After a failed attempt at starting my pepper plants from seeds, I finally cracked the code. My big mistake wasn’t the soil medium I was using. It wasn’t a lack of light or not enough water. I even used a heating mat to help them get going. I eventually realized that the cool air in the basem*nt was causing my pepper problems.
Once I moved the whole operation to a warm upstairs room and placed the seeds on a table over a heating vent, the seeds sprouted quickly.
While the basem*nt was fine for other seeds, pepper seeds (like tomato seeds) need extra heat to help them germinate and start to grow.
Starting from seeds may seem daunting to beginning vegetable gardeners, but it’s the best way to get more planting choices, control how plants are grown, and save money. It’s also especially rewarding to plant, tend, and watch the seeds grow.
Some seeds, like those of sweet or chili peppers, need more time to germinate than other vegetable seeds. Most seed packets recommend starting pepper seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last average frost date. I time my pepper transplanting for when I know the weather will be warm enough for consistent nighttime temperatures of 50°F. That’s usually late May or early June.
Count back the number of weeks from transplanting to know when to start seeds.
There are plenty of options for indoor seed starting. Some gardeners (like me) prefer to use ready-to-plant kits; other gardeners prefer to use clean, recycled containers with holes for drainage.
Always use a sterile, soilless seed mixture. Before planting, moisten the planting mixture to the consistency of a wrung-out sponge.
Follow packet instructions for spacing seeds. It’s always a good idea to plant two or three pepper seeds in each cell and then thin the seedlings when they start to grow. That’s seeding insurance in case a seed or two doesn’t sprout.
Light, heat, and moisture are important ingredients for healthy seedlings. Sometimes a warm sunny location isn’t enough, and seedlings need supplemental lighting from fluorescent lights or special grow lights. Place lights 2 to 4 inches above the seedlings for 16 hours a day, and raise lights as the plants grow.
A heating mat provides bottom heat to help speed germination, and extra ambient room heat will give pepper seeds a good start.
To prevent damping off, a fungal disease that causes new seedlings to die at the soil surface, keep the soil moist but not soggy. A small rotating fan to keep air moving around seedlings will help prevent damping off.
Keep peppers healthy until it’s time to move them outside. Be sure to acclimate them slowly to the outdoors before planting them in their summer-growing spot.
While not necessary, you can soak pepper seeds prior to planting them to encourage faster germination. Place pepper seeds in a bowl or jar of room temperature water for up to 24 hours to soften the seed coat and break dormancy.
Most seed packets recommend starting pepper seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last average frost date. I time my pepper transplanting for when I know the weather will be warm enough for consistent nighttime temperatures of 50°F. That's usually late May or early June.
"The important thing in getting your (pepper) seeds to germinate is to keep them warm – the soil temperature should be in the 80's", says Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden, a popular seed catalog based in Felton, California. "Germination is very much related to even moisture and warm temperatures.
The warm conditions created by the paper towel method are also especially helpful for seeds that usually take a long time to germinate. You can put it to the test with more slow-growing seeds like asparagus or chili pepper.
Fill individual pots or seed-starting trays with a pre-moistened potting mix. Plant two to three pepper seeds per pot or planting cell and cover the seeds with about ¼ inch of soil. Move the growing containers into a warm location that receives between 12 and 15 hours of bright light daily.
If planting peppers in a seedling tray indoors, add a plastic lid after planting to encourage warm and most soil, which quickens the germination process.
To ensure the best results, harvest seeds from ripe, healthy peppers. Simply cut open the pepper and remove the seeds, then rinse them in warm water to remove any pulp. Allow the seeds to dry thoroughly on a paper towel before planting. We grow a variety of pepperoncini that was gifted to us by a gardening friend.
Even brightly colored peppers may have been picked at an immature stage which resulted in seeds which didn't ripen sufficiently to germinate. Were the store-bought bell pepper seeds irradiated? The FDA approves irradiation of produce to eliminate food-borne pathogens. This process renders the seeds useless for growing.
And if you start from seedling plants, then May is the ideal pepper planting month. You can plant peppers earlier than May, but they won't grow very fast, meaning that if bugs like earwigs start chewing on them then the plants will have a hard time outgrowing the damage.
Conclusion. With our team's results, they did not notice any significant differences when it came to how soon the plants actually germinated. And after finalizing the numbers, the team found it didn't make a difference which method - soaking vs. non-soaking - was used on pepper seeds.
Before planting, fill the holes with water and let it soak in. Into each planting hole, put two or three wooden matchsticks (for sulfur) and 1 teaspoon of low-nitrogen, high-phosphorus fertilizer (too much nitrogen will reduce fruit set).
Seed germination does not require light. However, once the seeds have sprouted, a grow light should be used. This will allow the leaves to photosynthesize and produce their first sets of leaves efficiently. See our recommended grow lights for peppers here.
Fill individual pots or seed-starting trays with a pre-moistened potting mix. Plant two to three pepper seeds per pot or planting cell and cover the seeds with about ¼ inch of soil. Move the growing containers into a warm location that receives between 12 and 15 hours of bright light daily.
Most of the seeds germinate best in dark environments. The presence of light tends to inhibit their growth. The light decomposes carbonic acid gas and expels oxygen which leads the seed to harden. These gases are key factors that promote germination.
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