Pepper Seeds not sprouting

[noobgardener]

Hello all!

I started my seedlings 7 days ago and My chives, scallions, and lemon mint have all poked their little heads above the surface. My jalepenos and california wonder peppers have not and I'm a little scared. Do you think they need more time or do I need to find a heat mat?

If I do have to start over, should I plant new pepper seeds or can I just apply heat to the ones I already planted.

[hendi_alex]

I'm having a similar problem this year. Though yours is not necessarily a problem at this point. Peppers often take two weeks or longer to germinate, especially if the soil temperature is under 70 degrees or so.

[rainbowgardener]

Chives, scallions, mint are all cool weather things that don't need warm soil.

Peppers do need warm soil and are very slowed down by cool soil:


e.g. at soil temp of 59 deg. F tomatoes take 14 days to germinate and peppers take 25 days, at 77 deg F tomatoes take 6 days and peppers take 8.
https://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html

So you can wait a while longer. The trouble is germination rate goes down a lot too, because the seeds can rot out while they are sitting there in cool damp soil waiting to sprout.

If you start over with a heat mat, I would start with fresh seeds.

[gixxerific]

As requested already a heat mat will help tremendously. Also note hot peppers normally take longer than swee bells.