In my experience, here in Thailand, DO NOT use soil for seed germination. I have tried 6 different types of commercially available potting soil and only one was successful for germination and that was for a Thai pepper of the annum family. Out of 100+ chinense seeds (mostly Costa Rican Red) only 1 germinated. Recently my wife did get 2 orange Habanero seeds to germinate in our top soil (from our yard) but only 1 survived and it's growing very, very slowly.
The greatest success has been from coir pucks; roughly 90+%. Out of 20 successful germinations 17 have survived (pics in a previous post of some) and are growing well.
Chinense are notoriously slow to germinate and one did take 27 days (for 4 Costa Rica Red Habaneros) to pop up; I had almost given up on them. My experience with Nagas, bhuts, choc Habs, orange Habs, and red Habs has been from 5 days to 27 days and I've heard of longer, so don't be too quick to give up.
Be sure not to let the germinating medium dry out, but avoid outright wetness; damp is ideal.
I would also recommend NOT using tap water because it is likely very alkaline. Rain water, distilled water, or RO (reverse osmosis) water is best and that would go for normal watering also. I save as much rain water as I can in large barrels.
After germination, soil is the next most important item. That will be my next post.
Nice posts. I must have got lucky as my single habenero seed germinated right on time outside with a bag of good draining potting soil I bought here in Chiang Mai. So did my capsicum annums except my pablanos. I just fertilized before I read your post. I will say that since germination they appear to be growing very very slowly. Any tips?
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