RickCorey said:
I tried to say "Get the mix moist BEFORE pushing seeds in. Cotton flannel under a seedling tray makes it easier to bottom-water, but I also top-water occasionally. Many commercial seed-starting mixes benefit from adding coarse things like Perlite, grit or bark."
LOL, Rick -- one more thing that we do differently! I fill my cell-packs with potting mix, pack it down a little (by pushing a small stack of the same kind of cell-packs down onto it), put the seeds on top and then cover lightly with a little more potting mix -- except for larger seeds I make a small hole in the cell to drop the seed in instead of putting it on top, and for extremely tiny seeds I don't cover them. Then I take the flat to the kitchen sink and use the pull-out faucet sprayer to gently wet the top of the packs and settle the seeds in, and then just run water into the flat itself (by removing one of the packs) to a depth of half an inch or so (obviously I use flats without drainage holes), which will be absorbed from the bottom. Exception: for the extremely tiny seeds I just mist thoroughly with a spray bottle. Top it off with a humidity dome and put it on my plant-light shelves and wait for the miracle to happen.
Woofie, when do you plant your peppers outdoors? Mine don't go out until around June 1st, my seeds get started about April 1st. (and again, I may be the only one that does it this way... but I don't give them any particular amount of heat; under my lights they're around 70-74 in the daytime and mid to high 60s at night, without any problems.)
