We use heat mats. For us, tomatoes typically germinate in 3-6 days. Peppers are a different story depending on the variety. Some varieties take 3 weeks for us. I wouldn't worry yet. I'd give it another week for the tomatoes and at least a couple of weeks for the peppers (some of the hot varieties take much longer to germinate).

Shell 6A

Agreed that the chart isn't very accurate for most tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. Also agreed that peppers are more variable. The one thing you might need to do if your house is dry is to remoisten the media. Placing the pot? In a plastic bag will eliminate that issue. You need to keep the media moist the entire time until seedlings emerge.

at 72-74 most of my tomatoes typically take around 5-6 days.. at 80-85 around 3-4 days. most of my peppers germinate around 7-10 days at 80. i'd guess you should start seeing germination at 7-9 days at 68-70.

and careful with heat mats as they can really heat up to the point of actually slowing germination or cooking the emerging roots.. i stuck a probe into the soil and it was up over 100 degrees on the mat i have, and this was putting a thin piece of cardboard on top of the mat. temp would of been much higher without something between the seed pots and the mat.

be creative if you don't want to buy a mat.. if you have a insulated ice cooler put them inside there and put something that generates heat like a small set of Christmas lights, or a small 25w light bulb. you'd be surprise how nice and toasty it will get inside the cooler.

The germination temperature listed on the package of pepper seeds is 80-90

It is the soil temp not the air temps that contribute to germination and soil temp is always cooler than air temps. A 65 degree room would result in soil temps of 55-60 degrees only. So if you want to encourage germination without a heat mat then do as Stevie suggest - a small confined space with some sort of heat source included in it. Many use a simple cardboard box with a small incandescent bulb in it. That heat build up in a confined space will raise the soil temp too.

Otherwise you will be waiting for some time for germination.

Dave

I start my plants in a clear "sweater" box. Drilled with holes for ventilation. Kept in the garage at night, placed in the sun in the morning, I regulate the temp by propping up a side.

I have had some tomato seeds germinated at 3.5 days. But in average it took 5-6 day. The longest took 8 days. This is with soil temperature of about 80F.

With peppers it took 8 to 10 days. But if you keep soil temperature at 85 to 90, they will germinate in 7 days, average. Even then some variety might take 2 weeks. Some of them might run you out of patient. It happened to me. I just ditched them. I had some 2 years ago that I goy one germinated at the 3rd try. So there are such a thing as BAD seeds.

sey

Thanks, everyone! If nothing's sprouted in a week's time, I'll look into some heating. But the main lesson seems to be, be patient!

I have a heat mat but don't bother to use it. :p When I sow seeds, I enclose the pot/tray in a plastic bag and place it on top of the water heater tank. :)

One strategy is to just cover the pots. At least the ones that haven't sprouted. That will make the soil temperature in them equal the air temperature, because there is no evaporative cooling going on. Then you just keep them in an enclosed space, with a heat source like a light bulb, and watch the air temperature. That way, you know exactly what temperatures you're dealing with. That's what I don't like about heat mats. I'm never completely sure what temperatures I'm dealing with. With heat mats, there will be a temperature gradient through the pot, decreasing upwards. The temperature of the mat and the air are irrelevant, and the temperature of the soil depends on where you measure it.

One heating method I've seen mentioned throughout the web which interests me is rope lights. But I'm wondering - how do you avoid creating a fire hazard using them/

"One heating method I've seen mentioned throughout the web which
interests me is rope lights. But I'm wondering - how do you avoid
creating a fire hazard using them/" [sic]

I just built one last week. I used a 2' wide, 8' length of plywood, a few slats to raise the plant trays a few millimeters above the rope lights, and a 24' incandescent rope light. The rope lights made 3 passes wide enough for a standard flat (like 11".) The ones I bought were made for outdoor use, and have weather-protected fittings. I covered the wood with aluminum foil to reflect and diffuse the heat before I put in the rope lights. The measured soil temps were about 82 - 85 at the bottom of the cells, and 75 - 80 at seed height.

I put the rope lights on one side down the length of the plywood so that I have a work area, or for later expansion (you can attach a second length of rope lights if you wish.)

I see no real danger unless something were to damage the plastic 'rope'.

ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a replaceable fuse in the socket of the rope lights.

I can't see any way that rope lights could be a fire hazard due to heat. They can be a bit warm to the touch, but they're not at all blistering hot or anything.

I've been using mine for several years now. Recently, I purchased another set of lights at HD for something like $12.50 (18'), so you can build a very durable heat mat for very little money. Mine holds 2 trays, which works well for me.

Very important: Make sure you get incandescent rope lights. There are others that are LED and they don't create any heat.

> One heating method I've seen mentioned throughout the web which
interests me is rope lights. But I'm wondering - how do you avoid
creating a fire hazard using them

fire hazard? like wrapping Christmas lights around a drying wooden tree that millions of people do every year? it can't get any worse than that ;)

fires usually happen when people overload a circuit. like chaining ten sets of lights onto a single link.. it all boils down to common sense.

using a string of Christmas lights is really not all that different than using a heating mat.. except one electricity is used to heat a coil/element to produce heat while the other creates heat by light. it's very low amount of electricity, so nothing to worry about.

