First Seeds Started

On March 13th, I began my first seed plantings of the season. These are all of the hot pepper varieties which need to be started as early as reasonably possible. This was two weeks later than my initial plan but a few varieties hadn't yet arrived in the mail and I didn't want to have different planting dates.

I do my seed-starting on a humble table I built at the top of the stairs. It's 36 inches by 16 inches, which is more than big enough to accommodate a standard tray to work with.

The eight Hot Pepper varieties that I've started this year are:

Beaver Dam
Bhut Jalokia
Congo Trinidad Habenero

Early Jalapeno

Fish Pepper
Paper Lantern
Tomato Pepper
Wisconsin Lakes

This is an example of how I start all of my pepper & tomato seeds. I simply fill the 1 inch by 1 inch starter trays with a 50/50 mix of potting soil and seed starter mix. Then I use the eraser on a standard pencil to create a small center hole for each seed.

This is my super secret technique for successful seed germination... I use a spray bottle to shoot water at each seed. I go seed by seed and when I get to the last one, I go back and hit each seed a second time. Note that the water in the sprayer should be at room temperature or luke-warm from the tap.

Next, and this is important, I use my index finger to gently cover each seed with barely enough soil to cover each one. Recent studies have shown that most seeds germinate much faster when exposed to some light.

This is the easy part. Just set under a light source and wait about 2 weeks. I have made the switch to the new T8 energy-saving fluorescent shop lights. I will run the lights from 6:30 AM until 9:30 PM which works out to 15 hours.

Some would argue that the lights need to be as close to the plants as possible. In my opinion, they don't.

:)