Garden 2020: Starting Peppers Take 2

No they aren't bags of drugs. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Well so far I've had close to no luck with my pepper seeds germinating. Out of 144 starter pots I've had 5 sweet banana pepper plants germinate and maybe one other plant. It hasn't got it starter leaves yet just half germinated. It could be that it's just not warm enough in the basement but I have successfully germinated peppers the same way before. Some of the seeds might be too old but some were just bought last year. I'm not liking the odds of getting more plants so I decided to try starting a second batch of seeds. I did some research and found another method recommended by Burpee Seeds that I am trying.

This method doesn't use dirt to start the seeds. At lest not in the beginning. Here's what you need:

• Pepper seeds

• Damp Paper towels

• Plastic bags

• Marker

I started by gathering the above stuff. First I found the bags. I had a bunch of these little Ziploc snack bags so I tried those. Then I grabbed the seeds and took them to the only available table in my basement: my computer desk. Next I grabbed 3 paper towels (the select a size ones) and wet them. I folded them then took 2 more paper towels and put them around the wet ones which made them all damp but not too wet. Actually turned out to be the exact amount I needed to start 10 different seeds. Finally I found a marker that worked.

First steps were to label the bag and grab the seed packet. Ignore the hand writing I can't read mine either. It's supposed to say habanero. Next I tore one of the towels in half and laid it out flat.

Now for the seeds. Probably more than necessary but having no luck so far I'm erring on the side of caution here. Just spread them out on half of half the paper towel. Careful they might be just seeds but they still have heat so no touching any sensitive areas.

Now fold the towel in half so the seeds are sandwiched in between the 2 layers.

Now the hard part getting the towel in the bag. I've never realized how hard it is to get wet paper to slide on plastic. Real pain to get it in there. Takes some patients. Have to be careful and keep both the bag and towel flat or the seeds will fall out of the towel. When you finally get it in there zip it up. You want to keep the moisture from evaporating.

Repeat for each type of pepper.

Finally put the bags somewhere warm. The site suggested the top of a refrigerator. I had someplace better in mind. This is the top shelf of my server cabinet. Nice and warm in there.

Now it's just a waiting game. I'll start checking them in 5 or 6 days. Once a seed germinates it needs to be put into a starter pot. Hopefully this method will have better results. With my luck it either won't and I will have no hot peppers or it will and the others will all sprout too and I'll have way too many plants.

BTW if you are wondering why that shelf in the cabinets is on a angle it's just not attached. It was a spare shelf. There used to be tape drives on that top shelf but I quit using tape backup and switched to hard drives years ago. Was just a convenient place to stick that shelf when I cleaned up.