It might be the heat of the cable modem that might be too high or low. Take a small cup of soil, moisten it, cover with plastic wrap, and set on the modem for a good 12 hours or so. After that, check the soil temp. Anything over 90 or under 75 and you might be frying them or have delays.

When I do the paper towel method, I first put the seeds in a pill bottle with some sandpaper and give a good 30 second shake.(Good for scratching the hard seed surface) Then a overnight to 24 hour soak in warm water, then I take a paper towel, moisten it and wring it out. Then I fold up the seeds and put in plastic baggy. Constant 85-88F temps should pop tap roots within a few days.

Keep us updated.

Kevin

Radio waves have nothing to do with it, so don't worry about that. You're just getting into woo-woo territory there. The electromagnetic radiation we get from the sun is orders of magnitude stronger than what a wireless modem puts out, so seriously don't worry about that.

I'm betting the new modem is more energy efficient than your old one, so it doesn't get as hot as your older one did (all that heat it throws off is wasted power), so its most likely not warm enough to really do the job.

I sprouted all of my seeds with tap water with no problems. Some of my seeds sprouted with black tips also, but they came up anyway. No idea why they did that but it didn't seem to harm them any.

Oh my God.

I think I found the source of the problem. A quick Google search came up with the links below. I'm shocked. In response, I've now setup my "other" heat source that isn't WiFi.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/05/can-wifi-signals-stunt-plant-growth/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2524598/Experiment-finds-plants-die-placed-internet-Wi-Fi-routers.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/043238_Wi-Fi_routers_radiation_plant_growth.html#

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/125892-wi-fi-dangerous-plants-near-routers-are-dying

(Xfinity is my WiFi router. It puts off pretty good heat. As you can see, my seeds are right on my Wifi.)

I'll keep you posted...

Yeah. I suspect that temperature get too high. .
Do you have a kitchen thermometer ?

Seysonn

Hi Everyone. I've been having a really hard time germinating seeds since I moved to Texas. I wanted to give you an update:

1. When I drove to Texas, I actually drove through a snow storm. There were multiple nights that my seeds sat in the car with freezing temperatures. I now believe that this basically killed all of my seeds.

2. After arriving, I bought two packs of seeds. One pack of seeds is germinating poorly in all test runs I've done. I think they are simply bad seeds.

3. The other pack of seeds I bought since moving here, they had poor germination rates when placed on my wifi for heat (some still did grow). However, when I placed the seeds on a non-radio source, these seeds germinated quite well. As of now, this one pack of seeds has been planted and they are growing like weeds.

I hope this helps!

Interesting story .

If the seeds (in the car) were fairly dry, then freezing temps should not affect them. Plus, HOW freezing cold was it inside the car ? were the seed in a box, suitcase, OR just laying on the seat ? .

OTOH, there are BAD seeds. In my case I sowed maybe 10 Cayenne and I got just one germinate. Same happened with Hahms GT tomato while the rest of peppers and tomatoes had very good germination rate and they all germinated on time.

I can say this with a relatively high certainty that :
== if you soak the seeds (8 hrs +)
== Keep them moist (not dripping wet) after sowing.
== Maintain a temperature of 75F to 85F.
If they did not germinate in 6 to 12 days, I would only suspect BAD seeds.
My recent germination time has been :
== Peppers in 6 days
== Tomatoes in 4 days.
Almost, all varieties germinated at the same time. Actually sometimes ago a super hot (Trin. Scorp. BT) germinated first.

Seysonn

Hi Seysonn,

Thank you for the information! So the seeds were stored in the trunk and were exposed to a lot of different temperatures. They were in ziplock bags, then basically in a box. I've read from various boards that when the seeds freeze, the germination rate drops. Perhaps that wasn't your experience?

Bad seeds? Yeah... Sometimes they grow like crazy and other times they can't get off the ground. At least my recent bad seed purchase was only two bucks :) Super hots germinated before the others? You have the magic touch!

Considering two of your links are to Daily Mail and what sounds like a hippy kind of woo woo site, and the one that is semi-credible states that the source of the story is a couple of 9th graders, I'm not exactly going to take it seriously.

"Woo woo" -- I'm learning something new every day!

I agree. You can talk about hypothesis and what not. But until and unless there has not been a lege lab experiment, it will be considered just a personal opinion.

