Why people like me should not pre-sprout peppers...

This is not Pizza. Although it can go on Pizza. And I usually don't bother trying to grow them, because I have very little luck, (or perhaps not enough patience to bother with them) and I don't really care for them anyway. And maybe they pick up on my lack of caring, so they don't grow well for me. I know, plants have feelings too, and they know when they are unwanted. So, tell me why five year old Carribean Red Habanero seed has a %100 germination rate in five days? I told it not to bother too much, and not to hurry, cause I was in no way ready for it yet. Peppers are apparently just like my children. THEY DON'T LISTEN.




Same for the other three types of peppers that I pre-sprouted (I blame this blogger for even thinking of doing this, cause I never do, never have, and never planned on it.) But now that I know how well this works for peppers, which can take up to 2-3 weeks to get growing when they are started the same way I start tomatoes, if I ever do actually want to grow peppers for real, I will start them this way again. Never mind that the shelf life for pepper seeds is supposed to be much shorter than for tomato seeds, so I think %100 on five year seed is also a good indication that this is an excellent way to get them going. Although I didn't believe it until I tried it. I figured all my pepper seeds were too old, they would not sprout, so what the hell. And now I'm stuck with all these little pepper seeds that are sprouting, and in need of potting up.

If you actually want to grow pepper plants, this technique is very simple. Seeds, coffee filters, water, ziplock baggies and a warm spot such as the top of your fridge, water heater, radio (if you're like me and it's on almost 24/7) and keep on eye on them. Keep the filter moist (won't dry out very quickly in a zip bag) and once they start sprouting, pot them up very shallow in little cells as if they were little tomato seeds. Peppers like it warm, and lots of light.

That is pretty much it.