seeds Longer germination for lesser peppers?

[fusedpro]

I'll avoid the back-story and cut to the chase. I have several pepper varieties growing --
 

• red bhut
• yellow bhut
• trinidad douglah
• fatali
• chocolate hab
• regular hab

These were sowed, two seeds per cell (question on that later), directly into some Jiffy Seed Starting Mix a while back... I'd say I'm getting on two weeks now. Since then, I've had at least one of every variety sprout except the douglah and chocolate hab. First to sprout was a regular hab after a couple days, followed by a red bhut and fatali the following day. Since then, the red bhuts and fatalis have sprouted the most, followed by the regular habs, and a couple yellow bhuts to end. Everything I've read states that the hotter the pepper, the longer the germination, but my scenario doesn't seem to be following this. I've also read many accounts of peppers sprouting up to a few weeks later, so maybe I am worrying too much... The variance just confuses me as they are all on the same heat pad, with the same soil, etc...
 
Is there a way of knowing if the seed is shot? I sowed a couple more in the now empty cells to start fresh, but I'd just like the chocolate habs to sprout so I can have more peppers of lesser heat (first time doing anything above jalapeno).
 
Also, the two seeds per cell thing. I'm guessing everything is doing well, because I've got two sprouts in many of my solo cups (moved straight from the propagator to solo cups after sprouting). I know I should separate/cull these, but the sprouts are pretty close together. Any tips on doing this?

 

[Nightshade]

the hotter the pepper the longer the germination is not accurate I have had no heat peppers take months and high heat peppers take a couple days just keep waiting

 

[Ragnar]

As for the heating pad, you'll notice there are hot spots and cooler spots, they're great but not totally even. Also, I've found, there are a lot of factors in seed viability that include the plants genetics, the grower and how they preserved the seed, the age of the seed, the conditions in which the seed was stored, etc etc..

Separating the sprouts is easy if you have a steady hand and some patience. Try not to touch the stems, better to lose a cotyledon or leaf than the whole plant. I prefer the soil to be closer to dry than damp, just my preference though as many prefer working with damper soil to separate

Nice list you got there and good luck with 'em!

Oh and don't worry, the choc and douglah swill likely pop soon. If you have more it doesn't hurt to put a few more in dirt-- the more the merrier.

 

[Phil]

I've never had a chocolate hab sprout.... ever. I've tried to grow them two years in a row. The few that I thought I got to sprout turned out to not be chocolate habs... phoney baloney seeds. If I were you, I'd try planting a couple of dozen choc hab seeds from different sources and hope for the best.

 

[Ragnar]

I've never had a chocolate hab sprout.... ever. I've tried to grow them two years in a row. The few that I thought I got to sprout turned out to not be chocolate habs... phoney baloney seeds. If I were you, I'd try planting a couple of dozen choc hab seeds from different sources and hope for the best.

That's some bad luck man. But seriously, I don't really think that choc hab seeds in General would be poor germinating or that they have a tendency to not grow true. If so there would be a lot of chatter around. Perhaps you've just been unlucky?

I happen to have planted some from two sources and both had near perfect germination in 5-8 days post soak.

I'll even send you some next fall from my own plants to prove my point :-)

Where'd you get the not choc hab seeds from?

 

[Phil]

Yeah, I chalk it up to bad luck. I've only tried growing them a couple of times, and I want to say I got the seeds from Amazon, so.... ya know how that goes.

 

[Dave2000]

Everything I've read states that the hotter the pepper, the longer the germination, but my scenario doesn't seem to be following this. I've also read many accounts of peppers sprouting up to a few weeks later, so maybe I am worrying too much...
 
Is there a way of knowing if the seed is shot? I sowed a couple more in the now empty cells to start fresh, but I'd just like the chocolate habs to sprout so I can have more peppers of lesser heat (first time doing anything above jalapeno).
 
Also, the two seeds per cell thing. I'm guessing everything is doing well, because I've got two sprouts in many of my solo cups (moved straight from the propagator to solo cups after sprouting). I know I should separate/cull these, but the sprouts are pretty close together. Any tips on doing this?

 

It is generally true that milder species like capsicum annuum take less time to germinate than capsicum chinense if all else is equal including seed age and storage conditions, but within the same species the heat rule doesn't apply.
 
I would wait at least 4 weeks before giving up on seeds, OR go ahead and put more seed in those cells so one way or the other you will have something growing but if you think your Choc Hab seed may be bad, I'd sew something else instead.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the Choc Habs as a source of milder pepper, when you get up in the hundreds of SHU range they aren't really different enough in heat to change their uses.  Jalapenos, Serranos, Cayennes etc are probably more what you're looking for in a lesser heat range.
 
I cull mine by just taking a pair of little scissors and cutting the stem at soil level... no need to worry about the insignificant amount of root that remains.