Bell Pepper Seed Germination Blues

Of all the seeds that I work with each spring, pepper seeds are one of the most challenging. While most of the other vegetables I start from seed generally germinate within a few days, those pesky pepper seeds take their sweet time with germination periods that can extend into weeks. Bummer!

I've been told that one way to obtain the most rapid germination is to control the temperature. After seeding my trays and then placing them into plastic baggies I have an insulated enclosure (an old mini fridge) that contains a small twenty-five watt bulb and a temperature sensor. I plan to leave the trays in the enclosure with the light on until I get a reading in the high seventies. (Hopefully, because the enclosure is insulated, it will hold this for a number of hours before I need to give it another shot of heat from the light bulb). Information obtained from the Internet tells me that the optimal temperature for most pepper seeds to be 77F. So, that’s what I strive for over the next nine days which is the average amount of time it takes for the seeds to germinate at that temperature. (The only other factor to make sure you control is the use of sterile starting mix. The warm temperatures are also ideal for bacterial to get a foothold which can sometimes kill the seedlings right after they emerge).

So, for this run, I’ve placed two 6-cell starting trays that have been seeded with Cayenne and California Wonder pepper seeds into the enclosure and will see just how long it takes for them to germinate. Once they are up and growing I plan to get them hardened off and out into the sunlight as soon as possible.

That brings me to another problem I’ve encountered recently. The last batch of seedlings never got that large even though I coddled them, watered them and made sure they got plenty of sunlight. That’s when it occurred to me that the sunlight might have been part of the problem. Not the light so much as the heat generated when it hits the dark plastic of the starting tray themselves. I have developed a theory that perhaps the roots are getting so warm, it damaging the plants ability to grow. To that end, I plan on painting the trays white this time around to see if I get better results. Failing that, It could be the potting mix or even the size of the containers that are causing growth to be stunted. Lastly, it’s possible I suppose that the seed may have been of poor quality.