Soaking Pepper Seeds in Paper Towel

Paper Towel Advantages

• Starting your pepper seeds in a soaked paper towel allows you to control the temperature and moisture levels easily; both factors are necessary for quick and successful germination. Also, placing your soaked paper towel-wrapped pepper seeds in a clear container means you can see easily how far along the seeds have sprouted and determine the ideal time to transplant them to soil. Soaking the seeds in paper towel ensures a disease- and fungi-free environment, as long as the towel and container used are sterile.

Soil Advantages

• As the natural environment for starting pepper seeds, soil reduces the number of times the resulting plants undergo transplant shock. If you start the seeds in a seedling tray with soil, the plants need to be transplanted only once. If you sow the seeds directly in a garden, then no transplanting is required. A nutrient-rich soil that is well-aerated provides the ideal natural environment for pepper plants to take root, and immediate access to nutrients is available as soon as the seedlings require the nutrients.

Paper Towel Drawbacks

• Starting your pepper seeds in paper towel requires you to transplant the pepper plants. You may need to transplant them twice if you start the seedlings indoors before moving them outside to a garden plot. Each transplant places the plants under extra stress, which can lead to poor growth or, in extreme instances, death. With paper towel-soaked seeds, the first transplant is particularly sensitive because the rootstock is exposed and even a slight bruising or touching of a root can lead to plant death. One option is to use tweezers to transport the sprouted seeds gently into their final garden bed or into a container that is large enough to allow the plants to develop significantly before they are transplanted to a garden bed.

Soil Drawbacks

• Sowing pepper seeds directly into soil, especially in an outdoor garden plot, limits your control over the growing conditions during the seeds' germination period. The seeds may need to be started later than usual outdoors if the weather is uncooperative or the soil is not fully drained. As well, soil, particularly garden plot soil, easily can become compacted and susceptible to disease if it is not properly prepared. Well-draining, well-aerated soil is necessary for healthy seed germination. Pepper seeds planted too deeply in soil do not germinate because they require quick and ready access to sunlight and warmth during and immediately after germination.