i hate the paper towel method. its great for getting em to sprout, but too easy to damage tender sprouts.

i prefer the egg carton method.

I put the seeds on a paper towel, soaked with weak tea and on a dish, Then place the seeds in the fridge overnight, Plant the seeds in a seed starting medium the next day

Here is a link that might be useful:

byron: Thanks for clearing that up. I thought you left the seeds on the paper towel until they germinated.

How about germination times? Does this greatly reduce them?

thanks,
ncage

I started some chilitepins, The package said 3 to 5 weeks,

99% were up in 10 days.

I had some old tomato seeds that started in 5 days

Most fresh seeds are up in 3 to 5 days

Byron: WOW that is AMAZING!!! I am definitly going to have to try this method. Just being curious. Have you ever tried to leave them in the paper towel and let them germinate there before you put them in soil? If you haven't it would probably be worth a try.

Byron, you intrigued me. I just tried this method on a few seeds I've been having trouble germinating. I really hope it works. That would be great. I'll let you know how it goes. Will this method even help germinate seeds collected from unripe (green) peppers? lol.

Chris

Anyone know the answer to question 4? If not i will put it in a new post.

I start all my seedlings in the basement. I'd say it's low to mid 60s down there. I start the seeds under heat, then move to fluorescents. I think it works fine. 50s may be slightly chilly for them. I'm not sure how it affects growth though (maybe slower)?

I think plants grown in greenhouses with higher humidity and warmth take off faster than my plants, but they catch-up once put outside in pots or in the ground.

To make it short, yes I think you'll be all right.

Chris

A true comparison to show if the tea solution actually helps would be if you ran a test side by side under the same circumstances, w/ a paper towel soaked in tap water and the other soaked in this tea solution. That would tell a person if the tea actually increases seed viability and/or decreases germination time.

I ran a this test a couple of years ago and compared to the control, the tea solution seeds had no better or worse germination results.
It's seed starting time in some areas and close to starting time in others. What better time to try this test for yourself. If anyone is curious and would like to try this test, make sure your circumstances are identical except for the tea solution.

Your right rhody....i think its time for a test. I started my tabasco peppers Saturday. I think tonight im going to do both byron's tea method using black tea. I will refrigerate it over night and in the morning i will plant it. I will also use the paper towel method and just fold it in a paper towel that i make lightly damp and just leave it right by the seeds i have now. I think this will be a really good test to see if these methods increase germination times. I will only use 1 seed each for both the tea method & the paper towel method. They came from the same pack of seeds.

If the tea method increases germination it won't exactly iron out what caused the increase germination. Was it the tea? Was it just some type of liquid on a paper towel? Was it the refrigeration? Was it a combination of more than one? We won't really know but we will know if the seeds come up sooner because the other seeds have got a 4 day head start.

With the paper towel method you can't really consider full germination until the seeds actually poke through the soil. So we shall see what happens.

ncage

I did this test along with other pre-treatments in 2003. And found no significant difference except for a method where the seeds were left in water. There were 50 seeds per sample of Baily's Piquin. Results were:

1) Tea soak---88%
2) Potassium Nitrate soak ( 1 tsp/qt of water)--94%
3) Tap water---100%
4) Hydrogen Peroxide( 10% solution)--94%
5) No soak--94%
6) Dilute Miracle Grow--94%
7) Left soaking in water--44%
8) 10% bleach soak and into small jars--98%

I don't think any but the soaking in water are of statistical significance.

John

Fiedlermeister/John: When you say 94% do you mean the germination success (94% of the seeds germinated) or do you mean it was 94% faster germination than a baseline...like seeds just started in seed starting mixture the traditional way? When you say the seeds were left in water...is that the paper towel soak where you let the seeds sit in the damp paper towel until they germinate? Some clarification would be appreciated.

ncage

That percentage of of the seeds germinated. No the seeds left in water were left soaking in a jar of water. The other seeds were placed in paper towels--easier to count-- except for those that went into small jars- a complicated method. I don't agree with you about germination. When a radical is produced the seed has germinated. I used to soak all of my seeds in potasium nitrate- I no longer do that. I also don't believe that cold treating peppers, which come from a warm climate, is beneficial. The purpose of cold treating is to mimic mother nature and I do this with seeds , that for example, need a cold winter or even freezing to break dormancy.

John

Oh yeah--see what you started Paul

Was it the tea?

In second cup pecko (sp) tea, the word Tannins is the key ingredient

I guess i believe that each method has pretty good germination but i guess the main thing im testing ou is germination time not germination %.

