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Scrapped off the vermiculite and recovered any seeds recovered for pots 2 & 10 along with the seeds from the Ring of Fire, Red Scotch Bonnet and Chocolate Habanero. Most were found to be rotten. One each from Ring of Fire and Chocolate Habanero passed the squeeze test (there were no signs of sprouts). These were put aside. All 4 seeds in pots 2 and 10 had rotted away.
Ring of Fire, Red Scotch Bonnet and Chocolate Habanero.
Germination in 2017 was poor, so may be that the seed is too old or has deteriorated in open packets.
The Wet Tissue Method (11/03/2018)
Not sure how hot the Chris11 peppers are, decided to try and germinate the remaining Chocolate Habanero and Cayenne (Hot) Pepper seeds using the wet tissue method. (no Ring of Fire Left)
Placed a sealed fast food container with a layer of moist tissue the fresh seeds, the recovered seed from the Autopsy and covered with 2nd layer to tissue into the propagator. Hopping to get a couple Chocolate Habanero to go with the Chocolate Habanero, 2 x Ring of Fire and 2 x Red Scotch Bonnet plants overwintered.
Helmet Heads - New Term for the month.
Meaning a seed case that has not released the baby leaves.
Similar to Onion “uprooting” where the onion seed case holds top of seedling in the soil forcing the root to be uprooted as it grows.
11/03/18
The seedling are now off-heat and growing on in Porch. Colour and leaf shape developing. All plants with helmet head have been treated.
It is clear that 8A,8B and 11B are very similar and look to be the same variety.
16/03/18
All plants have been re-potted into their own 10cm black pot (inc 2 brown pots in picture).
Going forward, measurements will be to nearest 10mm. (Still in small pots due to space restriction) Greenhouse unheated
There were some hot ones in the mix, about the same heat as your chocolate habanero, or a bit less. They might also have been the ones more difficult and less likely to germinate, so don't know whether you have any of those at this stage.
When the plants get a bit bigger, you can usually tell whether they're C. annuum or C. chinense by the growth habit and leaf shape.
Great record keeping and pictures