[garddwr]

Hi,

I sowed some peppers and chillis on the 17th of Feb 2010. 3 wilkos and 1 free from some magazine or other anyway I sowed them in Shamrock multi purpose compost from Focus and put them one seed in every cell in the same modules as DD. uses (20 cells in a half sized tray) covered with a blow up bag and left on the office windowsill which has a radiator on below so very warm and theres absolutley no sign of life from any of them it all seems very odd and the only small thing  I can think of is watering after sowing rather than before like Gardeners World suggest

Any ideas ? Is it the compost as germination is slow on everything this year and I have done tomatoes 1st march exactly the same way so  I hope I'll get something from them.

Thanks

[massa]

im no expert as ive only started this year but i sowed some chillis and toms late jan/early feb and they had not done anything so after a month i sowed the same amount again but i left the first lot on the window sill and after 34 days some of them started to germinate and i even have one just starting to pop up now. so they still may germinate, i have been struggleing tho i still cant get my cabbages and kale to germinate and the second lot of chillis and toms have not done anything yet.

[8doubles]

Does the office windowsill the plants are on get cold at night. Upstairs sills are better than downstairs if the heating goes off overnight.

[garddwr]

Well it does get colder but there are blinds and some flowers are germinating.

[Terrier]

Still too cold up here in North Wales, esp for pepper seed and if you can't even get tomato seed to germinate, it's definately far too cold. If you want to start seeds this early, get yourself a small electric propagator. If you are using multi purpose compost to germinate seed, make sure that you seive it well to get the lumps out first, otherwise the seed can sit in dry air pockets and not germinate.
Pepper seed can be notoriously slow to start off if the temperature isn't kept evenly at the correct level, it's not unusual for it to sit there for a couple of months 'till the weather warms up

[BostonInbred]

Its worth investing in a heated propagator, you dont get this problem then. Ive got toms and chillis going, although the toms seeds were last years and i only got about 60% germination.

[garddwr]

I do have a heated propagator actually but I thought that from DD.'s success I wouldn't need it and it caused more harm than good

[ARMO]

Keeping a fairly constant temerature is important. I use a heated propagator to get them going. Remember though that some vareities can take upto 8 weeks to germinate. It's not easy to get 100% germinating rates with chillies. Try starting them off on damp kitchen roll in a polothene bag in a warm place. You will soon see which will germinate and which will fail.

[mumofstig]

At the beginning of last week I sowed 4 different sort of chillies and my sweet peppers in the heated propagator, all of the sweet peppers have germinated, a few cheyenne peppers a couple & of spanish fryers the other 2 chillies have shown no sign of germination
They are annoying to say the least as I've got my tomatoes to sow and I really need the propagator space

[Paul Plots]

Steady temperatures may be the key...... and watering but now drowing... possibly

Have patience  ....... try sowing less than a full packet at a time so you can re-sow if the first try fails.

[lucywil]

I do have a heated propagator actually but I thought that from DD.'s success I wouldn't need it and it caused more harm than good

they only do more harm than good if you leave them in once they have germinated. i use one and my tomatoes and peppers germinated in 3 days

[lacewing]

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.

[BostonInbred]

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

[monsta]

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! 

[lacewing]

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.