[monsta]

Earlier this year I purchased several varities of chilli pepper seed from 'The Chilli Pepper Company'. They were also advertising germination powder.  As chillies are known to be slow to germinate I decided to give it a try. When the seeds arrived,  the packet ocontaining the germination powder was marked 'Salt Peter'  I followed the instructions and got 100% germanation in seven to ten days.

Saltpeter is Pottassium Nitrate, which is now a controlled substance since its one of the constituent  ingredients of gunpowder and black powder, and was used for car bombs in ireland in the bad old days.


Doubt you can buy it theses days, and i suspect you'd have Special Branch wanting to know why if you did :S

In the good old days Saltpeter was also used for preserving meat.

give a new meaning to the good old bangers and mash! 

[lacewing]

I often wondered why they were called bangers!

[Loubs]

Earlier this year I purchased several varities of chilli pepper seed from 'The Chilli Pepper Company'. They were also advertising germination powder.  As chillies are known to be slow to germinate I decided to give it a try. When the seeds arrived,  the packet ocontaining the germination powder was marked 'Salt Peter'  I followed the instructions and got 100% germanation in seven to ten days.

I got assorted chilli seeds from the same company, but didn't bother with the germination powder. I got 100% germination, between about 5-21 days (speed varied according to the variety).

[lacewing]

Perhaps I should have done half and half and compare the results.

[lucywil]

my courgettes are starting to germinate just still waiting on onions, celery, toms, leeks, and some poppies i got free with me order! got mine under the kitchen bench under a plastic sheet! 

Courgettes? already? it's at least 2 months before they can go outside, probably  abit longer as you are further north

[monsta]

i your probably right but they'll just have to sit in the green house till then 

[Oddpod]

My MIL brought some chilli seeds back from Turkey. They were small and greenish tinge. When sown they all  germinated and grew really well. Is it possible they had saltpetre added - presume this is not prohibited in the UK?

[gillie]

You can still legally buy saltpetre in small quantities for curing meat.

Gillie

[garddwr]

Typical the seeds pop through today ! I should moan more often then 

[Babstreefern]

You may have started them too early .  I've only last weekend planted my peppers, and they are popping their little heads up :happy:.  My cabbage are also up and running.  The longest germinating plants that I have at the moment are celeriac which took about 2 weeks , but that was my fault for not reading the packet .  I planted them in my compost tray, but covered them over instead of just leaving them on top.  All bar two trays are in the conservatory.  The only two trays are my carnations which are on the landing window, above a radiator, and my cukes, which again, are above the radiator, but in my back bedroom.

[solway cropper]

Saltpeter is Pottassium Nitrate, which is now a controlled substance since its one of the constituent  ingredients of gunpowder and black powder, and was used for car bombs in ireland in the bad old days.

The main ingredient in the car bombs was ammonium nitrate fertilizer which is much more widely available than potassium nitrate. A farm near here had 8 tons of it left near the roadside where the wagon had delivered it. You could make a big bang with that.

[babycakes]

when mine hadnt germinated within 4 weeks i put them in airing cupboard and then was up in a few days