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seeds Tepin Germination - Best Methods?

Helldozer said:
Wow, really appreciate it Max. That was very kind of you to offer. But, I did talk the wife into another $3. :) I bought a pack of tepins from pepperlover.com last night. I figured I would compare. If they rot too, then it HAS to be user error. :)
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no problem, they are a great company from what I have heard, I didn't know about them until after I ordered all my seeds, lol, so I'm all set for now.. this warm weather is getting my itching to get the plants out this spring.. I actually just rototiller a little to extend the garden .. didn't get much done because of the HUGE amount of rocks i needed to dig out, and a cast iron tube in pieces lol..... might be able to convince my dad to rent a backhoe to tear up the rest of the area and get the rocks out. would save me hours and hours of work.. but a good way to spend a day when it was 60 degrees out in CT on Feb. 1st lol.. crazy weather
 
Hehe. Wow, that sounds pretty warm for your area. I'm in California, about 40 minutes East of S.F. It has been in the mid 60's here also.
 
yea it was really warm yesterday, today it was back down to low 40s, (which is still 10 degrees warmer than it should be.) but it still felt like 30s.. it keeps going back and fourth from low 30s to low 40s during the day and usually low 30s and mid 20s at night.. so still really cold.. but this time of year its should be a consistent 30.. but I'm not complaining.. any thoughts of ice fishing this year is dead due to the weather.. so I just say bring on spring as soon as possible lol
 
Haha. I love winter....when we have one. Here on the West coast, we don't really get much of a winter. But, yeah, some days it feels like you could just bust out your peppers outdoors. I'm ready for some Ghosts,etc. :)
 
haha, yea, well last year was a crazy cold and long winter, we had snow still in march I think last year so this year a warm winter and the fact that it is my first year starting indoors this early.. it is a welcome change lol.. and we already had that big snow storm in oct that knocked out 99% of the states power for about a week lol, I figure if it's going to be winter.. let it be winter and snow and be cold.. but this back and forth of temps just makes me want to have it be spring already haha
 
Avon Barksdale said:
Chiltepin and pequin always germinate very quickly and easily for me. I planted some chiltepin from tradewindsfruit about 4-5 days ago though, so I'll let you know how mine do. If they are bad seeds mine might be bad too.
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Update, 4 of them popped yesterday,at right around a week. I think I planted about 6 or 7. So, it might not be the seeds. Could be a problem with temperature, humidity, disease, etc.
 
Avon Barksdale said:
Update, 4 of them popped yesterday,at right around a week. I think I planted about 6 or 7. So, it might not be the seeds. Could be a problem with temperature, humidity, disease, etc.
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Thanks for the update. Hmmm. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong then. I have a dome, temp is good. I've tried potting soil, paper towels, and jiffy pellets. About a day or two ago I had ONE begin showing a tap root. So, I might be in luck there. I bought some more from a different vendor. So, I'll test them out. If they pop under the same conditions, then maybe I just got a bad batch of Tepins from Trade Winds Fruit.
 
Chiltepin seeds from NMSU (CPI)

at 12d, 1 of 4 soaking for 10m in 5% bleach CPI says 5m in 10% bleach (fwiw, CPI Bailey Piquins were 4 for 4 in 7d)
0 for 6 soaking 5m in H202, 24hr in chamomille, first 8 hrs of that in fridge....ran 45d before tossing
above all in coir and constant 80-85F

put 8 seeds in aerogarden (stuffed in with herbs, 2 per hole)
4 soaked 5m in H2O2, 4 soaked 10m 5% bleach...2 of 8 (one of each treatment)
temps 75-80 range

CPI said if above doesn't work try nicking or "sanding" with like emery board

Started 4 soaked 10min 5% bleach, 5 "sanded"; all soaked chamomille 4 hrs, into coir 1/27
no action yet

UPDATE - after 14d, 2 of the bleach soaked are up, look puny....none of the "sanded" as of 16d
 
Helldozer said:
Thanks for the update. Hmmm. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong then. I have a dome, temp is good. I've tried potting soil, paper towels, and jiffy pellets. About a day or two ago I had ONE begin showing a tap root. So, I might be in luck there. I bought some more from a different vendor. So, I'll test them out. If they pop under the same conditions, then maybe I just got a bad batch of Tepins from Trade Winds Fruit.
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What kind of potting mix did you use? What are the temperatures and how are you measuring them? How deep did you plant them? How long were they in the potting mix? Did you keep the potting mix moist? Could be bad seeds, who knows. So far I've had 3 varieties out of about 30 that nothing has popped for yet at 3 weeks, it happens. One of them is Douglah though, and they always take an eternity for me.

If the other vendor's seeds don't work I have quite a few left over, I can send you some of those. I have the Tradewindsfruit pequin and some from dried commercial pods, both started popping in about a week.
 
I would really try to not put them into potting soil, use either a seed starting mix, peat moss if you can't get that, or the jiffy pellets, but I noticed the seeds that I had quickly put into some potting soil that I thought was "loose", had most of the seeds not germinate.. I had a few eventually but more didn't go, which is fine with me really because I wasn't really counting on those anyways, and I just did another set of 32 seeds for all the ones that didn't pop and a few new ones that I got since last time I planted the 72 cells of plants, started them in about 1/2 Hoffman seed starting mix 1/2 Hoffman peat moss (didn't really need to mix it, but I had a bag of peat moss that I wanted to use, it didn't really make any difference with the mix from the seed starting mix lol.)
 
