I've grown some "serrano chilis" in past years, that the amigos at the barns I work at would wince when eating them straight!!! I grew some killer "habenero chilis" last year that the amigos had to put into salsas to make edible.
I noticed that my peppers kept getting hotter over the years. They were cross pollinating with other varieties. So, the banana peppers got habanero hot, jalapeños were habanero hot, and habaneros got ghost pepper hot. The ghosts, well, were just as deathly as before. So, it'll be nice to have peppers not all death hot by starting over with new seeds, and plants depending on what I find at all the garden centers. I made jalapeño poppers from the last year's pepper harvest, and they were very hot. Too hot for my wife to eat them.
I finally turned on the fluorescent lights on the planted seeds yesterday & today, two of four tomato plants are up, the hot pepper plants should be up Monday or Tuesday. It's not a big deal but the expiration date on the seed packages were up 3 years ago.
Only two of four tomato plants are up and none of 4 pepper plants rrrrrrrrrrrrrr up. The pepper plants take longer so we'll see.
I should've soaked the hot pepper seeds in water for 24 hours before planting. At about 5 today I did put some hot pepper seeds in water, we'll plant them in 24 hours.
I found my stash of hybrid cross pollinated death peppers. I'll soak them and put them in old flower pots that come from the nursery. I save a bunch of those from the recycling bin every year. I didn't soak any of the pepper seeds I planted before. I can see why soaking them for a day could make a huge difference.
Best thing I ever did was goto raised beds. Better yield. Plant sooner. Less bending over and less weeding. I made mine so I can cover with glass . Kinda like a cold frame. Our normal plant time is June 1st. I can get stuff started 1-2nd week in may with the glass on the beds.
peppers take a good 2-3 weeks sometimes. I have a few that JUST popped up, and i started my seedlings the 2nd week of march!
I'll be planting the ones I soaked in water later tonight, we'll see how long they take or if they even come up. Edit 8:10 pm 4/15/2015, I planted the six hot pepper seeds that I soaked in water......they're underneath the light with the rest of the seeds I planted, the clocks ticking.
Since only one tomato plant came up, we decided to buy a pack of six plants from a local Amish family. We'll be planting them in 5 gallon buckets this year until I can get more time to make a smaller raised bed garden. None of the hot pepper plants came up so I'll be looking to buy one or two this week. Next year I'll get the plants started in early March and I also buy some new seeds, the seeds I used this year were past the expiration date.
About half of the seeds I planted this year were past their best used by date by a year. I only had 2 dud cells, one jalapeño pack literally had 4 seeds. 1 seed didn't even germinate, and I think a cell of a couple bell peppers didn't germinate. All of my maters I grew from seeds are huge and will be planted this weekend. I stopped at a little house on my way home from work that sells plants. I bought 3 cherry tomato plants, a couple zinnia flowers and some sweet pea flowers, as well as 3 jalapeño plants. 50¢ a plant, and the guy burns wood too. I'll see what else I need, but I'll have a full garden again, and most of it I grew from seed. I just need to harden the plants before planting them.