How long have the seed been planted? I have had pepper seed come up a full two months after planting. My Malagueta took about 6 weeks to germinate and did the poorest of the three. The Pappadews germinated better than the other two and even better than all but one of my bell peppers. I used no heat other than occaisional propane heat on the porch when nights got in the low 20's to keep it from freezing. All of the seed I sent out and the seed I planted were from the same coin envelope so I am baffled by the poor germination.
I always plant a lot of pepper seeds and usually plant them twice a few weeks apart. I do this because I can never figure out the best time to plant them and invariably one planting will do better than the other for some of the seeds while the other planting will be better for the others. Of course I have rarely had a year that some pepper seed doesn't germinate or does so poorly that I don't have enough. I've been growing peppers for 35 years and they are still a mystery to me. A couple of years ago I set out a whole row of Cayenne plants in early May and did not get a single pepper off of them til late September. I used the same seed the next year and planted the same time and was getting peppers in late June.
I think I still have some more seed if it is not too late. I'll save more if my plants do good this year but that is never a sure thing. Closest thing I have found to a sure thing in peppers is a bell called Socrates that TGS sells. The truly sure thing in my garden is nut grass and rattlesnake weed.
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