Phil, Sanding seeds helps first set of leaves "break" through hard outer seed casing. If you've ever seen a pair of leaves "stuck" in the seed shell you know why most C-H's try all available methods to prevent pepper embryo distress. Don't know which one of the resident seed guru's first recommended Chamomile Tea to prevent/stop damping off (which is what I think killed 50% of your plants due to "damp/mould" as you describe it). Basically you brew tea & dilute it then use it for all watering until plants have third set of leaves. This past season had a flat of seedlings that half were wilting over & tea mixture saved all but a few. Hope this helps, Paul From: "phil and meredith" <brownz@dot.net.au> Sent: Tuesday, 02 October, 2001 8:55 PM Subject: Sanding seeds, was:Re: List Options - Was: Re: > > On Topic:Spring is here and I have just planted 60 Tepin seeds after > lightly sanding them with 1200 wet > > and dry paper and soaking in a mild bleach solution.. > > Time will tell.. > > Luke in Oz > i've heard about bleaching but what does sanding do? > i germinated about 100 seeds this spring without doing anything other than > putting them in moist seed raising mix, i lost 50 or so that had come up > through being too damp/mould. what sort of strike/survival rates do you > generally get? > regards, > phil (also in oz)