I have had chile seeds take 90 days to germinate.

Many chiles are native to the high desert and take a lot of convincing to germinate.

Yeah, that's what i'm hoping - just a bit nervous since this is the first time i've started *anything* from seed, let alone peppers.

Probably more paranoid than I need to be about too much water, but if i'm jumping the gun then that makes me feel a bit better.

Figures - I post this, then I saw a few of the peach habaneros coming up when I got home :)

After reading here today though, going to try sprouting some more with the baggie + coffee filter method just in case, I think.

Booster, definitely do the baggie+coffee filter or in my case the moist paper towel in a baggie method.
I got my lemon drops to germinate in about 7-10 days.
I have some tabascos that have germinated in same time frame.
I have gotten 3 bhuts to germinate in about 15 days using that method.

There are still some that havent germinated, and i'll be patient with those however I'm happy w/ the speed of some of those that germinated because it gives me a chance to enjoy my plants!

In my experience seeds usually germinate anywhere between 7-21 days max at room temperature with tight fitting dome or plastic covering for 100% humidity. No need to water until the cover is removed if medium was adequately moistened from the start. Cover should be vented as soon as germination begins then completely removed when satisfied with germination.

As much as I hate my small garden (two 4'x6' raised beds and 4-5 containers)...I love it come germination time.

I do my seedlings up in cell packs covered in loose saran wrap under two 16" shop lights holding 65 watt flood light bulbs. This enables me to start 24 seedlings without transplant (two 6-packs under each lamp).

I saturate the medium (peat+soil mix(non/minimal fertilized)) and put 2 pepper seeds per cell (thinning to 1 later).

The warmth germinates them in 7-15 days and then i switch out the lamp's bulb to compact flouros. which are very cool temperature-wise so I can keep them very close to the seedlings.

I plant them out in my garden after 6-8 weeks at the 4th+ leaf stage.

I'll love having enough space for "real" gardening, but I'll also have to give up my lazy approach to planting out a small amount of plants...or buy a whole whole whole lotta lighting.

Since I spelled out part of my method I guess I should fill in the blanks, too...

I cover the seedlings with 1/4" or so of the wet soil mix...I bottom water when needed...

Also, this is not a practical way to start seeds unless you're only planting out 10-15 plants like I plan on doing...and if you want to use this method for larger seeded plants like melons you should start them in a 2-4 cell pack, not a 6 cell pack.

...and by "cell packs" I mean those cell packs you see "starts"/non-potted annuals/etc. sold in.

Thanks for all the advice :)

I ended up last night grabbing an old plastic chinese takeout container (with a clear lid), and put the damp coffee filter(s) in there with some lemon drop, red habanero & orange bell pepper seeds, and put it on top of the warm cable box - I have 2 large, very curious cats (who already ate some tomato seedlings while I was thinning them), so I didn't think the baggies would survive very long out by themselves.

I don't understand why you guys go through the extra steps. Why not just plant them?

john

I was wondering the same. I think they are trying to defy mother nature...lol They do take awhile to sprout, but they WILL eventually come up. Just dont bury them too deep
I read in a seed book that says this is the MOST COMMON mistake among first-timers. From my experience the seeds that were buried about 1/8" came up, and the ones that were deeper lets say 1/4" or more didn't sprout. I planted my pepper seeds on the 15th of feb. and they started sprouting on the 27th of feb.

Booster - Your concern about watering may be well-founded. That's because of the peet pots. I lost ALL of my seedlings in 2003 because they had wet feet from the peet pots. I'll never use them again. You can't let your seedlings get too dry, but you also can't over water.
John A

I'm glad you mentioned this about the peat syndrome. Guess what? The tomatoes were fine in these, however it took 2 attempts with the peppers after I found out the hard way.
I was afraid of overwatering so my guess is they were not getting enough water.

John - Yeah, definitely a good point. Once the seedlings are up, I have the balancing act down pretty good, I think...I've mostly been worried about accidentally making the seeds rot/mold/etc. before they germinate.

That said, like nitrotrain, I have a massive amount of tomato seedlings also in peat pots that are almost 2 weeks old and doing fine.

Anyway, so far I have 2 peach habanero seedlings completely up, and another 2 or 3 in process...nothing sprouted on the other varieties yet though (at least since this morning), not even the other habaneros. If I can at least get some lemon drops going too, i'll be happy for the year.

I will also observe in passing that a watched pot never boils.......

Chiles want to germinate and grow and they are really hard to kill.

My Scotch Bonnet (naga morrich) germinates after 10 days

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper-Hot

Try germinating brugmansias! I sowed 23 Red Angel Trumpets and Daturas on Feb. 15 and one of them is up. Sowed 24 Pink Angels on the 17th and five have made the scene. And this was after soaking them in water for a few day, then in a moist paper towel for another three days.

Those things are a bear to germinate.

Mike

re: brugs...

make sure they're getting light...it helps speed things along.

takes a month for some people to see proper germination even under ideal conditions.

some people remove the woody seed coating to speed things up or increase uniformity of germination times.

ewamaria - thanks for the link, some nice pictures there.

4 or 5 of the habaneros up now, one lemon drop, and i'm fairly sure the moist filter + enclosed container + bottom heat method people suggested is going to get more results as well...so i'm a happy camper at the moment :)

nc,

I think my brugs must have seen me typing the above message. Three Red Trumpets came up yesterday afternoon/last night!

Mike