I germinate seeds on damp paper towel. Then, when they start to sprout, I move them into the seed starting pot. It's much easier and faster if you're only growing a small number of plants. If you're growing dozens and dozens, it might be a bit fiddly and time-consuming to do it this way.

Update - I haven't set up any rope lights yet, but I did cover everything in plastic wrap. Seems like that alone helped somewhat: I now have six tomato sprouts! Three Big Mamas and three Brandy Boys! Let's hope the other varieties will soon follow! (I'm guessing the peppers will need heat, though.)

One more question - should I put up the fluorescent light ASAP? And when I do put it up, should I remove the plastic wrap from the not-yet-germinated seeds?

That's the problem with using plastic covers and why most will not do it. It has to be removed as soon as the seed sprouts or the plants develop the disease damp-off and die. You can't wait for others to sprout or the ones that already did die. So you have to either get the ones that have sprout out from under it or uncover the whole tray. You also need the light ASAP as they sprout. Otherwise overnight the seedling turns leggy.

There is a great set of FAQs on all of this over on the Growing from Seed forum here.

Dave

Thanks everyone! Since is my first time, I guess it's inevitable that I'll do some things wrong. If I do it again next year, I'll be using rope lights from the start, which will probably eliminate the need for plastic covers. In the meantime, I have Hungarian Heart, Black Cherry, Black Zebra, and Mortgage Lifter seedlings coming up - the latter two particularly exciting for me because they're 5-6 year old seeds! I will get lights for heating for the benefit of the peppers, though.

Steak Sandwich (also 5-6 year old seeds) is coming up too, meaning all my tomato varieties have at least one seedling! Guess the peppers are the main issue now.

This is why I prefer the paper towel germination method. Once seed starts sprouting, I can move it into moist sterile mix and never bother with domes and covers. I also have never needed heat setups to get seed to germinate quickly using this method. But, as I said before, I only grow <20 plants, 12 in-ground and a few in containers.

Peppers take longer to germinate than tomato and are more heat-loving. During the day, when the heat is turned down, I tuck the plastic baggies of seed under the places where my cats like to sleep. I reliably get germination in under a week. It's pretty low-tech, but I don't run a nursery where I have to produce seedlings on a strict schedule in precise conditions or anything, so it works for me.

A sorts of ways to supply the necessary heat as already discussed but I'll admit GB that using the cats is a new one for me. ;-)

Dave

I use tray covers, but I remove them as soon as I begin seeing germination. The covers simply help reduce maintenance - keeping the surface moist - for the 3 - 21 days (parsley) until sprouting. One thing to keep in mind, and most of us have learned through experience, is to only sow seeds in the same flat that have similar germination times.

I have started certain seeds in towels, but I always put them atop an appliance. Never have I tried the cat method lol.

The cat method was just a brain fart of mine that ended up working for me, LOL.

I get away with it because I have a pretty small garden. I would have to get a lot more cats if I wanted to use it for a large garden or farm.

I used to germinate them on top of my computer case, right over the power supply. A nice 75-80 degrees/

Here's my never failed me yet over 30 years method. New 18 oz. cups with hole drilled or cut in bottom. Potting soil (I like Miracle Grow seed starting mix) 8 qt size, 2 bags. Mix that with 1 pound bag of Vermiculite. Fill cups and wet soil with HOT water until water drains from bottom. Make small circle in soil with my thumb and plant 3 seeds. (Allow soil to cool just a little so it doesn't cook the seeds). Cover seeds with a tiny amount of soil (1/8 inch).

Place all the planted cups on a tray under the grow light. Cover cups with plastic wrap. Put lights down to about 1/2 to 1 inch away from tops of cups. Don't let light touch plastic wrap. Set timer to on 16 hours, off 8 hours. Walk away. I almost always have tomatoes up in 3-5 days. Take the plastic off AFTER the tomato has shed it's seed coat. If they don't all do it at once, cut the plastic wrap off of the ones that have without cutting the tomato. I cut the extra tomatoes off at the soil line before they get very big. I keep the light so close after this that the tomatoes grow up into the light, but not enough to damage them when removing the tomato growth from the lights. I fertilize when the tomatoes get pale in color.

For your stage of no germination... I would make sure the soil is damp, cover with plastic wrap, put the lights close to the plants, and watch. I am assuming you have used sterile potting soil.

If you have no results in a week, start the over. (Something I did before I started my method.) Whatever you do, keep trying and you'll get it down. It's really fun when you get the hang of it.

Here's my hot peppers for this year. I use the same method. The peppers take a little longer to germinate.

Rebecca

Thank you. As mentioned in later posts, my tomatoes have already germinated, but not my peppers. I'll take that method into account!

I put my peppers on a shelf just above a radiator. It can get very hot, I measured 95F soil and 105F water this season. The peppers love it and they were up in a record 6.5 days this year. As the radiator turns on and off, it does not stay consistently hot. Those measured temps were the very high end for sure, after a very cold night with lots of heat running. I used seed starting trays watered every day (they dry out super fast there) and no covering of any kind.

I germinated my jalapeno and tomato seeds on top of my modem. I used the paper towel method and put the bag on top of the modem. I decided to use the modem, because it's always on and the heat from the modem doesn't vary. I also placed an credit card mail offer between the modem and plastic bag in case the modem got too hot. Seemed to work well. My pepper germinated after 3 days and my tomatoes within 4-7 days.