Bell Peppers, Eggplants, and Catnip??

[Sunflower223]

I am zone 8B or 9 depending on where you look. I live on the coast of Alabama. Last year was my first year planting a garden and this year is my first year planting seeds inside so I am fairly new to this. My parents always kept a garden but they bought seedlings so they don't have a lot of advice on seeds.

In my house I have started seeds for zucchini, eggplants, cucumbers, a few types of tomatoes, watermelon, catnip, and bell peppers.

The zucchini, most of the tomatoes, and the watermelon are doing spectacular. It's been about two weeks and I've already had to transplant the zucchini and cucumbers to bigger containers. I will be transplanting the watermelon soon.

I've only had three weak little seedlings sprout out of the catnip seeds, no eggplants sprout, and no bell peppers sprout. All of my tomatoes have sprouted, but one small grape tomato variety is very sparse.

I water daily with a mister, and keep my plants in a sunny window all day. The temp in my house isn't incredibly warm, especially at night. I just put a heating pad under the bell peppers, eggplants, and catnip, as an experiment. Any advice/suggestions?

[aliall]

Peppers and eggplants really like warmth to get going, so give them some more time.

Here is a chart of germination temps to compare.

South facing windows seem to get the most sun, but your plants still might get a little leggy without an overhead light source.

Make sure you harden the plants off before you plant them outside. Start with a few hours of outside temperatures and wind each day and increase each day until they are strong enough to go in the ground. I lost many of my plants the first year I tried it because I was so excited to plant them outside.

Sounds like you are doing great. Best of luck!

ali

[FarmerCathy]

I never got catnip to grow until I wintersowed them. I think they like some freezing to germinate. I just use a milk or oj jug and poke holes in the bottom and then cut it a 1/3 from the bottom leaving one side attached. Put some soil in, put seeds on top, push them down a little bit, tape it back up with the lid off and leave it outside in a sunny location, letting the rain and elements get to it. It worked great last year.

I have some pictures of my wintersowing if you'd like to try it for your mint.

http://farminginsuburbia.blogspot.co...xperiment.html

[EFmom]

A word of warning about catnip. Once it is established, it takes over everything, and no amount of ripping it out solves the problem.