Seed Germinator

[Pam]

I'm going back to my roots, no pun intended. Tobacco farmers use a styrofam tray that is about two feet long, one foot wide and five inches deep. Each cell, and there are 242 per piece, is filled with potting soil and a single tobacco seed, about the size of a pin-prick is placed on top of the soil. It is then moistened, but not drenched. The seeds are not covered with soil - they will work into it. The trays are placed in a water trough (they have a hole in the bottom), I presume since roots always grow toward dampness.

Sounds like the seed starting kit that Park Seed sells. They slapped a fancy name and a fancy price on, of course.

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/...ters&scChannel=Seed Starting AS&OfferCode=TH1

And I think the pepper seed would be happier if covered over lightly with seed starting medium.

I know peppers and tobacco are not the exact same thing, but it sounds like they are very similar with the difference being tobacco does not produce fruit. At the worst, I'll waste a bag of potting soil and 242 seeds. At best, I'll have to find more land to stick the peppers on!

Huh. *google, google, google*

Well, it looks like tobacco is a little more tolerant of cool temperatures, but other than that, they *do* have similar growing conditions. Tobacco does flower and produce seed, but is "topped" to force it to put more energy into leaf growth, I suppose.

Since leaf is what's wanted, not flower and seed/fruit, the fertilization would be with a high nitrogen, and you don't want to do that with peppers.