Well the little buggers are growing like crazy. The only one that isn't cooperating is the peppers. I've done some reading online through other blogs and forums and it sounds like peppers are tricky. They have to be the darker colored ones to germinate, green peppers are picked early, so the seeds from my green pepper may not grow. Also they seem to take a lot longer to germinate than the other seeds. So I guess I won't give up on them yet. I did put a few more of the seeds into a paper towel that was damp to try and persuade them to start. Hopefully between these techniques something will give way. I've also been putting the pot on a heating pad in the evening when I'm around the house, trying to get some more warmth into the pot. I keep the apartment at 68 so hopefully that isn't too cool for the plants.

Since these have sprouted up I noticed the tomatoes stretching for light, which I guess isn't good, so I've been placing them in the window sill until I can get lights set up for them. I did buy a couple cfl's (compact flourescent) the other night at Lowes, one is labeled a grow light and the others are just in the standard section but are listed as daylight and claim 6500 Kelvin which is pretty good for color temperature. In my discussion with my lighting professor from last semester he said anything above 5000 Kelvin should work for plants and the high CRI rating (Color Rating Index) will just make them look more green and pretty. Not that I doubt him but we'll experiment here and see. I've also got an LED setup and typical plant & aquarium bulbs at the school for a second setup there.

Once everything is setup we'll measure the different bulbs and post some results.