Pepper Seed Germination Experiment - Which Is Fastest?
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- Опубліковано 9 бер 2024
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In this video, we test out different methods of germination for pepper seeds. Does soaking in tea help? What about warming the seeds during germination? The results were very interesting!
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Typically I put the seeds in a paper towel/wash cloth and keep it wet in a slightly opened bag. Usually just takes a 5-7 days to get sprouts. From peppers to pot. 🚬🌳😙💨🚀🚀🚀🚀 awesome content as always!
i've always been curious about this, really glad i could get some info from a trusted channel too. just wish it came out a couple weeks ago when i did most of my pepper seeds, great video!
Jesse has another seed starting video you'll see link near the finish if this video. I'm checking it out.
i’ve tried a ton of germination techniques. The best is a tupperware with about 1” of vermiculite heavily wetted. Sprinkle seeds on top. Cover seeds with small layer of vermiculite. Spray tea mixture on top until slightly damp. cover tupperware and put on heat mat at 85°. I get amazing results.
I've had great success with small glass jar with top or small plastic container. With a damn paper towel, put the seeds on top close it and put it on top of the fridge.
@@NNToriouspaper towel method, tried and true
Could you quantify what "amazing" means in terms of germination time, germination percentage, and how old the seeds are?
Thank you. Your knowledge is appreciated
That’s an amazing landscape thanks God for all that created! Did you take the picture and where is that?
Soaked & Heated gets my vote.
Thanks for providing yet another informative video.
Try a tablespoon of potassium nitrate in a quart of water and soak for half an hour. Then place the planting tray on a heat mat. Cover the tray with plastic until the first seed emerges. Most, not all, stump removers are straight potassium nitrate, so there's an easily available source. I've noticed that seeds of any kind come up faster with rainwater than tap water. Why? What's different? The difference is that rainwater is about -1 pH more acidic and it provides a trace of bioavailable nitrogen. The potassium nitrate solution does nearly the same.
Thanks for this informative video. It is appreciated.
Cool!! I'd like to see how it compares to the Chili Chump experiment.
Wow interesting results!
Absolutely love and appreciate your experiments. Thank you!! I use the Burpee self-watering tray to germ my peppers because the soil dries out so quickly in my room otherwise. I do not presoak, and decided against the heating mat because my room temp is 70-75 degrees. My seeds came up in about a week, week and a half. I think that fresh seeds, especially harvested from a pepper directly, leads to easy germination. I’ve decided to plant a few of these freshly harvested seeds even though the fruit flowers of the parent plants were not isolated. I’m interested to see if I get the variety of the parent plant or a cross (as I grow many varieties all together in the same place). Best of luck in your ‘24 season. Looking forward to your videos and newsletters
I've been using a 36-cell (10x10) Burpee "self-watering" tray for quite a few years now! All using a humidity dome and an inexpensive unregulated heat mat from Ferry Morse.
The first few years I started seeds in plastic bags on folded-over moist bits of paper towel, then moved the ones that germinated to seed starting soil. The second step was to start them in seed starting soil to begin with -- I found I got more viable seedlings in less time this way. Step 3 was to use 6 x "sixers" -- 6-cell seed starting units taking up the same space per cell as the original 36-cell tray.
Just yesterday I started a batch putting 6 sixers in a 10x10 tray without the Burpee "self-watering" components and with a tall 10x10 humidity dome. This batch has 50 tomato seeds and 50 pepper seeds, with 3 (occasionally 2) per cell. I'll have results in a few days (for me, most tomatoes germinate in 4-8 days (rarely 3), and most peppers germinate in 7-12 days (rarely 5-6)).
About crosses -- I've had more interesting and good things happen with crosses than bad. But if you are relying on being able to give seeds to someone else and knowing what they'll be, then extra care is needed. Interspersing different species of pepper, or better yet peppers and tomatoes or other vegetables, is quite helpful in keeping them true to form.
thanks for the sciencing! i'm about to go plant some late pepper seeds, so this was perfect.
Heat mat is helpful
We're eager for tips and tricks to get our tiny gardens to turn out enough nourishment for us from now on. The older seeds tip help and my seed bills have become more expensive and I've got a ton of old seeds. Thanks for the soaking tip.
Bell pepper seeds were easy for a first timer like me. to save. Costs of everything is outrageous. Example. Seniors' drink, Glucerna and Ensure were put behind a gate & locked up because of high volume of theft. .
At another market Tide was locked up too last year.