Seysonn

Mike I think a heat mat, and thermostat would be a sound investment to make. (Coming from "El Cheapo" himself.) I honest to goodness can say that it is the best investment I have made so far. It takes the fiddling, and guess work out of things.

There are some things that one can get by without. Then once they get one. They do not ever want to do without afterwards. I am not gardening to save money. For what I have spent this year on stuff I could have bought fresh produce at the farmer's market for the year, and had a lot left for other things. Also I am impatient. Less days waiting for things to grow is better for me.

You know, I was actually considering getting one! It does seem to be a sound investment. I'll probably get one as soon as I move to a more stable place. Thanks for the info!

Mike I went with the Hydro Farm mat, and thermostat.

The heat mat will work for a 72 cell starter tray. Mine even came with one. Total price for both was $60 give or take a couple of dollars. So far worth every cent.

Wait... the chemicals in the jetliner engines isn't real??

OK, serious question. I started around 300 ghost peppers for seeds that are several years old. Germination took a loong time, and the seedlings are tiny (tiny, tiny). I have comparison here of just a bell pepper and then the ghost pepper seedlings that were started around the same time. Are my peppers stunted from being old seeds? should I supplement some nutrients?

No they are not stunted from being a few years old. They start out a bit slower. Then it will seem like one day they will take off like the gang busters. A lot of super hots seem to start out slow for the first month or so. Then they take off.

I knew superhots were slower growing but didn't think they had such terrible seedling vigor. Looks like they can hardly even sprout seed leaves. By keeping weak seedlings alive, it makes me wonder if you all are doing more harm than good when it comes to the genetics, and therefore the future, of superhots.

Edited for clarification: My comment was made based solely on the health of the ghost pepper seedlings in pepper_rancher's pic. I was not comparing the ghosts to the bells.

Rodney

I'm not sure, if only I had a copy of Mein Kampf to see what Hitler's solution to these "lesser seedlings" was...

Capsicum chinense (super hots) Are a completely different species of plant than Capsicum anuum (jalapenos, bell peppers, cayenne, etc.). They grow more slowly and harvest later. The hotter varieties tend to also be the slowest, but comparing them to bells is like comparing a baby human with a baby chimp (baby chimps develop twice as fast as human infants).

"I'm not sure, if only I had a copy of Mein Kampf to see what Hitler's solution to these "lesser seedlings" was..."

The Hitler and Mein Kampf reference is completely uncalled for. Selective breeding is something everyone who has an interest in preserving something does. Whether it's plants, livestock, fish, or even their cats or dogs. You've almost certainly done it by choosing to save seeds from the spiciest and best shaped pepper. All I implied is that seedling vigor is something that should be selected for as well. Meaning that the weakest seedling(s), if they are not culled, should at the very least not be used for seed saving purposes.

Rodney

No offense intended, I have a dark sense of humor.

Well, to be blunt, there is no market for seedling vigor. There is a large market and a huge amount of money to be made from having "the hottest pepper in the world". Long as the seeds germinate and make it to maturity, it doesn't really matter to the people commercially breading nuclears how fast they grow, just that they grow.

You may feel free, of course, to breed your own fast growing strain and make a million dollars off it. ;)

pepper_rancher: "No offense intended, I have a dark sense of humor."

No problem.

Edymnion: "Well, to be blunt, there is no market for seedling vigor. There is a
large market and a huge amount of money to be made from having "the
hottest pepper in the world". Long as the seeds germinate and make it
to maturity, it doesn't really matter to the people commercially
breading nuclears how fast they grow, just that they grow."

Perhaps people should be interested in how vigorous their seedlings are. If it was any other vegetable, or even just a common pepper variety, people would be a bit annoyed if they had poor seedling vigor. If they couldn't attribute the weak seedlings to something they did themselves, then they'd probably be asking the company they got the seeds from for a replacement or refund. It just boggles my mind why superhots would be an exception to this.

Anyway, I'm done. My first comment was just an open thought and I've since dragged that thought on for too long. I offer my apologies for taking the thread in the direction I did.

"You may feel free, of course, to breed your own fast growing strain and make a million dollars off it. ;)"

If I had the space, the time, and the money I would like to. Wouldn't really be interested in the money though, or at least not the millions you speak of. :)

Rodney