How are your seeds

[outlaw]

Any one else having a high % of your seeds not growing? I know not every seed grows, but it seems like a high % this year

[don]

seeds seem typical this year. All are heirloom. trying more germination in paper towels in plastic bags, hung by clothes pins on line behind the woodstove, wall temp about 85 degrees, room temp usually about 65 degrees. Have been caught with sudden unexpected
germination of peppers (less than 2 days :shock: ) Lots and lots of peppersprouts- can't wait....must plant, losing sleepppppppppppp.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Usually our problems are caused by being too busy, neglect watering, late getting them in, temperamental grow lights.

Germination seems pretty good. Seeds from Baker Creek, Fedco, saved seeds from garden last year. Even the stevia is coming up pretty good.
Sorry to hear you are getting poor germination.

Don

[kelee877]

The only problem I am having with my seeds this year..hybrids(saving my non hybrids for SHTF)..is my broccili they are really tall and skinny...They have just sprouted..I will do some transplanting and see what happens...

I am still in the experiment stage of what will grow on my balcony and indoors....

[just me]

Where did you get the seed from? I posted last year about having major problems with seed from Burpee not germinating.

[ovendoctor]

everything growing well but the peppers

on the second planting and they are just laying there

have them in the hot bed,might try sprouting in bags next

[Bethshaya]

I don't even know yet. Ordered in January and they were so backed up that they said I wont expect shipment of my order until the beginning of summer!!!

They said theyhad a 500% increase in orders this year.

[Sugaree]

Our seeds have all sprouted, green peppers took the longest... cat got a couple of our corn shoots but they shot up so quick I went ahead and started a couple replacements, our "move outside" date is May 15th so we will have to keep the squirt bottle poised & ready for any future cat raids. Told DH "this is why we started so many because odds are, some of them will die one way or another"

I am very excited, we did just green pepps and 'maters last year but we have a dozen different veggies we're trying this year. I just hope we can keep the neighbors at our appt. complex out of them. They mostly seem cool but who knows what we'll be dealing with a few months from now.

[Bamidbar]

I haven't but one of the old timers I know is having problems this year. The only thing germinating normally are the leeks.

[Heartofdixie]

No problems so far. Bought all of my seeds from our local Feed and Seed store. Not sure who produces the seed. The packets say, "WaX" seeds for Southern Soils. They are out of Amory Mississippi.

Just got to looking again at some of the packets. Some of the Packets are, "Top Notch Seed", from 'bwi' Bulk seeds.

[preparinginidaho]

I started seeds March 27 in peat pots in one of those little greenhouses from Walmart. Things went crazy. They popped up fast. The first bunch I planted were the American Seeds from Walmart. Then some Burpee flower seeds. Morning glories are going nuts. On March 29 I planted Gurney seeds and they look really good. Squash, cabbage, sweet peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, broccoli. I also planted some seeds that I had in the freezer from the summer of 2007 and they are really doing well. I had some organic pumpkin seeds and those plants look great. I just need to get the ground ready and we just moved here, so major work outside building boxes and bringing topsoil, but I would like to get some of this in the ground and put hoops and plastic. I already transplanted these into bigger pots. Also, have American Seed Cantaloupe that look good and Burpee straight neckk early yellow squash. I put plant lights above each shelve in that greenhouse and I bought this because we use wood heat and the house is cold at night and I wondered if the seeds would sprout and this greenhouse has plastic you can zip shut. I bought flats of peat pots of 50 and put on the shelves long ways and could fit 3 on each shelf and there are 4 shelves. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4875460

[ovendoctor]

pepper s sprouted finally, had to put them in front of the heat register

[Sunflower]

everything growing well but the peppers

on the second planting and they are just laying there

have them in the hot bed,might try sprouting in bags next

Same here.....all good except for the peppers. Not ONE sprouted! I just replanted with new seed.....:cry:

[Sugaree]

pepper s sprouted finally, had to put them in front of the heat register

Our green peppers were the very last ones to pop as well. Took over 2 weeks but they are finally going!

We had a casualty last night, DH accidentally knocked over the window box with our lettuce, everything went on the floor. He kept telling me how sorry he was as he re-assembled things as best as he could- I told him no sweat- this will truly be a "survival garden" ...as in, they will still produce despite hungry cat raids, clumsy adults and crazy kids & puppies.

3 more weeks until we can move them outside... until then our bedroom will look like a nursery. Well worth it :mrgreen:

[SheWoff]

So far, so good. We have planted eggplant, tomatoes and peppers from seed inside. They all came up. Tobacco came up from seed. Basil came up from seed.

The first three were from Shumway's and the basil was from dollar store seed. Tobacco was from squeeks. Give me another weeks and I'll have all kinds of seeds planted outside. :mrgreen:

She

[americancrusader]

i had to re plant most of the garden way to much rain the last two weeks

[Heartofdixie]

I read this tip years ago and it really does work pretty well for seeds that need a bit of bottom heat for proper germination:

Starting stubborn seeds inside: Plant in peat pots or little cell packs as usual, moisten soil, cover with saran wrap or similar gripping cover, and set up on top of your refrigerator. The heat from the top of the fridge is just right for seed germination. Works similar to a "Seed Germination Mat".

:-D

[valkyree]

I bought a bunch of seeds from WalMart so none are heirloom - like previous poster - and they all sprouted quickly except the peppers which have finally sprouted - a month later than everything else

I bought a small bag of seed starter which is a mix of very fine sphagnum peat moss and finely ground vermiculite with lime to balance the pH
I almost didn't buy it but will always use it from now on.

I saved little plastic 6 packs from flowers I planted last year and put potting soil in the bottom half and the seed starter in the top half
Then I dropped the seeds in and slightly stirred the mix with my fingers and patted it down gently
I put them in my sunniest window facing south in the house and checked them everyday and sprayed them with a spray bottle full of water
This window has plastic shutters and I opened the lower shutter so the light pointed down onto the packets but with the shutters it was not full sunlight
The good thing about this seed starter is it does not form a crust or harden at all and it moistens right away
Now they are all replanted outside in big pots except for the peppers

[Saul Mine]

I tried sprouting tobacco. Not knowing what I am doing has lead to many adventures. First I put seeds in the ground. Nada. I eventually found out the ground has to be above 70 F to sprout seeds, and it's not best to sprout them in open ground anyway. Then I put some in starter cups. These are made of compressed manure and when they get wet they swell into cups, sort of. The seeds sprouted just fine, but some molded and the rest just fell over before they reached 2" tall. The instructions said to start them in cups inside and transplant when the reach 4" tall.

Ok, so I should have sterilized the cups, right? I nuked them and tried again. Somebody here suggested cinnamon to prevent damping off so I soaked some cinnamon in water and sprayed that into the boxes. Nothing ever sprouted at all.

Another suggestion was to lay the seeds on the surface and keep them in a dark place. So I used pieces of paper towel so I could see where the seeds were. After several experiments I can report that tobacco seeds won't sprout on a paper towel.

So at last I can report something that does work, at least one time. Since the biggest problem is keeping the seeds moist but not flooded, I used a mixture of clean sand and fire clay. Fire clay holds water for a LONG time. I sprayed it with water until it looked slightly damp and sprinkled a few seeds on the surface. Then I put on the lid and set the box in a dark corner of my closet. It has been a week and a half and I now see tiny sprouts. Tobacco is known to sprout slowly, so a week and a half is pretty good. Some people have gotten sprouts in as little as four days by this method, probably because their closets are warmer than mine.