I raise tepins in upstate NY with success.

Helpful hint: Patience
Tepins are pretty much wild plants that don't need a lot of attention or fertilizer.

@Willard3 - How did you go about breaking the seed dormancy tendency of the tepin?

I'm right outside of Boston and have two plants that have done pretty well growing in containers. The oldest one is two years old and is exclusively indoors just because it always has been and on account of limited outdoor space. The yoounger one moves back and forth with the seasons, but it hasn't produced as much as its indoor counterpart, even though they were grown from the same seeds. Neither flowers much and hardly ever produces fruit during the colder months, but starting about april the big one really takes off and has about fifteen to twenty peppers at once when it gets going. They really are best left to themselves, and I've found cutting them back a bit during the winter to be good as well.

Willard where about do you live ? I live in the Akron area
Gene

For me, seems like May humid weather is perfect for germinating - I just put my seeds in a small styrofoam cup on top of the soil and then water it and sprinkle some dirt on top. The temps of 90 in may basically have nearly everything pop up. I also put all the seeds in one cup and worry about separating afterward when they get strong enough to transplant.

So far the only ones that have not come up for me have been the wilds that I put in the cups around 04/05 I believe. I'll keep them out until mid june before I call it quits though :)

It is an urban myth that tepins are particularly hard to germinate. Chile seeds in general take a while to germinate. I live in Albany.

Make the right conditions and they will germinate.

I have a self-watering seedling starter that I got for Christmas last year. Now that it has warmed up, I have been placing the container on my front porch for the day. Normally when I get home, there is condensation all over the inside of the cover which I then distribute across the cells. I dug around a little to check on my tepin seeds, but no luck yet. Does that sound like the "right conditions" or should I be doing something different?

P.S. Do you think I steam cooked my seeds???

You should measure the temperature in your starter. If it gets to 100-105F, you'll cook the seeds.

Don't guess the temperature, measure the temperature with a good thermometer.

Well, I had a couple serrano sprouts that are still alive and kicking. If they made it, do you think seeds buried 1/8 - 1/4" under the soil survived? Don't worry, I won't hold ya' to it. . .

Well, my serranos finally passed out and died. I'm re-starting all my seeds...

Too much heat could be the problem. You might be keeping the soil too wet. Once they have sprouted let the soil dry out some before watering.

Well, I'm pretty sure I steam cooked all the seeds in my starting flat. Either way, I started a new batch of seeds and am already seeing tap roots emerging. If I can get the chiltepins to break, I'll be happy but I have just order some plants...

UPDATE: I now have a couple tepin seedlings. The plants I have outside are less than phenomenal... Is this normal or should I give them a shot of fertilizer?

I'm trying to grow Chiltepins for the first time. I read quite a bit about germination being difficult for these peppers. I decided to try a couple of seeds the first time since I only have a few dried pods that I received from a friend. I broke open one pod and got 13 seeds. One of them dropped on the floor and wasn't found (probably found by the dog). I put them in a wet paper towel with most of the water squeezed out and folded it. I kept it in a quart sized freezer bag in the fridge for 4 days. Afterwards I added a couple of drops of water to the surface of the paper towel then zipped the baggie shut and put it in a warm place. I just put it on top of my cable box since it was the only place I could think of that would stay warm and undisturbed.
I did what most people say to do and forgot about them for the most part. I checked them about three weeks later and found that 4 seeds had roots sticking out by 1/8 inch or more. I planted these four seeds and then left the rest to keep warm. Two days later 5 more seeds had germinated by a mm or so. I also planted these. The remaining seeds were fat and looked like they would germinate any time so I planted them too. I planted them in peat pellets. One of the seeds is dark brown in the center and is most likely bad. I had 12 spots for peat pellets on the grow tray so I planted this seed anyway, but I don't think it will grow. I'm now almost at the end of week 5 of my project and this morning I saw that one of the seedlings is about 1/4 inch above the soil.

Do not, I repeat, do not give new sprouts any fertilizer.
Patience.............

I just have them under a power compact flourescent light for about 12 hrs a day. I am watering sparingly. I now have 8 seedlings. How long should I wait until I give them a mild dose of fertilizer?

Do I need any fertilzer for my tepin plants? I have two tepin plants one is looking really good just in compost but the fruit have absolutely no heat but the fruit are actually bigger than my second plant. The second one have normal sized fruit and they are in a pot with some compost from a couple of years ago. They have produced about 15 or 20 tepins this season are nice and hot but, the plant is starting to wilt and the leaves are yellowing. I have only watered when the compost gets really dry. Thank you

Try adding some garden lime. That should green it up. Just a 1/2of a hand full and work into soil. Takes a couple weeks to start greening up. If that doesn't work try a liquid fertilizer. It will work much faster.Cheap 15 30 15 miracle grow works well. Do 1/2 the recomended amount evry other week.