We increased our garden to 3000 plants this year, 400 of which are specialty strains such as Ghost, habanero, ScothB. and Thai. Our main field is Anaheim, Mosco and Poblano. The Mosco's are suited perfectly for our hot dry alkaline environment although most peppers grow beautifully out here without amendments or nutes. I started the BJ in mid feb, germinated in 9 days. The SB, Hab's, and Thai's were planted march 1 and broke the surface yesterday. I use metal halides from seed and mix my own starter which is mostly perlite with about 30% coco coir. No nutes are necesary for the first 4 weeks. I use a strong fan from the start to prepare the seedlings for our heavy spring winds and keep the humidity around 90%+. Soil temps are maintained at 85-90 F from the start. The batch will move into a cold frame on 4/15 unless we have late snow. When soil temps are correct they will go into the ground. I only use organic nutes such as biothrive bloom 2-4-4, beginning at about 4 weeks. Occasionally we'll spray the field with our worm tea which we make at our worm farm. We produce about 100lbs worm castings daily at our farm. I hear so much chatter about long germination periods, lighting and other problems associated with peppers. The truth is, its easy if you simply keep a hot humid environment and avoid commercial media mixes which typically use lots of peat. Roots like air, they dont like suffocating in constantly wet, dense mixes like peat. If a small amount of peat is used with lots of perlite it does fine. I just prefer coco. Roots organic hydroponic starter is a great product if you dont like making your own. I achieve a 90-95%+ germ. rate consistently, regardless of seed vendor or strain. Keep it simple.