After doing a search, I didn't really want to title my post "Did I Cook My Seeds", but that's basically what I'm asking. Full disclosure - I've never really had good luck starting peppers from seed. I usually try and fail. :-/

I started a bunch of sweet pepper seeds in a throwaway roasting pan a few days ago. I've had problems with the seed starting mix I got this year crusting over as the surface dries, so I covered the pan with some press'n'seal to try to keep the moisture in.

I usually stick these trays in my oven with the light on (not the oven on, obviously). My tray of tomatoes and hot peppers did just fine with this approach a couple of weeks ago (I was waiting for my sweets to arrive in the mail), but they weren't covered. They germinated quickly, relatively speaking and are doing well.

The tray of peppers went into the oven/light on last night. This morning, I pulled them out and peeked under the cover and steam came out! Ack! Can't say I've ever had THAT happen!

If it got hot enough to make steam, does that mean it got hot enough to kill my seeds? (I was lax and did not actually temp the soil, so I'm not actually sure how hot it got. I just know peppers take forever to come up and want to go ahead and start again if I screwed up.)