Double Cup Seed Starting is a super easy way to start pepper seeds and vegetable seeds! These red Dixie cups are large and nice and deep, allowing for deep root growth. Of course seedling trays work well too, with the 4" pots, but sometimes you gotta work with what you've got! You can grow nice healthy seedlings in these cups under supplemental lights (a very sunny window that gets sun all day could work, too!)
Use well-draining seedling starter mix for the growing medium. Don't forget to label your cups so you know what's what! Many pepper plants and tomato plants look the same, so you may not know until you see the pods and taste them if you don't label them. You can also reuse the cups and plastic baggies each year (clean after using and store out of the sun.)
This double cup seed planting method works great for all sorts of vegetable seeds, including pepper seeds such as Hatch Chile seeds, plus tomato seeds, herb seeds, and so many other veggies.
Do you know the secret to pepper seed germination?
Make sure to keep pepper seeds warm while germinating, peppers like 80-90˚ F temperatures for fastest and most successful sprouting. We use a seedling heat mat to keep them toasty until they germinate. Then, you can stop using the heat map if the room they're growing in is around 65-70˚ F, they'll be perfectly content. However, note that if kept warmer at 75-80˚ F they could grow a little faster!
Want more tips for successfully
growing peppers? Find our
Top 12 Tips for Growing Peppers from Seed »
Happy growing!