Thanks for the scientific approach. That was always my doubt as soaking gave me poor results but for some reason it became the pro way to go on many channels.
Another good technique for increasing & speeding up pepper seed germination is to chill them, in a dry envelope in the fridge, for at least a few weeks, before sowing them. Then sow them using a heat mat and dome. The sudden warmth and moisture really speeds it up. In my experience that works much better than soaking them.
I've always wanted to do this but never had enough patience or time before the season started lol. I should get better at planning :)
I had not heard of the black tea soaker technique. Fascinating.
I've not heard/seen of this either, I imagine it has something to do with the caffeine in the tea and maybe stimulating the seeds. I'm going to have to look it up to see if I can find anything out about it, but it is very interesting/different
@@jimmyvgames3414coming from a scientific background but not having looked into this, my GUESS would rather be the pH and the tannins, than the caffeine.
@@jimmyvgames3414 having a stimulant effect on seeds is an interesting theory. Sadly I'm not well versed enough in biology and pharmacokinetics to even begin to answer. You should look into that more
Same, maybe there is another soaking experiment to test black tea against a water soak.
Amazing, I used the no soak on three different peppers at 26degrees C. Cayenne sprouted in 7days, jalapeños in 8 days and Pot a Peno in 8 days. Will be starting some more tomorrow and glad I saw your experiment as I thought about soaking. Will use the no soak and maybe 28C. Thanks for the UA-cam experiment.
I actually germinated my seeds outside this season in a large plastic bin. I really was shocked after a couple weeks they sprouted and doing well outside. When the temps dip down 40 or below I bring the. Inside of my shed and put them back out in the morning.
It will be interesting to see how the produce.
Thank you. I'll try that on some of my older seeds.👍🏼🌶️😁
Righto here in the UK I sow all my chilli seeds in a bunch in 3" pots kept around 20+ degrees C and as soon as they pop I put under grow lights then as soon as I can handle them I prick out into individual pots and continue under grow lights until my last frost date
Then pot on in my polytunnel
None of my seeds are more than a year old
Works every time regardless of which type of chilli
Only other thing to note is that I'll typically sow 2 dozen of each seed variety with a view to get at least half a dozen strong plants and the hottest ones are the most finicky....
I use a damp paper towel rolled up (with seeds in the center) - inside of a sandwich zip lock bag - on a heat mat. Been doing it this way for years and its worked really well.
I am trying that and leaving them on top of the refridgerator
I have only tried soaking in a 50/50 peroxide water solution. I only soak for about 30m-1h though. Always a heating mat with peppers though. Never broke it down like this though. Very important and well consolidated information. Thank you!
That's very interesting indeed. We did a small experiment with our seeds last year (soaked vs non-soaked) and our conclusion was also that non-soaked seeds were faster to germinate, which was quite a surprise to us.
I did the no soak + heated for all my seeds this year, my fastest germ took 4 days and about 75%ish of them were sprouted at about 7 days, also had about about 80-90% germ rate overall, chinense was the most successful at around 95% germ rate.
My experiment seems great.
I have my containers on heat mats and a cookie sheet on top of my containers. Place a tiny paper towel and place pepper seeds on top and water, then 3 more layers of paper towels. The next day, I saw roots just started. Believe this is a good start
Thanks
Soaking in a seaweed solution 👍
Does the same as a tea soak but also gives the seeds a bit of extra food
Soaked seeds must be harder for the sprout to crack than a dry brittle one, I have to try this experiment now!
How when soaking makes the shell alot softer
@@jamesallen4368 wet doesn't mean softer or weaker when it comes to living things, think of a dry leaf vs a living leaf for example
@@jamesallen4368 there could also be some temperature/moisture levels that signal to the seed to behave in a certain way due to the conditions peppers evolved in.
@@Otmjv I don't know brother my soaked seeds come out better then dry
@@Otmjv being wet helps alot I think but we all use different methods I'm in haiti it's alway hot so soaked seed are a win
Thank you for doing the experiment! I'm not terribly surprised by the results -- the benefits of mild heating are clear in my experience, and I've always heard that soaking in black tea is good for really old seeds, but never got around to doing that test myself.
I did an experiment with soaking fresh Anaheim pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide about 3 years ago. I tried different concentrations and different durations, and concluded that 3% concentration for over 24 hours was deadly, and leaving them in even 1% hydrogen peroxide for longer than that was unhelpful (at the time I was just transitioning from the "plastic bag and paper towel" method to direct seed starting mix). It could be beneficial (or at least non-harmful) to do a short-term 1% soak, but any benefits were not dramatic if at all.
