Vs papertowel and baggy V

22/2/13 - 20 Days

Jiffys - 1/8
Seed raising mix - 6/8
Damp paper towel in baggy - 2/8
Coir peat - 1/8
Dirt - 0/8


Tim in Tucson said:
I'm really curious as to what the composition of your seed raising mix is. Is it Peat based with Coir and Vermiculite mixed in, or something different?
Click to expand...
its a bag of seed raising mix (not sure whats in it), that i have added coir and vermiculite to. ill have a look at the bag tomorrow and see what it says.
 
TheFanMan said:
22/2/13 - 20 Days

Jiffys - 1/8
Seed raising mix - 6/8
Damp paper towel in baggy - 2/8
Coir peat - 1/8
Dirt - 0/8



its a bag of seed raising mix (not sure whats in it), that i have added coir and vermiculite to. ill have a look at the bag tomorrow and see what it says.
Click to expand...


I'd say magic.

It boggles my mind that the results so heavily favor the seed mix -especially over the paper towel and baggie.
Good work, very helpful.
Thanks.
 
JJJessee said:
I'd say magic.

It boggles my mind that the results so heavily favor the seed mix -especially over the paper towel and baggie.
Good work, very helpful.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
yeh i can't explain it, not what i was expecting at all.




23/2/13 - 21 Days

Jiffys - 1/8
Seed raising mix - 6/8
Damp paper towel in baggy - 3/8
Coir peat - 1/8
Dirt - 0/8


26/2/13 - 24 Days

Jiffys - 2/8
Seed raising mix - 6/8
Damp paper towel in baggy - 4/8
Coir peat - 1/8
Dirt - 0/8
 
Interesting results. I have seen claims that peppers don't germ well in low pH (acidic) media. Your results seem to confirm this with the poor germ rate in coir+peat. Not sure what is going on with your garden dirt. It would be interesting if you could do a pH test on a sample of it, though plain dirt has other properties that make it less than ideal for sprouting seeds in pots.
 
You've got me scared now, I've always used a forest material organic potting soil mixed with some sand and maybe vermiculite to start my seeds, and had great results. This year I thought, "What the hell, a lot of folks do just fine with peat." I had some plain ol' peat potting soil so I used it. For all my seeds :o. Well, after 10 days, so far not so bad. I've got 14 that have hooked, and 7 are already about an inch tall. I've got 4 Carolina Reaper sprouts, 3 White Hab, and 7 Peter Pepper. Nothing from Tabasco, Hungarian Hot Wax, or Chocolate Hab yet. Way too early to tell, but I'm real nervous about the peat. It dries real quickly.
 
I tried the wet paper towel and pretty much all of the seeds germinated and started to get little tails on the seeds. I then transplated them into seed starting potting mix. this was over a week ago and none of them have popped through the soil yet. Going to dig one up tonight and take a look to see if they are growing or if they died and I need to start them over again. Hopefully they are fine and just taking awhile to pop through.
 
This is good info right here! With a little Reformatting this could be a nice "seed starting" Sticky

If, not this post, then you or some one should make a Germination Tutorial to sit in the stickies. I'd do it, but I doubt my guides would get stickied.
:P my bad :P​
 
hotty brown said:
NIce experiment. I've found that anything with peat in it really takes the life out of the seedlings for germination. With peat, germination rates were well below 45%. Can't wait to see if your data will reflect what I've witnessed over here.
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I find this curious because I have decent success with jiffy pellets. Do others have problems with peat? Of the seeds I planted in pellets on 2/10 I have noted the following results:

Mutant Orange Habs: sprouted 2/19 16 of 18
Bhut Jolokia: sprouted 2/19 16 of 18
Mystery Brown Chinense: sprouted 2/27 15 of 18
Red Rocoto: none sprouted 0 of 4
Trinidad Scorpion: sprouted 2/22 14 of 18
Trinidad Morouga Scorpion: sprouted 2/19 16 of 18
Jamaican Hot Chocolate: sprouted 2/23 18 of 18
Douglah: sprouted 2/22 16 of 18
White Habanero: sprouted 2/19 10 of 18
Brown 7 Pot: sprouted 2/21 17 of 18
Fatalli: sprouted 2/21 15 of 18
7 Pot Barrackpore: sprouted 2/20 15 of 18

So I can generalize and say for chinenses started in jiffy pellets it took an average of 11 days for seeds to germinate with an 85% success rate. Given that some seeds were from 2010 and 2011 and I didn't carefully hand select the best looking seeds I'd say that's more than acceptable :confused:
 
The Jiffy peat pellets have some lime added to balance the pH. Their seed starting soil mix also has added lime. Pure peat moss is acidic and that is, allegedly, what makes it tough for peppers to sprout in it.

Lime is pretty cheap, so if you are a DIY type person you could mix some in with bulk purchased peat and probably save a little money. Problem is determining the proper ratio because too much lime will make the mix very alkaline and that is no good either.
 
one more in the baggy up.

19/3/13 - 45 Days

Jiffys - 3/8
Seed raising mix - 6/8
Damp paper towel in baggy - 7/8
Coir peat - 1/8
Dirt - 1/8
 
I wonder how the Rapid Rooter plugs would fair vs the seed mix you use.
I used Jiffy pucks last year and just wasnt impressed. I mean the seeds started fine but root growth seemed very slow.
Plus the jiffy pucks seem to dry out very quickly.

This year I switched to the rapid rooters and Ive never had roots grow so fast.
 
I used the jiffy pucks and then switched over to miracle grow seed started mix for rapid root growth. Since putting them under lights they have started to take off. I had to replant some of those already. When i did the roots were already at the bottomof the container, they were only in those containers for about a week-10 days.
I think I watered the pucks I used like 2 or 3 times plus the initial one. Seeds were in those for about 3 weeks before transplanting to pots.
 
PepperWhisperer said:
The Jiffy peat pellets have some lime added to balance the pH. Their seed starting soil mix also has added lime. Pure peat moss is acidic and that is, allegedly, what makes it tough for peppers to sprout in it.

Lime is pretty cheap, so if you are a DIY type person you could mix some in with bulk purchased peat and probably save a little money. Problem is determining the proper ratio because too much lime will make the mix very alkaline and that is no good either.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I was unaware of the lime being added to jiffy pellets (or whatever they add to balance the ph). I usually transplant them within a few weeks of sprouting in the pellets into cups filled with my "random" mix, which is usually some fox farm ocean forest liberally adulterated with perlite and coconut coir (to stretch it out... i'm poor).

Anyway they don't stay in the pellets alone for long but as far as germination goes they do okay for me. It's too early to post results but second round of stuff planted in pellets on 3/10 and 3/11 is starting to sprout and I expect similar results compared to my first batch on chinenses.
 
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