Sometimes you can get little weeds (or at least that is what I call them) come up that you did not plant and came with the dirt. I have never had so many come up though, if I am lucky I may get one in one flat out of 10 flats. Maybe you got a bad bag of dirt. I do not have any pictures of my pepper seedlings right now because so far I only have some hot peppers planted, and they have not come up yet, but are due to any day now. I can tell you that pepper seedlings do not have heart shaped leaves though. Sounds to me like an unwanted guest. The only seeds that can produce more than one seedling are beet seeds, because the "seeds" are actually like a seed pod instead of just one seed.

Do all the seedlings look the same with heart shaped and teardrop shaped leaves?

If you are going to plant anymore seeds I would suggest you buy a new bag of dirt from somewhere else.

Peppers tend to look alike at the seedling stage. The linked photo is fairly typical. Hower, if you google pepper seedling photos, you will get many hits, some of which may suit your purposes better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet pepper seedlings

Do all the seedlings look the same with heart shaped and teardrop shaped leaves?

Yes, every single one.

Here's the funny part....I planted two trays with that seed mix (Jiffy Mix), and the second tray (which is in the exact same spot) hasn't had ANYTHING germinate (including my other peppers)!!!

I don't know what is going on! I might plant a peat pellet with the Cali Wonders and see what happens.

Farmerdilla,

I thought they all should look the same, which was my first sign of a problem. I looked online and didn't find anything that was convincing - no first leaves, just a bunch of full grown peppers. Thanks for the picture, that's kind of what I was looking for.

I just don't understand it. How can I get a seed mix that has so many OTHER seeds and they are ALL the same type, but they don't show up at all in my OTHER mixes, or even in my SECOND batch. VERY WEIRD!

You may have to wait a while. I don't know if you'll be able to differentiate the young bells from the jalapenos, but you should be able to differentiate the glossy-leaved peppers from other things you didn't plant! If they end up all being peppers, you're gonna have a lot of peppers!

Here's a picture of one of my California Green Bell plants from last year (on the left). Hope it helps.

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Thanks for the pics. I'm looking for the FIRST leaves, because that's what I have right now to judge by the first "true" leaves are showing up with serrations. I don't even know what could have happened!

I think I'll just plant some peppers in a peat pellet and take my chances on what the FIRST things to come up actually are. I'll update when I find out more, later in the season.

Thanks everyone for trying to help out.

Over in the hot pepper forum someone recently posted just the pic you need. It is linked below. I find most pepper varieties I grow look very similar to the photo. Some have slightly narrower cotyledons but still look very much like the one shown.

I have sometimes carefully planted one tomato or one pepper seed per container and had two seedlings sprout right next to each other. I sometimes find a big looking seed is actually two stuck together and can pick them apart. I think the double sprouts I get are from two seeds stuck together so perfectly that I don't notice that they are really two. It is hard for me to think that two separate plants could come from one tomato or pepper seed....but I could be wrong.

Now if you are growing beets or chard you should expect to get 2-4 sprouts from one seed since the seeds are really several seeds stuck together. Their is some special name for that kind of "seed" but I sure can't think of it right now :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper seedling

naturegirl,

That was exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately for me, my "peppers" do not look at all like that! I guess I don't have peppers at all in that first batch.

The second batch (the mix of Jalepenos and Cali Golds) all look the same to me, but I guess when they start to get bigger and perhaps even flower, I will be able to tell them apart. If not, I guess I can just buy more seeds next year, rather than saving them!

There is no danger in cross-pollination causing a problem with the pepper harvest this year, correct? Just a problem if I wanted to save the seeds...right?

The other option could be to plant a few extra Cali Wonders (I had considered the 9 I started before would not be enough anyway) and put them in another area of my garden...the real question is where do I actually have room?! (the wife is going to love that!)

eagle's garden

I just read that habanero peppers have serrated leaves.

There are some good pictures of habanero leaves in the link at the bottom (scroll down to Capsicum chinense).

But I must say the leaves don't look serrated as much as quilted maybe.

You said you thought you planted jalapenos, but if they're habaneros, that might account for the serrated leaf edges.

Here is a link that might be useful: Habenero peppers - Capsicum chinense

I have Cal Wonders just sprouted last week, I'll get a pic later today for ya.

Here is a link that might be useful: My gardening blog

I had a similar problem when I started my lemon peppers and was impatient when they didn't come up (a few did but not many) so I started over using the same soil and started planting my bell peppers. About 3-5 days later I had more sprouts than I initially planted so now I think I will have to wait since they all look identical.

anney,

Thanks. The "peppers" in question (the ones with serrated leaves) are supposed to be California Wonder Gold. I pricked them out of their original container, and reused the seed starting mix.

Sorry, thought that might be early enough. I can search for an earlier pic if you'd like. =)

Ok I'm back! Here is a pic of my California Wonder they just sprouted last week so still young

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and this one is one of the jabenero pepper

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hope that helps

Here is a link that might be useful: My gardening blog

Yeah. It does....well it makes me certain that the original plants that came up were NOT california wonder! Now I have to figure out which are jalapeno and which are cali!

It should be a fun April/May!

Thanks everyone!!!

Maybe take a pic of what yours look like and we can have a guessing game? lol!

It is virtually impossible to tell what a seedling is until well into its growth and maybe even until it blooms and sets fruit. Unless of course it is one of the black or purple foilaged plants.

Dale

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Here is a link that might be useful: http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/thepodpiper/

Well, I believe I have figured out what happened. In between sowing my Keystone Giants and my Cali Wonders (separate containers), I left the room for a moment, and my son (3 years old) got into my starter mix and my seeds.

He had made a huge mess with the seed starting mix, putting it everywhere. Either I had spilled a few cabbage seeds when I sowed them (just before the Keystone Giants), or he spilled some of them. Anyway, I scooped up the spilled mix, and put it back in the bag, then I used the mix to sow my Cali's. I must have put most of the spilled seeds into the container with the Cali's. And 4 days later, they started sprouting. I didn't notice how similar the seedlings for my cabbage and "peppers". The first leaves of many plants look very similar. I wasn't studying them, I was just excited that my "peppers" were up. I didn't think that anything was wrong.

Anyway, I just looked at my cabbage and my "peppers" and I couldn't tell them apart, without the labels. Well, I guess it's because they are the same. I will be able to really tell very soon. I am putting the "peppers" into my cold frame and letting them go. If they can survive, as the cabbage should, they should start to get very cabbagy.