The soaking solution kind of matters. Me and growers that I follow had great results by soaking seeds in 2-3% Potassium nitrate water solution (2g of KNO3 per 100ml of water) for 24-48h and there's also scientific articles that confirm positive effect of KNO3 on plant seed germination (not pepper seed specifically).
Ofc fresh seeds from last season doesn't require soaking, but if the source and seed age is unknown, it's worth it.
My favourite method for Capsicum Chinense and Capsicum Baccatum is:
24h fridge -> 12h chamomile tea soak -> 30°C humidity dome
It is fast, reliable, high germination rate and chamomile tea reduce chance to grow mold.
I like soaking as the shells come off easier.
Interesting
I'd love to see experiments with other seed sprouting products (myco? rapid rooters?)
have you experimented with Mycorrhiza? I'd love to see a video on that
Part two of winter is canning would be nice
When I soak my seeds, I always use Chamomile (or Camomile, for the Brits) tea, and it works wonderfully. Not sure how different it is from black tea, but I always get a great germination rate (90%+)
I have always used nettle tea... I want to try not soaking ... and chamomile and nettle tea on a test!
Cut the part of the seed where the radicle comes out before you do that and they'll germinate in hours
@@FutureRobinHood this will guarantee germinating within hours not days??
@@CigarShark Yes
@@FutureRobinHood wow thanks man you are awesome
Have had good results freezing seeds as if a winter season for a month or so in zip lock, plant, water and set container in sun when temp is right.
I think the heated seeds will do the best. If the soaking them works, I will be using that method. I have the worst time getting habaneros to germinate.
Chilli is south American same so warmth is good
I restarted with the proper kit and grow lights. I'm pleased to report 100% successful germination of 6 Scotch Brain Yellow peppers, 6 Testanera Chocolate peppers with beautiful purple stems, 6 Devil's Tongue White peppers, and 3 out of 3 Seven Pot Lobotomy peppers. Additionally, 2 out of 3 Carolina Reaper seeds germinated successfully. The Dragons Breath peppers are thriving exceptionally well, showing vigorous growth with impressive secondary leaves. They were rescued just in time, as they had started germinating but needed transplanting to survive. These two plants are the only survivors, and they are doing remarkably well.
I germinate my peppers in paper towels folded twice spritzed with spray bottle put in sandwich bags set on top of microwave over oven, some sprout in as few as 3 to 4 days and most if not all are germinated by 7 days of course times might be a little longer for super hots. I had Red Ghost and Red Habanero also germinate in this time frame.
I have very little growing space so I just put a couple seeds on a wet paper towel in a ziplock and pop em on top of my gaming PC tower, every single one germinates in a few days then they go into soil! It works every time haha
I asked my mormon friend about soaking, he said it was a very good idea.
Is there any correlation between germination time and other factors like plant health, size, yield etc?
I don't think I've ever soaked pepper seeds. Doesn't sound like there is too much difference so probably won't change anything. I do switch between paper towel germination and directly in seed starting mix though and always use a heat mat any way I do it. Usually the chinense varieties I do in paper towels.
I've seen a handful of videos showcasing germinating in paper towel then transplanting viable sprouts to soil to grow out. I seem to struggle to save seeds on peppers, I suspect that I don't let the pods ripen enough, so a quick check of viability would likely save me weeks of trying to start dead seeds.
Definitely, if the seeds are abundant, using the paper towel method is a great way to pre-test for viability in winter
I think you gotta do like ten times as many seeds to get reliable data
I was having trouble sprouting my seeds, but after turning up the heat from 21c to roughly 26c I suddenly had several sprouts within a couple days
Is milk good for the plants plants?
Interesting. I always pre-soak my seeds for 12-24 hours in room temperature water. I don't add or do anything extra. And then of course I use a heat mat and my first sprouts are always in 6-7 days after planting them in seed starting mix with some cinnamon added. Some take longer than others but my germination rate is well above 90%. Probably in the upper 90%. I've considered experimenting with other techniques but if it works 🤷♂️
I should add that I primarily grow chinense.
I did a bit of experimenting as well. Blue Christmas and Black Pearl. Soaked 2 of each seed in 50/50 hydrogen peroxide/water for 24 hrs. I also did the same for 48hrs. the 24 soak sprouted @ 10 days after the 24 hr soak. the 48 hr soak sprouted @ 12 days. all sprouting with heat mats
i hope the non soaked heated seeds work best because thats what i did last night!!!
