Peppers need warm soil to stimulate seed germination. 80º is the recommended temperature. Last year i sowed them in an unheated greenhouse in March. It took 2 months for them to germinate and the germination was spotty at best. This season i wanted to do it right. First i bought some heating cable and built a box, filled it with damp sand and buried the cable. Between the heat from the cable and the heat from the grow light above, the soil temperature got up to 70º. Worked for tomatoes and zinnias but not good enough for peppers i thought. I was looking around the basement and spied a sun lamp left by the previous owner. (they left us all sorts of useful stuff). I got the idea to build a box to put the sun lamp in heat to the top of the box. I put a plug tray seeded with pepper seeds on top of the box and sure enough the soil heated up to 78º. Close enough i figure. The seeds have been on top of the box for 2 days.
I'll let you know when they germinate.
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1 comment:
Great idea. I hope it works for you.
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