Starting Pepper & Tomato Seeds Inside

Well like any good gardener I'm always look for a better cheaper way!  I love homemade salsa.  Because I'm cheap that means I need to experiment a bit with growing my own peppers and tomatoes.  My goal will be not to buy plants this year.  So to that end I have homemade growing stations down in the basement.  My husband made this for me which with the PCV pipe, Light Fixture, Grow Light came to about $50.  Add to that an additional $25-100 for a grow matt, your talking some serious cha-ching.  So, will I be saving anything, I expect over the years I will, plus it will keep me out of trouble during the long Minnesota Winter.   

Now on the actual method I use for starting my Tomato and Pepper Plants.  I like to pre-germination my seeds, I've done it for years with the window sill Tomatoes, but this year I'll be doing it with my pepper plants as well, under the lights.    

Step One:  Gather materials, a plate, seeds, spray bottle, coffee filter, zip lock bags.  

Step two:  Lightly spritz coffee filter, you don't want the filter dripping as that will promote rot instead of germination.  

Step Three:  Put seeds on Coffee Filter......

                         
                     and fold filter

Step Four: Label Zip lock baggie and insert seeded coffee filter

Step Five:  Place under lights and on heat matt for 3- 7 days until seeds germinate

Check daily to make sure the seeds don’t dry out.  Again, only add enough water to moisten the coffee filters; you don’t want the seeds rotting.  Now peppers are notoriously slow to germinate with this method I'm hoping to get better germination rates as well as faster germination.  Germination with Peppers can be a bit temperamental.  

Here is a great web site that can step you through.