Starting habaneros from seeds?

[Cole_Robbie]

Originally Posted by JerryHaskins

Habanero seeds may begin sprouting in 11 days and can take up to 5 weeks to germinate

I've read the same thing all over the Internet. My experience has not been that way at all, but my techniques are different than most people. I am a market grower, and I sell a lot of plants in the spring, so it is worth it to me to have a germination room indoors, with a 1000 watt metal halide light. Underneath that big warm light, my superhots will germinate in about five days. I dump my trays after a week and a half or so.

Manzano is the one pepper variety I can never seem to germinate. It might require soaking, which I don't do.

Having some sort of humate or humic acid in the seed-starting mix will speed things up as well. Light Warrior seed-starting mix has a bit of worm castings. Light Warrior is very expensive, but I dilute it so much that one bag gets me through most of the year. A drench of compost tea also does the same. I have tested tomato seeds, and found that the compost tea drench makes them germinate about two days faster.