It seems that last year the plants that I started with seedling soil versus regular potting soil did better. Maybe the extra wetting agent. I don’t know. Maybe it held more water throughout the day and the seeds didn’t dry out. I really don’t know. The plants that I started in my 4″ plastic pots did well too. Maybe because of less transplanting then starts in smaller pots. All I know is that I’m going to start most of my seeds in the pots that seem to work the best even if they’re bigger and take up more room. The plants can grow for about 8 weeks in that size before I need to transplant them either to bigger pots or directly into the ground in the greenhouse.
I only have so much room in the garden windows for all of my starts. I cram in as many as I can. Last year I tried the egg crate method. You can start 12 at a time without using a lot of room. I didn’t actually have a lot of luck transplanting the sprouts from the egg crate. I found out that it helps to soak the egg crate before attempting to remove the baby plants and not to worry about getting some of the cardboard in with the roots. So I know what I just said about my 4″ pots but I’m going to start some seeds in egg crates again this year just because of how much room it saves. Also because the luck my husband has had with it. Two years ago we planted a whole raised bed with the peppers he started this way. He soaked the seeds, started the ones that sprouted in egg crates, and we planted the peppers straight from the crates into the planter. It was even in April. We took a chance planting them early because the baby was due the next week. They all did great! It was one of our best pepper years.