I must be living right. I don't know what I'm doing so differently from last year, but after planting the first wave of seeds on January 26, I had the first hook from everything except the _chinense_ varieties by the 31st, and I got up this morning to find the first little pair of true leaves emerging on several of the seedlings!
Particulars: Seeds are from Fedco, the Chile Pepper Institute, and a few left over from Peppermania last year. I'm starting them in a Jiffy tray, with some off-brand organic starter mix that happened to be what the nursery had, on a heating pad that keeps them usually around 82-85 F. They've had a light since first emergence---just a 2-tube worklight with a couple of generic bulbs, since I expect to have them outdoors pretty quickly. The full census:
Thai Hot (Fedco): 11/12 emerged, lookin' good
Czech Black (Fedco): 11/12 emerged, big happy plants, true leaves on two of them
Feherozon (Fedco): 9/12 emerged after a slow start
Uba Tuba (CPI): 10/12 emerged, kind of leggy, having trouble getting out of their helmets
NuMex Twilight (CPI): 12/12 emerged, ridiculously fast and robust
NuMex Suave Orange (CPI): 6/12 emerged, maybe more coming (first hook was on the 4th), look healthy but slooooow
Fatalii (Peppermania 2012): 7/8 emerged, small but solid-looking so far
Mystery seeds (Peppermania 2012): 4/6 emerged
Habanero de arbol (Peppermania 2012): 4/5 emerged, 3 look like survivors, true leaves on one
Las Cruces Cayenne (CPI): 9/12 emerged, big cotyledons, true leaves on two
I'm especially happy with the strong start of the Fataliis as I had kind of poor luck with them last year; they seemed to stall easily at certain stages, but maybe this batch are getting a better launch.
I tried to post some pictures, but didn't yet get it to work. Further bulletins as events warrant.
-NT
Particulars: Seeds are from Fedco, the Chile Pepper Institute, and a few left over from Peppermania last year. I'm starting them in a Jiffy tray, with some off-brand organic starter mix that happened to be what the nursery had, on a heating pad that keeps them usually around 82-85 F. They've had a light since first emergence---just a 2-tube worklight with a couple of generic bulbs, since I expect to have them outdoors pretty quickly. The full census:
Thai Hot (Fedco): 11/12 emerged, lookin' good
Czech Black (Fedco): 11/12 emerged, big happy plants, true leaves on two of them
Feherozon (Fedco): 9/12 emerged after a slow start
Uba Tuba (CPI): 10/12 emerged, kind of leggy, having trouble getting out of their helmets
NuMex Twilight (CPI): 12/12 emerged, ridiculously fast and robust
NuMex Suave Orange (CPI): 6/12 emerged, maybe more coming (first hook was on the 4th), look healthy but slooooow
Fatalii (Peppermania 2012): 7/8 emerged, small but solid-looking so far
Mystery seeds (Peppermania 2012): 4/6 emerged
Habanero de arbol (Peppermania 2012): 4/5 emerged, 3 look like survivors, true leaves on one
Las Cruces Cayenne (CPI): 9/12 emerged, big cotyledons, true leaves on two
I'm especially happy with the strong start of the Fataliis as I had kind of poor luck with them last year; they seemed to stall easily at certain stages, but maybe this batch are getting a better launch.
I tried to post some pictures, but didn't yet get it to work. Further bulletins as events warrant.
-NT
