I posted a misleading title for pure old meanness. I did wet paper towel last year's collected pepper seeds. But it was only for germination testing. So I wasn't exactly lying? My serious pepper seed sowing will occur around the 10th of March----zone  7-A.  
Everyone is giving maters all the attention. This makes um peppers mighty jealous, you know?.  Pepper seeds can be unreliable. Whether it is your collected, or vendor seeds, both can be duds. 
If I have a complete failure in my favored variety, and chose to have a "do over." The new plants will be an entire month behind the others. For some reason peppers are always the bride's maid, and never the bride, in garden priorities. LOL 

You're so mean




What type of peppers?

Rockoe10-- 1. Golden Marconi
2. Sheep Nose Pimento
3. Poblano / Ancho
4. Santa Fe Grande
5. Sweet Banana.
I have a few other favored, but I still have a supply of those seeds. I rarely test any experimental varieties. If the entire pack fails, which has at times. Then I just let them go, for that year. Some pepper varieties like Cubenelle and Hungarian Wax are easy and reliable. I saw no need to test them. Sweet Banana was a nursery plant, could be a hybrid--thus sterile
PS-- I'm suspecting a surprise will occur in one of my tests, if it does, I will post a picture. Check back -- I want you to see it, if it does.

I am actually going to sow my pepper seeds today (20 varieties). And eggplants (12 varieties). And the first round of tomatoes (59 varieties, including micros). Last year, some of these took almost a month to germinate; others 3 days; most a week or so. I'm participating in a plant sale locally in mid-March, so I'm hoping to have something to offer, and also I want to try planting everything a bit earlier than last year.

habitat-gardener wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:57 pm I am actually going to sow my pepper seeds today (20 varieties). And eggplants (12 varieties). And the first round of tomatoes (59 varieties, including micros). Last year, some of these took almost a month to germinate; others 3 days; most a week or so. I'm participating in a plant sale locally in mid-March, so I'm hoping to have something to offer, and also I want to try planting everything a bit earlier than last year.

I don't mean to derail the topic, but just curious. Other than the fun of growing and sharing plants, do you make anything at local plant sale? I thought about this idea a couple times before but can't imagine bringing anything more home than what i put in. The idea has become more of a 'for fun' thing.

Rockoe10 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 3:14 pm

habitat-gardener wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:57 pm I am actually going to sow my pepper seeds today (20 varieties). And eggplants (12 varieties). And the first round of tomatoes (59 varieties, including micros). Last year, some of these took almost a month to germinate; others 3 days; most a week or so. I'm participating in a plant sale locally in mid-March, so I'm hoping to have something to offer, and also I want to try planting everything a bit earlier than last year.

I don't mean to derail the topic, but just curious. Other than the fun of growing and sharing plants, do you make anything at local plant sale? I thought about this idea a couple times before but can't imagine bringing anything more home than what i put in. The idea has become more of a 'for fun' thing.

it's strictly for fun and to support my habit, and a big incentive for starting earlier. In past years I've given lots of plants away for free. But a month or so ago, someone on the local garden fb page floated the idea of having a plant sale and asked if anyone was interested. iirc maybe 4-6 people expressed interest. It could be that only the 5-7 of us will be trading back and forth, but she also announced it on the local gardening fb page, so who knows. It's also inspired me to enter the tomato seed vault and see what else I might want to grow. I thought I would be scaling back this year, then the MMMM package arrived, then I started looking at seed catalogs, and HA! Now I'm wondering where I'll find the time and the garden space to grow everything I want to grow (as usual).

I sow peppers at valentines day, and tomatoes on my birthday (April 3rd). That much time means that the peppers are flowering in May when I plant out, and I get peppers before tomatoes, and all through the season. Peppers - if they germinate - are much less fussy to grow.
I'm growing jalapeno, poblano, sante fe, thai, peach, and 5 colour pepper.

Lindy what planting zone?
Pete

Pete - I have seen 5-6 listed for my city. We get frosts until late May or early June, and then as early as September, but our summers can get very hot. I have a pretty good growlight set up, and the peppers - while not huge - seem happy and produce a dozen peppers or so each.

Hi Lindy,
We have the same climate as you WAY down south here in New Mexico. This past year our last frost was may 28 and then first freeze sept 10. Super annoying.