Hey guys, I'm growing peppers from seeds for the first time this year, and I'm having a bit of a rough time.
Here's the background:
My first attempt I planted some seeds in a seed germinater dome thing in Jiffy peat plugs. I think I badly overwatered it at first, and exposed it to some pretty high heat at one point on the table on my patio (one unexpected 85 degree day caused some pretty extreme heat in the dome, and nuked a couple of tomato seedlings that were also in the dome.)
I planted about 20 pepper seeds, along with a bunch of tomato and tomatillo. I've had fairly decent germ rates on both of them (probably around 75% after factoring in the ones that sprouted and got torched) but have yet to have a pepper pop. It's been about 3 weeks since I planted the seeds, with no prep. Temps have fluctuated wildly, probably from lows in doors in the low 50's to highs (inside the dome) probably in the 80's, and with the one extreme day probably 100+ in the dome, with high humidity.
At some point I realized that I had probably burried the seeds to deeply, and undertook to find the seeds and remove a significant layer of peat from the pellets. (I had the "tomato" sized pellets, they are about 3 inches tall when fully expanded; for some reason I burried the pepper seeds about an inch down, but only about 1/4 or 1/2 inch on the tomatoes.) I discovered in one pellet an Aji seed that had a small tail, but it was brown and gooey looking. I presumed it to have molded from the high humidity and discarded it. Further investigations revealed several more seeds with what appeared to rotten tails, which were discarded and a few that appeared viable- pale green or white. I left them in the peat pellets and covered them gently with a thin layer of peat - no more than 1/4 inch. I conducted my excavations about 3 days ago, expecting the seeds with tails to pop soon. But as of this morning none have,
After I exposed the germanater to the 100 temps, I also started some seeds in the "paper towel method" , in ziplocks ontop of my cable box. It stays a pretty even temperature there, and is nice and warm but not absurdly hot. I don't currently have a thermometer but if I were to guess Id say its pretty steadily 80-90 degrees. The seeds have been going for 10 days or so. At least one seems to have a very, very small tail, and most of them have turned sort of translucent around the opening area, which has swelled up.
So here are my questions:
1. What do seeds look like prior to sprouting tails? (Are the translucent / swollen seeds doing well or did I mess something up? I'll take pics in a few minutes and edit them in.)
2. At what point should I plant the seeds from the paper towels? (Is there a certain length of tail suggested to wait prior to planting?)
3. Which direction should I plant the tail, up or down? (Are the tails roots or are they proto-stems from which the cotyledons will emerge? )
Thanks guys!
Mike
Here's the background:
My first attempt I planted some seeds in a seed germinater dome thing in Jiffy peat plugs. I think I badly overwatered it at first, and exposed it to some pretty high heat at one point on the table on my patio (one unexpected 85 degree day caused some pretty extreme heat in the dome, and nuked a couple of tomato seedlings that were also in the dome.)
I planted about 20 pepper seeds, along with a bunch of tomato and tomatillo. I've had fairly decent germ rates on both of them (probably around 75% after factoring in the ones that sprouted and got torched) but have yet to have a pepper pop. It's been about 3 weeks since I planted the seeds, with no prep. Temps have fluctuated wildly, probably from lows in doors in the low 50's to highs (inside the dome) probably in the 80's, and with the one extreme day probably 100+ in the dome, with high humidity.
At some point I realized that I had probably burried the seeds to deeply, and undertook to find the seeds and remove a significant layer of peat from the pellets. (I had the "tomato" sized pellets, they are about 3 inches tall when fully expanded; for some reason I burried the pepper seeds about an inch down, but only about 1/4 or 1/2 inch on the tomatoes.) I discovered in one pellet an Aji seed that had a small tail, but it was brown and gooey looking. I presumed it to have molded from the high humidity and discarded it. Further investigations revealed several more seeds with what appeared to rotten tails, which were discarded and a few that appeared viable- pale green or white. I left them in the peat pellets and covered them gently with a thin layer of peat - no more than 1/4 inch. I conducted my excavations about 3 days ago, expecting the seeds with tails to pop soon. But as of this morning none have,
After I exposed the germanater to the 100 temps, I also started some seeds in the "paper towel method" , in ziplocks ontop of my cable box. It stays a pretty even temperature there, and is nice and warm but not absurdly hot. I don't currently have a thermometer but if I were to guess Id say its pretty steadily 80-90 degrees. The seeds have been going for 10 days or so. At least one seems to have a very, very small tail, and most of them have turned sort of translucent around the opening area, which has swelled up.
So here are my questions:
1. What do seeds look like prior to sprouting tails? (Are the translucent / swollen seeds doing well or did I mess something up? I'll take pics in a few minutes and edit them in.)
2. At what point should I plant the seeds from the paper towels? (Is there a certain length of tail suggested to wait prior to planting?)
3. Which direction should I plant the tail, up or down? (Are the tails roots or are they proto-stems from which the cotyledons will emerge? )
Thanks guys!
Mike
