Pretty late to start seeds, but nonetheless peppers need warm temps to germinate. Sounds like you need to learn how to germinate seeds if you have them in the dark. Plenty of information out there to start learning.

Dan

Yeah, I got a late start this year, but I'm in East Texas, and we have a pretty long growing season, so I'm hopeful to get a few peppers before our cold weather hits in late Dec/Jan.

I had the seeds outside trying to get them to germinate because I don't have grow lights and we keep our house pretty cold. But even though the daytime temps
are already warm (80's - 90's) here, it's still in the 60's at night. Nothing sprouted in a week's time (not even some tomato seeds I was trying to start), so a couple of days ago I put them in the entertainment center because that's the only place with consistently warm temps. Now all my tomatoes have sprouted, and I have two pepper sprouts. I guess I could put them outside during the day in the sunlight, and then put them in the entertainment center at night so they don't get too cold?? I guess from what I read I thought it was okay to germinate them in a dark warm place, but they needed to be moved to a sunny place afterwards.

Mel recommends starting tomato seeds in vermiculite and then moving them to a little pot after they sprout, and that's what I did for the tomatoes. Can I do the same thing with peppers?

Rachel

Here is a link that might be useful: Look Ma No Weeds

You can do the same thing with peppers and just about any seed you intend to transplant. One they sprout, I would take them outside and leave them there. I'm in OH and the only time I took them back inside was when the low was forecast to be in the 30s.

Mike

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I ended up snipping off the cells of the sprouted seeds and placing those in a sunny windowsill at the house. The cells with seeds that haven't sprouted are still in the entertainment center where it's nice a consistently toasty. So far 5 of the 8 seeds have sprouted, and the seedlings seem to be doing well. But next year I'm absolutely going to make sure I start them in vermiculite.

Rachel

Here is a link that might be useful: Look Ma No Weeds