34 varieties, 42 total. 74° today in the shade, has to be hotter out in the sun on the copper. Next couple of days look to be even warmer. Hopefully, most all of them sprout and thrive and they will be ready come March.

I need to do some housekeeping and set up a warm place, because I want to start peppers now too. You beat me to it! Happy new year!

Good luck with all your peppers!

It's not until mid-March that I will start my early peppers, but those will be huge by mid-May, when they usually get transplanted outside. And they are started in larger pots (18/tray), and it will have to be in pots double that, around May 1, and will get to 14-18" by transplant time. All the rest on 4-1, and just get to 8" or so by transplant. All these are started much warmer, however - even February was just too early, the one time I did a few!

Started mine today as well.

Planting seeds is always fun. I went out about 3pm and measured the soil temperature. Yep, high 70s to low 80s on the sets. Sun on metal works wonders.

gonna be awhile for me. i will poke around the pepper bag o seeds, and pull out any
old ones, and soak a bunch to see if there is any life in them. i put them in damp paper towel, and a baggie
underneath the wood stove. i won't do that for another month. the last two years i have done it. i woke up
indian jwahl, black hungarian, grandpas home, long slim cayenne, and golden california wonder from seven and eight year old seeds.
something to do until the main croppers in march.


keith

I’ll have other opportunities to plant pepper seeds later in the month should any of these fail to germinate.
On most cells, I put two seeds, some I did three.

I started mine some time ago when one fell off and landed on the soil.
I always get volunteers this way.

I'm starting peppers & eggplants this week. I usually do it before Christmas but totally forgot.
Next week will be tomatoes, Yaaaay!

I just put some pepper seeds in a warm water soak on the heat mat for overnight.
Similar to your trick, rxkeith. I first tried putting the soaking cup on a heat meat one year I had heatless habanero seed marked to expect low germination. Shockingly they all sprouted... I had so many plants. I always soak pepper seed overnight anyway, but the warm soak seems to make a difference. I hope it does, because when I went to my pepper seeds, those favorite peppers are dated 2014. Santa Fe, Italian pepperoncini and Jimmy Nardello. I did get good germination, although late, the last time I grew them but IDK why there aren't more recent seeds. Noting that most of the pepperoncini seeds floated, but quite a few Jimmys and santa Fe's sank, so I feel hopeful to wake em up. I have some yellow supermarket sweet snack pepper seeds from last year that are soaking too, so in a pinch I should at least get one kind of pepper.
I want to start peppers extra early on the hopes of getting ripe peppers in the window before the aphids start to stir in spring.
I put loads of seed in and I will be in trouble if they all sprout. There's just not enough dirt handy, nor lights either, for a big batch of pepper plants. One or two each, I'll be very happy.

gol durn it bower,

now you got me thinking.


keith

My pepper seeds nearly all sunk overnight, so it seems they sucked up some water. They're all in dirt now on the heat mat, and to top it off I had an extra cell in the pack so I planted some basil. Utter madness!
I still haven't cleared up the space in that warmest room - the office. But I found space for a bench for the heatmat in the living room, second best. Panic has now been deferred until they start to sprout, in the darkness and chill of a snowstorm!

I misted the surface of my pepper starts and set them outside on the copper fire ring. Air temperature is 77° currently in the shade and there’s some filtered sun hitting the copper that should help keep the seed growing media up around 80°or so. We’ve got four more warm days in the forecast, maybe I’ll get some sprouting by the end of them. Saturday the 7th would be the eighth day if I count the 31st, the day the seeds went into the starts.

The title should read 48 peppers. Here’s the current line up.

Nice lineup. Reminds me of back in the day, when I first started growing peppers, I had a ton of unknown peppers came to me as bonus in a swap. We were anxious to find anything early enough and tolerant of winter conditions in the house for early starts. So all the charts for DTM's and lots of anxious fussing over the first ripes. This was a serious pepper house for years afterwards, with starts in early february and peppers ripening on the windowsill in early spring. I would plant them outdoors in ground or containers afterwards for a second crop. I had never tasted a real pepper before I started growing them. Didn't know that even sweet peppers could be really tasty not the watery crap they sell to us as bells. Let alone the amazing range of tastes in hot peppers. I grew a lot of stuff I would never have bought or picked out of a hat, just because of some generous person(s) who spread their extra seeds through swaps. I sent a lot of pepper seeds back, and even got in the habit of selling my extra pepper plants at winter and early spring markets, and paid for my garden costs that way for a number of years - they were very easy to sell. My pepper empire came crashing down though, when aphids started getting into the house early season, and got to the point I just had to give them up entirely for a few years.
If I had to choose one seasoning pepper for a desert island it would be Guajillo hands down. We used them fresh more than dried, and it's amazing. I really like the flavor. The only down side for my house situation, they are a tall plant and I know they would've been happier with more light too. They are still pretty early, early enough for me to grow. Pasilla Bajio is also tall, I enjoyed the flavor, but more so as a 'sometimes' not something I can love to eat every day in every way. I'm trying the Santa Fe again because I like that they're good flavored whether pale green yellow or red, no bitter. It's a stocky plant that does well in a windowsill, and early. A Santa Fe or two will hot up a batch of pickles perfectly, that's what I had in mind.
The 'Italian Pepperoncini' that I have came from West Coast Seeds - I think it's similar to Corbaci, which I haven't grown (but want to). Really like these plants with copious long fruits which are never bitter, even if at the pale green stage, and just get sweeter as they ripen. The IP has the flavor of a hot pepper without the heat. It comes down to a heat that isn't more than a sprinkle of black pepper in your dish, more of a flavor note than a heat. I probably don't have the right words. Anyway it is a really useful pepper at every stage of maturity which is a big plus.
I don't think I've met a pepper that I really didn't like, at least for occasional use.

Went to the cove to pick up meds for my mother today, and happily hooked up with my friendly compost suppliers down the road.. Their digital cash was down and he didn't have change for the 4 bags of dirt I wanted so I got six. No worries for me They aren't always open in winter and don't always have bags of their compost, so it was a good score. Not worried about how many pepper plants any more.

@Bower peppers are a revelation. Peppers must be delicious as they by all accounts spread around the world from the Americas via European contact about 400-500 years ago and then now virtually every people and culture where peppers can be grown has their own take and cuisine more or less using them.

I’ve been of recent times going down the rabbit hole of what peppers can I grow and what can I do with them. I asked for and received for Christmas an improved dehydrator so that I might dry more types of capsicum in more volumes.

Never did I dream back then that there are so many cultivars and flavors.

I’m excited about growing guajillos and pasilla. Good to hear the positive feedback.

There’s certainly subtleties between peppers, hot or sweet, and some are fruity, or citrusy, or floral, or smoky. Just fun, bottom line.

My freshest pepper seeds (yellow snack pepper from the grocery store) are sprouting up today. 8 days plus the overnight soak. Basil beat them by a day.
No sign yet of the oldsters, just curious if they do come up, how much longer it'll take them...

Planted 26 peppers today. Weather is extra warm, why not just get it done I said.

I have my first peppers set on two plants!
This has to be a record LONG time to first set, surely? Um... feb march april, no it's not long at all. 90 days from germination more or less. Just right for an early pepper. Now if I can just get some to ripen before the aphids arrive...

Sadly none of my old seeds sprouted BTW. They were all out of steam. I must start all over and get some new faves next year.

What the heck! Bower starts peppers on Jan 2...I started mine around Mar 1 and thought I was plenty early. I am actually looking at this hot week coming and considering putting some out and throwing vented plastic over them. I have plenty of starts for replacements.