Your set-up is too moist. Over-watering is a common mistake, and not just of rookies. It is too easy to "love your plants to death". I say this from experience. You ABSOLUTELY need drain holes in your cups. Take off the plastic wrap, poke holes in the bottom of your cups and let them drain on a towel or paper towels to get some of the moisture out. When your soil is MOIST, not wet, you can replace the plastic wrap, and poke a couple of holes for venting. I would not go over 85 degrees, but that's just me. Others may have success with higher temps.
The light should be fine for starting once they sprout, but keep it close to the seedlings, a few inches, and raise it as they grow. Let us know how it goes, and keep asking questions. HTH

It definitely looks too wet. You want the soil to be moist but not overly wet if that makes sense. I too have started some hot pepper seeds (actually 34 varieties). It's idiotic and stupid for me to do so up here in Vermont but I just couldn't help myself. I planted them on the 10th and several have germinated, starting yesterday. I recently retired and will run a number of experiments with all the seedlings. Oh yes, and i'm sure I'll plant them all again at the end of February when I come to my senses.

Hi Rob,

First of all, Welcome to the Forum!

You asked for any other "tips".

In addition to the good advice already given, here's a couple more:

- The answer to all the questions you asked is "yes"

- I would try to dial the temp into the 80-85 range. 88 is pushing the high side in my opinion, but may work out ok.

- After you poke holes in the bottom of the cup for drainage, drop that cup into a new cup. When you water, the drainage will be caught by the "outside" cup and not run all over the place.

- After the seeds sprout, remove the plastic wrap to avoid dampening off.

- Bigger is not always better. Work on reducing the size of your pics lol!

Good Luck and enjoy the addiction.

Rick

Hi Rob,

Welcome from me as well.

You've gotten some really good advice by previous posters. The only thing I'd add is that I don't think you're getting the best return on your investment in the heat mat (in your pictures). Styrofoam and expanded polystyrene are poor heat conductors. You're probably negating the heat from the mat with the insulating properties of the styro cups.

I use the plastic trays with 32 or 72 cell inserts for my starts and transplant to 6 oz styro cups (with lots of drainage holes punched into them) after they develop true leafs.

A little suggestion for your next starts.

Bill

Great advice thanks! After the posts I took the plastic wrap off and poked some holes in the bottom. After a day the soil dried out. I put the plastic wrap on again with holes for ventilation. About half germinated but I think they suffered from damping off after I put them under the T8 lights. I tried resurrecting with Cinnamon and some chamomile tea, but they look pretty dead. Here are a pics of three that made it through. The first two are Bhut Jolokia and the third Banana Pepper after 7 days. I am going to start again with a 32 or 72 cell inserts for the one's that I don't think survived, with the lessons learned :)

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I'm a little lost on how much and when to water these guys, if anyone has feeback.

Thanks,
Rob

Rob,

I water my seedlings when they start to wilt ever so slightly. Watering when they are buckled over is not the best approach.

Check your plants regularly through the day if possible. You'll quickly learn to recognize when they're getting to the "need water" point.

Bill

Here is some good info on growing hot peppers:
How to Plant and Grow Pepper Seeds

Also some recipes with some of the hottest peppers:
Cooking with the Hottest Peppers on Earth

And a good place to but Naga Jolokia seeds...I've had good success with these germinating.
Naga Jolokia

Here is a link that might be useful: Naga Jolokia