For serranos , I'd say they usualy sprout in 10 days for me.
Most peppers will be up in 10 days give or take.

Serrano is an Annuum and, as such, shouldn't take more than 10 days or so to germinate, especially when using the paper towel technique.

In general, pepper seeds are viable from 3 - 7 years, sometimes longer, assuming proper seed storage techniques have been used.

But, there's always exceptions to the rule. I would obtain replacement seeds and try again.

jmo

Rick

Ditto what Smoke and Rick said.

Personally I'd be suspect of any seed that took over 10 - 14 days to germinate with 80F temps.

Your profile says you're in South Africa. Please forgive my innocence but can you easily source fresh Serrano seed where you are? If not, let me know via my profile page.

Bill

Your seeds might be good. You might have killed them with your technique. Seeds must have air and oxygen to germinate. If they are too wet they will not get air and die. You might have them too wet with no fresh air. Also the temp could easy have been way to high at times in the bag.

If you can get sterile soil and try germination. You can sterilize regular soil by half hour in a microwave. make sure it gets hot but not too hot. Wrap up the soil for a slow cooling down. You want the temp to penetrate to the center of the soil and to maintain temp for probably over 20 minutes to cook the germs and seeds etc. You really only want to pasturize the soil. 160 to 180 F maximum should more then do the job. keep oxygen and moisture off the seeds in storage. that means get some test tubes and caps and fill them up with seeds to the very top. do not open the tube and the seeds should last well over 10 years in a cool basement. seeds die fast when kept in paper envelops or paper seed packs.

I think your seeds died from being too wet with no oxygen. A seed wants to get wet but then be sort of dry so the oxygen gets to the seed. If the seed is under water or totally wet then it can not get oxygen.

I germinate all my seeds in sterile soil just like nature has done for a billion years. Seeds just have not evolved to using plastic zip lock bags for the past million years.

I just can not imagine why people use paper towels and zip lock bags for seeds. The technique just kills too many seeds in my opinion.

I use zip-lock bags with paper towels for chile seeds and have for years quite successfully. The 80F temp works, too.

Best not to soak the paper towel until sopping, just moist.

Hi Aparna, I am in South Africa and I have a couple Serranos growing, email me if you want some fresh seeds.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I just left them in the bag to see what would happen. Today I found that three of them had germinated. I've moved those to a seed tray to see what'll happen next.

Ottawapepper, it's difficult to find seeds for hot chillies here. I just kept these from some chillies I bought at the supermarket a couple of years ago. They were satisfactorily hot and so I thought I'd have a go at growing them to ensure a supply. :)

Gardendawgie, I'll try putting the next batch straight in the soil.

Willard3, I didn't get it all that wet to begin with but after a few weeks I noticed that the inside of the bag was looking a bit dry, so I added a touch more water. That was about three or four days ago and today I saw that three had germinated. Not a fantastic hit rate, but I'm thrilled that any germinated at all.

You can try soaking the seeds in glass of water. Some people just soak for 24 hours. You want seeds to be fully immersed in water. Usually they sink to the bottom of glass. I believe the longer you can soak the softer the seed shell becomes making it easier for water and air to reach the embryo inside. After soaking you can sow in soil or damp paper towel. From here consistent warm temperature is important.