Congratulations ☺️
I figured soaked + heated
My tried and true method may not be the speediest, (I have never compared speed), but for any sow-ahead crop, except for the tiniest seeds, I merely use damp paper towels. I place the seeds on the folded towel and roll it up with the seeds inside and put it in a baggie that's not totally sealed. I check them regularly, and as soon as a seed shows a little white root tip, I plant it in whatever container I am using and put it on the heat mat. For old seeds, it's great because only the viable ones are planted, - no wasted space.
Potted non soaked naga seeds on heat mat- some with pointed end cut as with comments suggested @lets see results
Love from India❤ pl tell me how to grow Jamaican Cherry from seeds😊 Thanks..
I soaked 12 variety of super hot, no telling what I'm going to get as they are popping after a week no heat only a dome and in pellets and the seeds are 8 years old
About to try germinating some flexuosum, and plan to soak in chamomile as an anti-fungal since they aparently are susceptible and take a long time to sprout (and are unreliable)
The method that’s worked for me is just sprouting outdoors in a place where the morning sun hits but not the afternoon when it’s the hottest
I know what's faster than all of that, cut the part of the seed where the radicle comes out of then soak in warm water for ten minutes then warm chamomile tea for ten minutes and they'll germinate in mere hours, i've already tried it and it works 100%
Giberellic acid is my best worst kept secret when it comes to seeds that are stubborn to germinate
I had a wind disaster, *inside* my little green house.. the shelf with my pepper starts tipped over.. no openings.. windows rolled down.. bricks on the sides of the plastic so I started over. I'm doing the wet paper towel in a baggie thing.. on top of the fridge. It's only been 2 days now.
There are no hot ones.
I'm restarting Ajvarski, Buran, Golden Marconi, Roulette heatless habaneros, some mini bells and a pimento.. hopefully.
Surprisingly enough, the only pepper we have in common this time out of the dozens I'm growing is Ajvarski (from Baker Creek 2024) -- and none germinated within 15 days, which is my current cutoff time. If I have time and space I'll retry them. Close to half the pepper seeds I start are from seeds saved from the previous 1-2 years.
i used to use the paper towel baggie approach -- it tells you very quickly whether germination will happen -- but I found I get more viable seedlings faster starting directly in seed starting mix under a humidity dome.
@@davidniemi6553I only have the one heat mat.. not nearly enough space for seeds that might not sprout.. they only get that after a root pops out in a baggie.. sometimes with a tiny piece of the paper towel it's gotten attached to. Who knew, manicure scissors are a garden tool.
@@HealthyDisrespectforAuthority During my paper towel/baggie phase I found that planting some bits of paper towel in with the sprouted seed is just as well, they are water-absorbent and very biodegradable. I continue to use little squares of paper towel at the bottom of my pots to keep soil from falling out the drainage holes.
It would probably be more useful to look at this data in histogram or normal distribution form. I’d venture to guess that the last seed to germinate from the soaked and heated set threw the average off considerably. I’d be happy to share an excel file I use to compare small sets of data in an assumed normal distribution. It’s down-and-dirty, but I use it all the time in my work as a mechanical engineer.
I had good results from old 2019 tomato seeds by putting 5 to 10 seeds in between 2 wet paper towels inside a ziploc bag and putting in top of the fridge. Once in a while i will take the ziploc bag and put it on my radiator in my livingroom for more warmth then put back on top of the fridge. I alternate fridge to radiator. Not all seeds germinated, but most did. Surprised for 2019 seeds. I have more different varieties of 2019 tomato seeds. I only do it for old seeds. New seeds i just put in a big container with soil as i garden in containers at my apartment.
👍
Does "smoking" pepper powder, like the Mark Weins Smoked Ghost Pepper have calories? How does the "smoked" process occur?
Since I soak seeds I never had a problem with shell stuck on the leafs, and that was a big problem for me when I first started years ago. Maybe the fack that I like to sow deeper then mostly recomended helps too, but not sure.
And I always plant one seed per cell, because I do not like to thin out. With soak method and good seed I mostly get 1 or 0 empty spot from a 24cell seedtray.
Could you quantify "deeper"? I plant both tomato and pepper seeds at least 1/4" (0.5+ cm) with very moist, packed seed starting mix above. I also put the heat mat on my light timer after exactly 3 days. Using this approach I get much less than 1% incidence of "helmet head" -- if I forget to put the heat mat on the light timer even one day later I see cases of it again. That said, the extra depth and intermittent heat mat probably reduce germination, at least among the weaker/old seeds. Hard to tell.
