When to give up on seeds

Hi folks,

A few days short of a month ago, using Coast of Maine organic seed starter soil, I planted seeds purchased from Puckerbutt: Lemon Naga, Golden Nugget, CP 15 Landis, and Carolina Reaper. I’ve had them in a seed starter try, covered by a dome with the vents closed, on a heating mat set to 84°. For the first ten days there was just ambient room light. Since then I’ve had a fairly strong LED about 20” above the seeds.

I had one Reaper pop up after about two weeks, but there are no other signs of germination.

I think I’ve over-watered them…usually watering about 4-5x/week. The soil was never muddy, but it was usually damp. I never let the soil dry.

This is a picture of a lemon naga seed I pulled from the soil today.

Did I drown my seeds? I know reapers can take 4-6 weeks to germinate, but shouldn’t the others have germinated by now?

How should I proceed? Is it time to order new seeds? I’ll likely be too late for a crop in Minnesota this year, but I over-winter my pepper plants.

Thanks for any suggestions.

by Para-sox