Pansy and viola seed - need advice

I have some seed for Pansy 'Rococo Mix' and Viola 'Velour Blue Bronze' that I need to sow asap. I have never had much luck with pansy and viola seed. Any advice?

I don't know how you've been sowing Pansys before but here's what I've found:

Temperature: Pansys tend to germinate at a slightly higher temperature than other Viola, usually around 58-65F.

Light: There seems to be a difference of opinion on this but I genrally exclude light, you could always try both methods to find what works for you.

Soil: Keep moist but not wet.

Pansy seed doesn't last very long so if you have any that are over 4 years old it will probably have a low germination rate.

Thanks, Baa. This seed is from 2005 so it should be good. The instructions said to pre-chill for 2 weeks and to barely cover so I just put a very light covering of fine vermiculite over them and popped them in the fridge. Now I wait.....

I have tried winter sowing pansies in the past but had no luck with that.

I've had the most success when sowing indoors by keeping them - I use the bottom of a seed tray that's black at about 65 degrees.

Good luck !

Dea

Dea, do you use a pre-chilling period first?

Yes, but not in the trays - not enough frig room ;) It's probably incorrect, but I just put the seed packets in plastic ziplocks and keep them in the frig rather than planted in trays for a week or so.

Dea

Duh! Why didn't I think of that? LOL

I've had good luck planting both violas and pansies indoors under light, without pre-chilling. I think that often the 'violets' need stratification, so I usually winter sow those in domed flats on my porch. Chilling the seed certainly wouldn't hurt it, and in cases where I'm unsure, I put the whole package in the fridge for a week or so, then take them out and plant them.

Violas and pansies come up pretty quick, but take a long time to develop and bloom, so starting them indoors is a good idea if you want them to bloom early in the season, rather than late. I plant mine in propagation trays that fit 12 to a flat. I dome them with a clear plastic lid. I use sterilized dampened starter mix. The domed flats go under my fluorescent lights. Every day, I mist the trays and the inside of the dome lids, but do not remove the lid and underwater until the've started to come up.

The Roccocos are the ruffled pansies, much like Chalons, as I recall... very pretty! The Velour Blue Bronze are wonderful little blue violas with a dwarf habit and blue flowers that are brushed with a bronze colored chin. Purchasing the seed is rather expensive, but if you isolate a pot of them and collect seed, the resulting violas are very similar.

Thanks for all the good information. Hopefully this year I will finally succeed in growing my own pansies and violas. (Keeping fingers crossed LOL)

I'm going through my seedbox (that I allowed to languish last winter), and I found the following:

Viola x wittrockiana 'Wine Purple'
Viola cornuta
Viola 'Flambe Red' (Pansy)
Viola 'Velour Blue Bronze'
Viola 'Bambini Mix'

I'm hopeful (maybe foolishly so) that I can have these up and going by the time I need to set out some pansies for fall planting - usually around early to mid October.

One site I found said to place Violas and Pansies in damp potting medium and rotate them between room temp & fridge for three weeks at a stretch until they germinate.

But I like Dea's idea of simply putting the packets in the fridge for two weeks then planting them. (Sounds much easier than fooling with a baggie full of seeds and seedlings.) I think I'll try it and see how it goes.

The hardest part is going to be finding a place to keep them cool after I sow them...the dog days of summer are here, and probably won't budge for another 6 weeks. Oh for a root celler like we had when I was a kid (of course I DREADED being sent to get anything from there...musty, dark, cobwebby, and I just knew the boogieman or a snake (or both) had to be lurking in the corner ;o)

I grow pansies for a living, so I germinate alot of them in a season-over 150,000 of them at a time. I store my seeds in a ziplock bag from the time I get them, to the time I use them up-could be a year or two. The night before I seed them, I take out what I need and leave at room temp. They say that pansies need 65 degree to germ well, but that is impossible for me in mid July, so I put a few layers of shade cloth on the grhouse to get the temps down, and then take them off after the sds have germ and starting to get their true leaves. I found this year-with the really high temps that we had, that my germ rate was the best ever!! They also popped faster too, I was surprised-but happy! lol

When I seed them, I use a seeding machine that will drop a seed in each section of a plug flat ( 288 squares/flat). They lay right on the top of the soiless mix that I use, and then they go under a mister system all day, that I turn off at night. The mister goes on for 13 secs every 5 mins or so during the day. Putting them under plastic and misting once a day would work too. Once they start to germ-usually in 3 days or so, I cut down on the amt of times that the mister comes on for a few days, and then they just get misted 2-3 times a day. When the plant comes up and you can see the leaves, then I only water when the soil is dry-and definitely uncover before now. Pansies germ better with light.

Pansies don't like really wet soil, they like to dry out a bit-even when they are very small-even before they get their true leaves. They are very susceptable to fungus-esp now when it is very hot and humid out. Their roots also grow better in dry soil-and since roots grow at night, I never water in the late afternoon or evening.

When they have a few true leaves, I transplant directly into 3.5" pots outside into full sun. Its a little tricky with the watering, because you want to water the little babies, but I have learned that they grow better and have stronger roots if you let the soil dry out some. I also start to fert with a weak solution when they are just getting their first pair of true leaves.

Here are some that I germ July 15 this year.

Thanks, tigerlily! I just realized my seeds have been in the fridge for almost two weeks...I'll pull them out sometime next week and see if I can't start some of them.

Terry, I messed up!!! lol Forgot to say where I keep them when I am not using them....I always store them in the refrigerator-sometimes for a few years. Pansies keep for a long time if they are stored in the closed ziplock and refrigerator.

I figured that's what you mean...glad I guessed right this time!