I usually plant about 3 seeds per cell and separate them very early (as soon as at leats 2 of them are fully emerged). At that point separating is really easy and I can move them from sterile seed starting soil into nutritious potting mix.
@@davidniemi6553 about 1,5cm, they germiante mostly in about 5-7 days
I started 8 different varieties of pepper 3 weeks ago. They've been sitting in a room where the ambient temperature is ~70 degrees. I've been using a humidity dome/capillary watering system. Not a single one has sprouted... I guess I need to invest in a heat mat?
Majority of the time i do soak my seeds (warm water) for 24 hours with pretty good success rate.
I have some Chili Chump jalapeno seeds that have germinated over the last 2 days. When they came out of the soil however, they like cork screwed or twisted all kinds of curly. They may be on the way to becoming straighter as time goes on. I will wait. But has anyone ever had peppers come up in this manner?
I hope your peppers will be okay. However that sounds like herbicide damage. Particularly an aminopyralid issue. Aminopyralids are persistent herbicides showing up in cow and horse manure... as well as at many common free compost sites/facilities. Check out Black Gumbo Southern Garden website here on UA-cam.... and Google Aminopyralid as well. Good luck to you! I imported a "garden mix" to top off my garden beds and it took 3 years for my garden to recover. 😢
I bet the bells, doesn't matter, the rainforest one a little more, the Naga cares a lot and didn't germinate at all with no heat and best was also with tea soak.
This is a great experiment, but as a scientist, I would really like to see the group statistics, with mean +/- standard deviation and any p values. Especially the subgroup analysis. is 7 really any different than 5 seeds that sprouted in this small group?
I would guess that the soaked and heated seeds would germinate the fastest... Surprised with your results!
Same! I assumed this as well, but I imagine soaking may become important with older seeds or difficult-to-germinate types
My peppers are hit and miss so far. 15 varieties planted. 8 nearly failed. 10 cells of each planted. New seeds.
I would have guessed soaked and heated!!
Heat is king trust me 😎👍🏻
Your experiment with the black tea is likely why germination was long on average.
I use combination of NFTG kelp and BioAG humic acid combination. Soak for 12 hrs, then heat mat at 85.
My Superhot22 seed germination average is 6-8 days, older seeds being 12-14.
That's pretty consistent with what I get with no soaking and about an 80F (unregulated) heat mat. The data neither of us is comparing is germination percentage, which is kind of hard to compare without using the same type and vintage of seeds, that is where soaking is widely expected to help most.
Heat is absolutely the most important factor due to peppers being sub-tropical. Temperature Control, moisture control and proper sowing are the most important factors for any seed's success.
I've had pretty good success with tea-soaking my seeds for 30-60 minutes (after they were chilled in the fridge for 24 hours, though they could have done with being there for 72h) and will certainly be doing it in future. My method is to make black tea, let it brew and cool for 30 minutes, remove the teabag then dilute with equal parts plain water before using to soak seeds before planting! All of my non-chinense seeds germinated within a week (my lemon drops started germinating only 3 days after planting and all were up a mere 2 days later!) while my chinense seeds began germination after a week. More importantly success is very high right now! My chinense seeds still need time before I can verify success, but my other seeds only had a SINGLE seed not germinate in the entire set! Well worth doing this method if you've get a very limited number of seeds (as most everyday pepper seed packs come with only about 5 seeds typically!) to maximize your success! I will likely be continuing to soak my seeds for years to come.
Even if Pepper Geek's video ends up being the truth, that not soaking makes the seed germinate faster, I think it's still worth it to soak to increse your seed's viability. You wouldn't want to drop money on some seeds that don't grow, would you?
If you want to speed up germination, use scarification. Cut off the pointed end of the seed, and then continue with planting.
I float my seeds in water with seed protection and a seed starter (09-30-25).
I use H2O2 only on spinach seed. I sow all tomatoes and peppers in damp potting mix. I just freely spread seed into an open tray. No cells!! Cover them lightly and water them in. I put dome over trays and that’s it. I turn heat up a little in laundry room. About 8 to 10 days they pop up. Tomatoes sooner!!
How can you tell which variety is which? (It matters to me -- I grow dozens of tomato and pepper varieties very year...)
I don’t understand what the tea adds?
soak my seeds overnight in salt peter/ water mix 1qt water 1tsp salt peter, rinse seeds off before planting. set heat matt for 84deg, use humidity dome till germination . usually 7 to 10 days.