Avon Barksdale said:
What kind of potting mix did you use? What are the temperatures and how are you measuring them? How deep did you plant them? How long were they in the potting mix? Did you keep the potting mix moist? Could be bad seeds, who knows. So far I've had 3 varieties out of about 30 that nothing has popped for yet at 3 weeks, it happens. One of them is Douglah though, and they always take an eternity for me.

If the other vendor's seeds don't work I have quite a few left over, I can send you some of those. I have the Tradewindsfruit pequin and some from dried commercial pods, both started popping in about a week.
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Avon. Haha. Before I go into detail, since I posted last I've had two hooks show. One in a Jiffy Pellet and one in potting soil.

I've tried three types of mediums. Jiffy pellets, some potting mix from Navlets, I believe it was called Nature's something :P, and the paper towel method in a tupperware container. I haven't been measuring soil temps, but I have an ambient gauge that has been ranging from 68-71F at night (lights off) to 81-85F during the day (lights on). It feels like some nice humidity going on in the dome. I can feel it when I open the top. :)

Thank you very much for the offer on the seeds. I will keep you posted. Currently, it looks like the Trade Winds seeds might make it. I just planted the PepperLover seeds a night ago.

Maxsack331 said:
I would really try to not put them into potting soil, use either a seed starting mix, peat moss if you can't get that, or the jiffy pellets, but I noticed the seeds that I had quickly put into some potting soil that I thought was "loose", had most of the seeds not germinate.. I had a few eventually but more didn't go, which is fine with me really because I wasn't really counting on those anyways, and I just did another set of 32 seeds for all the ones that didn't pop and a few new ones that I got since last time I planted the 72 cells of plants, started them in about 1/2 Hoffman seed starting mix 1/2 Hoffman peat moss (didn't really need to mix it, but I had a bag of peat moss that I wanted to use, it didn't really make any difference with the mix from the seed starting mix lol.)
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Yeah, you know, it hasn't seemed like my seeds do as well in the potting mix. It seems like pretty loose soil too, not sure if that is good or bad. But currently, I'm thinking bad. My guess is that they are more likely to dry out that way. I've slowly converted to starting all of my seeds in the Jiffy Pellets. Which I think seem to give me the best results so far. I hesitated on the pellets because I read in a few places about peat being bad, etc.

On a side note: PepperLover is awesome. With the Tepin I bought, they sent some Hungarian Hot Cherry peppers. I've never tried those, so I don't know what kind of heat or flavor they have. But, very cool that they sent extra seeds. Which is good and bad. I think I have way more than enough seeds started. But, I can't help but plant the Hungarian now. :) I...MUST...PLANT....PEPPER! (robotic voice). :) Also, the Tepin seeds came with a couple of very very small flakes in it which I tried. Couldn't get much flavor, but man the potential from that one little flake is great. I'm anxious to try them out. They seem like they will have some really good flavor. :)

Thanks all for your help.
 
Here's a method I used for some seeds in pods. It's pretty weird, but I liked the results.

Just ripped a pod apart and fed it to some worms--in a plastic tub with some castings and not much else to eat. After a couple of days, the bits of pod were gone, and a day later I took the worms out and let the castings sit. About four or five days later, there were white roots popping out from some of the little balls of worm poop. Dropped the worm turds with roots into the 72-cell tray and the seedlings came up as strong as any others.

I did this because I was too lazy to pick out seeds and clean them, but it might work if there are seeds that need scarification.
 
What is the water to peroxide ratio?

Instead of paper towels, I use large coffee filters. I find that when rooted, the little hairs tap into the paper towel but cannot on the finer coffee filter.Tepin seeds have always been a pain for me.
 
nitwit said:
the seeds only "know" how to do one thing

they grow when conditions seem right

the tepins are a "bird type"

some thousands of seasons these berries have been eaten by
dinosaurs and pooped onto the ground
might try running some through a dinosaur? (or a similar treatment)
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Great now next year I'll be force feeding tepin seeds to my cockatiels and covering the bottom of their cage with soil. My poor birds.
 
How are they doing? I planted 2 tepins a week ago, no soak or sanding, in jiffy pellets. Both popped yesterday.
 
I had 4 out of 5 sprout roots in party cups after 9 days, the first being after 5. 5 layers of paper towel on the bottom so they wouldnt dry out.
 
doing some duke pequins and sonoran chiltepins...soaked them in water/peroxide solution for 12 hrs...then they were placed in seed starting soil and covered with plastic wrap. have kept them on the 'drier' side of moist and checked them daily/removed wrap to allow oxygen in...on day 9 i have 100% hooks on the duke pequins...still waiting on chiltepins...but the key is to soak them 1st, then use sterile seed starting soil, MUST NOT BE TOO WET, and then keep them warm and moist while allowing oxygen in at least every cpl days. im not expert yet, but i have learned by my own mistakes and i have personally 'cooked' seeds, rotted them by over wetting, i have used soil that was not sterile, and i have contaminated soil that was sterile by not washing hands, etc. exotic peppers are delicate and must be treated and handled carefully..in a hospital type enviornment. since making mistakes, my 2nd batch of seeds are germinating faster, and at a success rate of almost 100%.
the key is to start with everything sterile...keep the soil temp at no more than 85f and consistent, keep soil barely moist and dont wet again until top soil looks completely dry...keep lid on it and remove every cpl days for oxygen, and be patient. always keep your hands and all utensils sterile. the chances of getting 'bad seeds' are very, very slim. if you rotted them using 3 different tecniques, you are obviously over wetting the soil and drowning the embyoes. try the method i have described and im sure you will have hooks in 1-2 weeks. good luck!

ps. water/ peroxide ratio is 2 tsp per 8oz of water.
 
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