I started a great deal of older pepper seeds (some from 2011) along with my newer seed, thinking use or loose these packs. I used Jiffy mix, and at the last minute dusted a very thin coat of food grade DE over the cells as a preemptive strike against fungus gnats.
From my observation, the DE dried out the emerging seed heads. I would wait until seedlings emerge! The helmet heads are so dry, some seed didn't germinate, and they are far behind where they should have been. I added a few varieties in another tray with Jiffy and with no problems. My first tray looked so bad that I basically started the original varieties over again in Wondersoil, and they are much more robust. Any helmet heads were easily removed with my valuable spit.
On a positive note, coated seeds dated 2015 were viable! I gave then a little soak in blue stuff, and they were among the first to come up. Before I planted, the seeds looked like tiny pearls. The coating was a very fine milky looking dust, and it basically split in half allowing leaves to emerge. They're like a time capsule. The seeds were Home Farmer from Menard's, a local hardware superstore.
- Lisa
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