Yup that is what many people doing too with great results (saltpeter = Potassium Nitrate, common fertilizer). But I guess it's not available in every country freely or only sells as expensive pure lab grade. Where I live it's only like 2$ per kilo and available in every garden store.
If you'd soaked for 4 hours instead of 12, I'd definitely pick soak & heat UNLESS your soil moisture is perfectly moist, then both heats would be a tie if you're offsetting by soak time.
Now, for the rest of the video.
Cool. Expected, especially if your no-soak is placed in a heated mix AND your soaked seed is not placed is heated water during those 12 hours.
Ok, this is what I do now that I've watched and you've asked. Good and interesting video by the way! I do the bleach treatment priming method to eliminate disease. Then, I'll rinse and leave the seed in s small mouthwash cup for up to 4 hours in warm water. I have a thermostat controlled power strip to power a ceramic heater instead of a heat mat. The one I'm using is actually from a 2' x 4' heat mat. A ceramic heater hits all parts of the tray at all levels and keeps it perfectly the right temp. Heating from just the bottom, with a mat, is only partially viable depending on the room's ambient temperature. I have a grow room and it dips to 50F at night and sometimes only 60F during the day. A heat mat, even on a thermostat can't keep the soil temperature up to 82F. A ceramic heater removes the ambient air worry. It's more consistent. Fastest germination I've ever had.
Potassium nitrate is the way
The soaking seeds
Before I see results: my guess is soaked and heated seeds germinate best.
Was my guess as well, and I still think this may be the right option if you have very old seeds. May need to test again with out very oldest varieties
is green thumb a myth? I got seeds sprouting with just 2 days.. the package says 7-14 days.. seeds are not soaked and in a "attic room temperature"
2 days would be astoundingly fast even for a tomato seed, let alone a pepper; what seeds are you sprouting and how do you do it? I used to use the paper towel + baggie method, which would sprout faster but I lost a lot of time and percentage transplanting them to soil.
Wow that’s smart ing 2 days 😮
I think heated will perform best and soaking won't have much of an effect.
I have no way to heat the seeds. Usually just start them in wet paper towel and wait for the cold weather to have passed before putting them outdoors.
Depending on how old seeds,, r
Can I buy purple Carolina reaper pepper seed from you??
Seeing that it takes some seeds over 20 days to germinate makes me realize I am way too impatient. I usually panic and re-seed if I don’t see any action with the seed in 10 days.
No heat + soaking I guess will provide the best result.
Maybe soaking in different liquids will give better result. Interesting to know that high temperature impacts gemination so good.
These results are bizarre compared to what I've seen in other videos. Maybe the temperature of the tea has something to do with it?
Just plant in heat mat
Speed of germination really doesn't matter to me & I prefer not to have the extra stuff & energy consumption to provide heat. I also tried tea soaking half of each variety this year & haven't noticed any real difference. So far an overall 83% germination rate, which I would expect to rise in the coming days. I'm happy to stick with the no soaking, no heat that I've always done before.
The only time that I've had real problems is with seeds over a year old. With those, I would try soaking again.
83% is an amazing germination rate for pepper seeds. I'm not getting anywhere near that even on reputable commercially bought seeds packaged for 2024. But to me, time does matter too, if they take too long lots of diseases start and it's hard to make plans for anything not yet up -- perhaps it doesn't matter to you because yours are quick? What is your room temperature?
@davidniemi6553 my room is around 21-22°C & germination normally happens after around 10 - 21 days. Varieties range from aji pouts & jalepenos to habaneros & carolina reapers. Most of the seeds come from my previous year's harvest & I normally get a germination rate of around 90%. Today is the 21st day, and the rate is now at 85%, so that may be it. From my own seeds, it is 90% & from shop bought seeds, 70%.
my guess soaked and heated no tea did best
My opinion is you should have only used 1 type of seeds. That would have been a better test
Well i have good results with a bag wrapped in a cloth
You should definitely split the data up by species when you're presenting the overall results, because this data can be misleading otherwise.
Consider how the chinense seeds took much more time to germinate: If soaking + heating is more effective at successfully germinating those seeds, then you're going to have more "slow" data points than a method that doesn't successfully germinate as many of those seeds, i.e. the slower "outliers" get automatically filtered out from the methods that don't successfully germinate those seeds, but they don't get filtered out from the methods that do successfully germinate. This can make it look like those methods are "slower" for germinating when that isn't necessarily the case.