No show chilli and Egg plant

[Marb67]

Well, even after using a heat mat for 2 weeks all my toms bar one variety have germinated fine and doing well BUT all my chillies, peppers and eggplant are no show. All the same sieved seed sowing compost as the toms. These are all different packets and some saved seed so why would they not show ? It's ridiculous as the heat matt has provided constant germination temp.

[Containergardener]

I chitted quite a few things first this year. Perhaps try that?

[Marb67]

I am sorry I don’t know what that means, I thought only potatoes were chitted.

[Mark Rand]

In my experience, chillis and peppers take a lot longer to germinate than tomatoes when they're both kept at the same temperature.

[Marb67]

The guide time for peppers germinating on the heat mat is 7-10 days.

[Peanut]

Sorry you're having problems with your peppers, chillies and aubergines Marb. I find mine tend to take up to two weeks to show, even being on a heat mat 24/7 from the day they are sown. Give them a bit more time.

Chitting seeds is when you put a dampened a piece of kitchen towel on a saucer or lid, or whatever you have to hand. Then put some of the seeds on it, fold it over, place the whole thing in a plastic bag and keep somewhere warm. If the seeds are good, then after a few days or longer, maybe a week, they will start to sprout. Once they have germinated you can then put them into your seed trays to grow on and throw the dud seeds away.

I do this for things like sweetcorn, but don't tend to for small seeds. Lots of folks on here do though so it's definitely worth trying.

[Andraste]

I've found some varieties can take longer than others to germinate too. My sweet peppers in particular this year took something daft like around 21 days just to chit & over a week after that to show above the compost but I had chillies chitted at the same time that hit the same stage in a fortnight. There are currently just seed leaves on the sweet peppers but the chillies have several sets of true leaves. All in the same conditions.

[ChingfordHarry]

My aubergines this year are very disappointing - two sowings of eight seeds each, 16 Feb and 27 Feb (heated propagator) - 1 seedling from the first, two from the second and none of them looking very strong, none appeared for at least three weeks.

On the the other hand, I have more (healthy) tomato seedlings than the number of seeds that I thought I'd sown.

[Marb67]

I didn't realise they can take that long. I have seen people on YouTube use a heat mat and have them up very quick. I have been turning off the mat on sunny days and taking them, with the Tom's into the greenhouse to get the light and heat from there and bringing them in at night when it's cold. I still keep the Tom's on the heat matt even though they are an inch high.

[Andraste]

I wouldn't bother with moving anything that hasn't shown above the compost into the greenhouse in the day, although I do appreciate it's good to be able to save a little by switching of the heat mat at those times but then I've never quite worked out how seeds get light if they're under 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil.

I put mine to chit (between damp kitchen roll in takeaway tub) just on the kitchen worktop & then transfer the sprouted ones to modules/pots that live on the kitchen windowsill (under bags until they show so I don't have to worry about them drying out & they get a little extra warmth) with no additional heat source.

[Marb67]

By the time they show (if they do) it'll be cheaper to buy them from a garden centre for the cost of running the heat. They are in the greenhouse today as it's warm so no point wasting electric.

[Nicos]

Have a look at this chart Marb…they need the minimum temperature and above constantly. Any dip below the minimum puts the seeds on hold for a few days…Check out the first paragraph too.

https://hyjo.co.uk/seed-germination-...om%20sprouting.

[smallblueplanet]

I didn't realise they can take that long. I have seen people on YouTube use a heat mat and have them up very quick. I have been turning off the mat on sunny days and taking them, with the Tom's into the greenhouse to get the light and heat from there and bringing them in at night when it's cold. I still keep the Tom's on the heat matt even though they are an inch high.

Then follow what people on YouTube do. I doubt they take them in and out of the heat. I look at your compost and think it seems very 'heavy' for seed compost, maybe a bit of perlite needed for drainage and we cover our modules with a sprinkling of vermiculte. But the seeds will germinate just by chitting them on damp kitchen roll, however they need the constant temperature that mimics their 'native' environment.

[Nicos]

I was thinking about the heaviness of marb’s soil too, but I noticed that he doesn’t seem to like using pearlite etc to lighten any of his potting mixes.
Out of interest Marb…what is the temperature of the soil when they are on the heating mat?

[Marb67]

The temp of the soil will be the same as the heat mat (which doesn't have a temp control " The greenhouse heat mat provides consistent, uniform heating at temperatures around 70°F to 85°F (24℃ to 30℃)" I don't use perlite/vermiculite as it very expensive. I used sieved Irish peat moss which is not heavy, in fact it's very light. Still nothing showing expect the shadow of a looming big electric bill