I would leave them on.

Thank you. I will do that. Most of them have been potted up so they don't dry out too fast.

I left the wrong key for my son. I told him break in I don't care how my babies need water. He laughed and said well keep the phone handy in case some one calls the cops. Isn't he a good kid. All for my seedlings. I can't wait to get home and get most of them planted out.

My lights stay on 24/7 and I never had a problem...I may experiment and try turning them off....

Kim - for what it's worth....I sometimes go several days without watering my seedlings after giving them a good saturating drink. And trust me, they are none the worse for the wear. I think they'll be fine. In fact - today mine are going from the seedling packets to Styrofoam cups. I threw caution to the wind this year and used up almost every. single. tomato and pepper seed I had. The pepper seeds were almost a total bust but I got a few.....or 20. I have a small tomato forest under lights with 20 or more of 15 different varieties.

Paula

Oh, Paula! You have to buy some more tomato seed or Dawn and I need to send you some. A gardening addict like you can not survive without tomato seed in their stash.

lol. I don't know if death is caused by the absence of tomato seeds, but I'd be glad to send you some seeds to rebuild your stash, Paula, and I am sure Carol would too. The two of us have a little bit of a seed "problem". Let us know if you want some seeds to begin rebuilding your seed stash.

Those of you who are having poor pepper seed germination still might get peppers if you just hang on to the seeds you sowed, keep the growing medium moist, and wait patiently. I've had slow pepper seeds start to germinate 4-6 weeks after they were sown some years. Peppers are much slower to sprout than tomato seeds, for example, and need warmer temperatures. Bottom heat helps them, but they'll germinate (just a lot more slowly) without it. I just set the flat of peppers on top of the deep freeze and check it daily (for weeks sometimes) to see if the plants have sprouted. Once they sprout, I move them to the plant light shelf. They sprout more quickly for me on top of the deep freeze than on the light shelf.

Kim, If there is a Spring Fling this year, and if you come to it, you likely can get all the pepper plants you want, and that will save you the expense of buying them. There's always lots of pepper plants (second only to tomato plants in quantity) at the Fling.

Dawn

That's true about patience. I will sow a couple dozen and put on my frig and see if I have better luck

Got home last night and everything looked great. Thought I would see some half dead tired of the lights babies but they are all pretty healthy

I'm glad they are fine. Indoor lights generally aren't strong enough to hurt seedlings if they're accidentally left on all night, but seedlings will do better when they get alternating periods of light and dark that simulate day and night.

I am never going to use cheap soil again! I potted up some plants last week and the ones that I didn't have time or weren't big enough I put worm casting on. Everthing has doubled or tripled in size since then.