heated or unheated propagator

misskool

The seeds have been in the tray for 10 days now and not a single shoot.

The room isn't the warmest and we're out all day so watering it once in the morning and once in the evening, giving it a good soak.

Will it be worth getting a heated propogator? or what else can I do?

In the trays are tomato, peppers, chillies, aubergine. It's my first time growing so please be nice
I think most of the advice will be to have a bit more patience.

moppet_217

Depending on the type of chillis some can take a while to germinate.

The seeds you have mentioned all need to be around 20 degrees to germinate. Have you covered the tray? You can just cover them with a polythene bag and it will help warm the soil and retain heat.

We brought a heated propergater this year but only as we are doing lots of sowing. If you are only going to do a few seeds this year I would not bother just cover the tray and place on a sunny window ledge.

It also sounds as though you may be over watering them they need to be damp not wet. The other thing is how deep did you plant them?

HTH

misskool

it definitely isn't 20 degrees in the room they are in, I think we need to find somewhere else for them

I planted them about half a fingernail deep? Is that a problem? What are the depths I should be planting them at?

elliep_2

I don't know if it's correct but about half a fingernail deep sounds about the same as mine and they are just beginning to sprout yesterday. I'm not sure how long they've been in the soil but I covered it with clingfilm until they appeared, and now I've managed tofind my propogator lid from last year so that's great timing to help keep them a bit warmer on the windowsil. They are in the extention to our house and it doesn't have central heating in there so it's not as warm as the rest of the house but they seem to be doing OK.

I suspect that you need to wait a little longer. Maybe give a bit more warmth if you can but only if you can and don't worry if you can't.

Lotus-eater

I bought a heated propagator this year for the first time and was amazed how quickly my chillis came through, normally they take ages, with some not coming through at all.
You only need to make the compost damp when you sow them and keep it like that. Immerse the tray in a bigger tray of water till the top of the compost starts to go damp, then remove and drain. You won't need to do that very often at all.

If you don't use a propagator most of them will come through (probably ) but they will take longer. I've had chillis take 6 weeks easy.

Oh yeah, the hotter the chilli, the more heat they need to germinate apparently.

Farway

I would use a heated propagator

I sowed pepper seeds, nothing for weeks, including a spell in the airing cupboard, put into heated propagator and up in a few days

You do not need it on "high" as others have said around 20c is fine for most seeds, and with thermostat control it is not on all day, in fact if in sunny area [like mine] it only functions once the sun goes down

Once germinated you can turn it off after a few days

I have just removed the peppers to a sunny window sill & sown tomatoes today, I will try & let all know when they germinate

misskool

|Right, will be off to blast the seeds with some heat
Thanks all

misskool

24 hours in a heated propagator and almost EVERYTHING has shoots out.

I'm not sure if it's because the seeds were almost germinated and the heat just gave them a kick start to finish it off or just because I was willing them to grow so much.

That's my new favorite piece of kit for now Thanks to all for your advice.

Lotus-eater

It's because of all the love you gave them :happyhear

Farway

Just an update to my post on 6th re my tomatoes sown in heated propogator

They are now nearly all up, so that was 4 days with heat

Mozart321

I sow my seeds in a heated propagator on the surface of compost covered by a very shallow (as shallow as possible but covered) with vermiculite.