The tea was regular black tea. Again I don't think the numbers are significant and differences could be explained by some of the seeds not being viable. I suspect with larger numbers of seeds in the samples there would be even less variation. I think the governemnt regs. for germination tests require a sample of 100 seeds.

The test began on 1/8/03 and ended 1/14/03 so there was also not a significant time difference.

I also tested gibberellic acid ( GA-3)as a pre-treatment with these results

John

"I also don't believe that cold treating peppers, which come from a warm climate, is beneficial. The purpose of cold treating is to mimic mother nature and I do this with seeds , that for example, need a cold winter or even freezing to break dormancy."

I agree w/ John. Seeds that demand a "cold break" for increased germination success are carried by plants from a cold region. This genetic profile or signature is built into the seed naturally.

A cool break is recommended on seed packages from "plants of the Southwest"

Byron

Sounds strange to me. I would like to hear their rational.

john

John

Consider our area,

What woul happen if a seed hits the ground say in Sept and started to grow, It would die in the winter cold, right??

So nature has a cold break aka dormancy period before the seeds start to grow. right??

Granted Fla doesn't get as cold in the winter as it does here, but most of the stuff goes dormant in Fla in Dec and Jan. Right??

Granted their cool break is about the same as a fridge about 40F

So the results are comming in :). I told you i planted tabascos last week following the traditional method of planting them in seed starting soil. Well im please to announce two of them are comming through the soil today. I planted the seeds in 3 packs that i kept from last year. I planted 2 seeds in each cell so just in case some seeds didn't germinate. So two of the seeds have come up in 6 days. Not to bad for the traditional method. We will see how the other methods fair. I don't how hard tabasco peppers are to germinate comparitively speaking but im pretty happy that in 6 days i get peppers.

Ncage

Ok guys....the rest of the seeds i planted the traditional way are now coming through the soil. Yesterday the seed i used with the paper towel method started developing a tap root. I will plant it today in soil and see what happens. Im thinking that habanero/cheltepin would have been better test since they are supposed to be so hard to germinate. I didn't know tabasco peppers where this easy.

You got me wondering if I should start 2-3 tobasco peppers now ncage. I live in MI and failed to get a good yield last year due to the same issues you indicated (too short of a growing season). Maybe I'll start a few in a couple of weeks just to experiment. I have started many habaneros already, but I am reserving my next batch of seeds for a mid to late March sow date. I am hoping to rotate larger plants in my portable greenhouse early May to provide myself more room. I am doubtful the strategy will work as I do not think I can hold off the growth of some of my current plants long enough.

John F most likely has the right idea - start in April for Zones 5 and 6. There are a few that need extra time, but overall I would guess results will be more favorable for plants started later.

I let the "eagerness for Spring" get to me. lol. Winter is not my favorite time of the year! I need to live in a warmer region. :)

Chris

Hi Chris. Ya i hope it all pans out and me starting the peppers will make my yields a lot greater. I seem to make a lot of hot sauce. Tabasco peppers are my pepper of choice for this especially last year since my cayenne peppers weren't really that hot. I really didn't understand it. They are supposed to be on the same heat level as tabasco but mine were id say about as hot as my jalapeno. Everything in my garden was fire hot including my habaneros. I can't really contribute it to anything i was doing because they were close to all the other peppers and got the same treatment. Ive never heard people having trouble with long slim cayennes being hot though ( i have heard this with jalapenos). I got the cayennes locally at the only place that sells them. Maybe it was the seeds they used. I don't know so i decided to grow my own this year.

But anyways yes i had tabasco pretty early but most of them were green. A lot of them started turning red in the middle of October which was about two weeks before the first frost.
I remember being out there when it was wet and 35 out and trying to get peppers so i could have enough to make hot sauce. It pretty much sucked.

I plan to start most of my (hard to start) chiles March 1 (Chiltepin/tepin, habanero, ect). The rest of my hot chiles i will start march 15. Sweet Chiles (red & yellow bells) along with tomatoes and herbs will be started April 1 for a planed planting day of around the middle of May.

I learned last year even if you have days in the 80's you don't want to get excited and plant because you will have really cold days most likely. I learned my leason last year when i waisted about $100 planting stuff early.

ncage

The big trick is to watch the night time temps.

When the night low is over 50F it is the best time to plant peppers.

A couple Phenology clues, when peonies are in full bloom, or when you can sit on your garden soil with a bare bottom, comfortably :-) or walk in your garden in barefeet comfortably

This I must see: a chile grower with a bare butt testing the soil temp.......what happens if the ground is still freezing and your butt gets frozen to the ground?

Food thermometers work well at this, too and are not expensive.

Willard

Yer butt will be frozen to the soil, plus the twins

:-)