Melissa,

If it has been only two weeks, that's not long enough for pepper seeds to germinate, depending on the temperature of the soil in the flat.

If the seed flat's soil is 59 degrees, you'll get 70% germination at 25 days. If the soil temp is 68 degrees, you'll get 96% germination at 13 days and if the soil temp is 77 degrees, you'll get 98% germination in only 8 days. So, unless your flat is sitting on a heat source to warm up the soil, you've still got up to about 10 more days to go before you'll see much sprouting action. Of course, all the above are averages, but it does give you an idea what to expect. Peppers need warmer soil than most seeds to germinate.

And now for the free advice you can ignore if you wish but, um, it is really early to have okra, squash, zucchini and cucumber sprouts up already because their planting time is quite a ways off.

Dawn

I discovered something this year that I hadn't noticed before, and that is that when you set something up reallll close to fluorescent lighting, it is warm enough there to germinate things. I was using a plant heating mat to give my peppers bottom heat but when I noticed them starting to germinate I'd move them up under the light. Then all the rest of the seed would germinate. When I skipped the heating mat altogether I found my pepper plants actually germinated faster with the heat from the lights. I thought that was kind of weird.

Pepper seeds do take a couple weeks to germinate. I've had that mold stuff before, on the surface of my soil, but it hasn't seemed to hurt the little seedling. This year I used little peat pellets and I didn't have that problem at all. Just soak the seed overnight, then plant and keep them mousies warm and maybe give 'em some light If the seed's good they'll be popping up before you know it! That said, I did have some Padrone pepper seed I got from the Wintersowing folks that never came up. The seed might've been old...

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of my little peppers on my blog (near the bottom, before the onions)

Hi Ilene,

The fluorescent lights on my plant shelf heat up the guest room so much that it is unbearably hot. To compensate, we open up windows in that room, leave a fan running all the time, and have closed off the vent from the air duct so we are not piping in any hot air into that room. Of course, I close the door to that room so the cool air that comes in the windows doesn't cool off the rest of the house and make the heater run.

Of course, my seed-starting shelf is larger than most, and has a total of 10 4'-long shop light fixtures, and each fixture holds 2 tubes. I'm starting to think that I could heat the entire house with the plant shelf lights.

I have found pepper seeds to be less consistent germinators than tomato and other veggie seeds. They seem to do whatever pleases them and their behavior seems harder to predict.

Dawn

Pepper seeds is the one seed that I try to keep warmer. I germinate most of mine in the bathroom as I keep it warmer than anywhere else. Although I've had germination sooner I plan on 10 days and at least 80% by 15 days. Pepper seeds just require warmer temps when germinating and also when transplanting. I push some tomato plants out early but don't ever push a pepper plant when transplanting. Jay

I was just on my way here to ask if it would be ok to move my coconut peat pods that contain my pepper seeds to a different container and put them on top of the refrigerator... Wondering if the small amount of heat there would make a difference? Also, sad to learn that I started my squash and cucumbers too early :(. Oh well, I have more seeds, and it is a good learning experience.

Laura

Laura,

It probably will work if the top of your refrigerator stays pretty warm, either from the refrigerator itself or from warm air coming from the air ducts if they're in the ceiling.

I remember when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s that my dad could germinate some things on top of the refrigerator and it was pretty warm up there. These days, though, refrigerators seem to be made differently or insulated better because the tops of them don't get as hot as they used to.

All learning experiences are good. Good gardeners never stop learning and having new experiences and that works out very well because experience is a great teacher. Remember that none other than gardener extraordinaire (and lifelong gardener) Thomas Jefferson said "Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

Dawn

The one way I got my pepper seeds to come up was with the coffee filter method. I put them on top of christmas lights and the heat from the lights worked well. It still took about 2 weeks.