too late to start petunias?

I found some petunia seed I would really like to order from Parks Seeds. I want to use the petunias in hanging baskets or planters. My zone is 6a.

Also - anything I should know about germinating petunias?

I just sowed some the other day, so I think you'll be fine. I've even had them bloom from self-sown seeds.

Tom Clothier's site says for petunias, "surface sow @ 77ºF in light, grow on @ 55-60ºF , 10-15d"... so I'm starting them out on my heat mat, which is set to 78 degrees, and as soon as they start to germinate I'll move them to a cooler shelf.

Seandor,

Petunias require light to germinate besides heat from a heat mat. Thye are one of many seeds that require light for germination.

"Stay Happy and Keep Gardening!"

The only place where I can heat a room warm enough (don't own a heat mat) and has a window for light is my office. So today I planted two flats with petunias and another with coleus. And now we cross our fingers . . . If anything germinates, I will send pictures :-)

Don't worry too much about the heat... generally, things that like to germinate at 77 will still germinate fine at 70, it might just take a few more days before you see sprouts. If you by chance have a metal shelf, you can provide good bottom heat by putting a 40 or 60 watt light bulb just below the shelf with your seed tray. Good luck!

Thanks Critter - We live in a 4000 square foot victorian home with a hot-water radiator heating system - but it's all one system - so if we heat one room to 70 degrees, the whole house is 70 degrees. Most of the time, we keep the house at 60 degrees during the winter since it is simply too expensive to do anything else. We do heat up the house to 70 when company comes over :-)

I planted 108 sweet pea seeds, any only have 45 plants to show for my efforts. Most rotted because I probably keep them too cold and too wet.

I hope to have better success with the petunias and coleus since I have far fewer seeds. That's why I have flats of seeds in my office :-)

Seandor

Seandor,

I'm sure you, like many of us, already have the perfect "heat mat" for your petunia seeds, right in your kitchen!

Just set your flats, covered w,plastic or dome lid, on top of your refrigerator. they will get plenty of bottom heat. Besides, closer to the ceiling, your natural room temp will be 10º or so higher than floor level.

Here's a wave petunia, about 8 weeks from seeding(mid-Jan 2007):

The problem is the seed package says the seeds need light. there is no window by the fridge. Will this make a difference? The room is lit by overhead florescent lighting.

I filled two APS units just two weeks ago with petunias, and I don't use any additional heat other than what comes off my flourescents through the humidity dome. Within 5 days I had a full complement of petunias sprouted, and my basement only runs about 65. I have never used a heat mat, and probably would get even better results with one, but I have good luck none-the-less.

Thanks Zarabeth - I planted the seeds and now I have about 90 little baby sprouts. How long until they develop 4 true leaves so I can prick them out into little paper pots? Is it two weeks? Three weeks? Next week?

Just trying to be prepared LOL

What day did you actually plant them?

Zarabeth,

I planted them Mar 5 and Mar 9.

Well you are ahead of me! So you will have to let ME know... I grow so much I only keep track of plant date and germination date.

I ordered some petunia seeds that I just received a couple of days ago. They are so incredibly tiny I keep putting off starting them. I'm afraid!! They are in tiny ziploc bags and quite honestly, they don't look
like they will come out of the bag very easily. Should I just "sprinkle" the seeds over the soil? If they will even come out?? If they don't come out (they look like they are sticking to the sides) would it be horrible if I filled the bag with some water to kind of rinse them out?

Michelle

The water could just make the seeds stick to the sides -- I wouldn't try that. Sometimes tiny seeds do a static thing cling -- my solution is usually to cut the bag open (over a little bowl or saucer) and remove the seeds with the tip of my finger. A good trick for teeny seeds is to mix them with a little sand, and then sprinkle sand & seed together over the surface of your potting mix, although I've been known to just get them on my fingertip and gently dab/rub them around. (edited to add that you still want to gently press down on the surface after sowing so the seeds make good contact with the moist mix)

No matter how carefully you sprinkle, you probably won't get good spacing on such little seeds, so I'd definitely sow them into a little cup (if it's only a few seeds) or seed starting tray. (I use take-out containers as seed starting trays, holes in the bottom for watering and holes in the top for ventilation, with about an inch of moist sterilzed potting mix in the bottom portion.) When the seedlings have their first true leaves (the very first set of leaves are nurse leaves or cotyledons; the true leaves are the next pair), you can transplant them into little pots.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2007 8:03 AM

I used a magnifying glass and a pair of teasers. I opened the package over a shallow bowl and picked the seeds one at a time.

Gary

I just used the tip of a sharp knife and lifted one seed at a time and spaced them out.

OK, I stand corrected... *Gary* will get good spacing with his tiny seeds!

(Gary, you're not an engineer, are you? LOL)

Wow, Seandor... another person with way more patience than I have! ;-)

It's kind of a "zen" experience for me. . . patience has little to do with it lol

I use these little "seed spoons". I forget where I got them, but there are two with different sized cups on each end. I do pretty good with those!

You must also have a gentle touch... if I used a tweezers I would crush the poor little seeds.

I love picking out Petunia seeds -- and sowing them at a decent distance from one another. The baby plants can stay in the community pot for a long, long time if the original spacing is good. Also, there is room for the late - late germinating seeds and they have their own space so make useable plants. .

Once having said that, my patience is in direct proportion to the COST of the seed. If I buy 10 seeds for $3.95, I have all the pateince in the world, but if they are in a pack with a million seeds from a swap, I dump them in the container and alsp a vented lid on them. To get the ones on the side of the package, I just swipe my finger over the plastic and flick them on the soil.

Petunias are so easy and all these years I just assumed they were so hard and so slow, and I was afraid, too. I started them way too early, and theystill did fine. I had some very expensive ones and like the Nike ad, just did it! I had 100% germination (10 for 10) and they are out on the patio as I type waiting to make sure it's really spring before I plant them.

Suzy

lol to the zen of spacing out 'tunies - the whole world can use more of that :)

Sounds like you're on the right track, Seandor. Just thought I'd mention that I wintersowed some very fragrant petunias (from Berrygirl's Fragrant Round Robin last spring) on 2/19/07 in a recycled qt-container of yogurt in a baggy. They germinated March 30.

I've fretted and prowled over them, but in spite of extreme temperature swings from 80s to 20s within 3 days and heavy rain fall, I only bothered to open and close their enveloping baggies once - last time they were opened, they stayed that way. The other attention I gave them was watering every few days - frequent watering isn't necessary when the container is large enough that it doesn't dry out as quickly as cell packs (but when temps rise, overhead misting daily is a good idea). Although I did move some containers under cover when heavy rainfall was forecast (it waren't the 'tunies :), in retrospect, that was not necessary because the sand with which I topped the wintersowed containers prevented seed from sloshing around. Like Critter says, I mixed the seed with a little sand and sprinkled over that sand topping so that they were exposed to light but lodged in the sand which also is said to deter slugs.

I have found wintersowing 'tunies to be very zen in spite of myself.

These petunias are for the hanging baskets that line the front veranda. They are intended to be a bit of a show-stopper, so I am taking extra care of them - other seedlings get less fussing . . . I might try winter sowing some petunias next year.

BYW, I didn't know there were fragrant petunias . . . nice to know

What kind of petunias are they? the purple ones and the lavender ones with dark purple veins are usually very strongly and sweetly scented. I love them - I have petunia baskets in the front of my porch and they fill it with perfume.

Here are the names of the petunias - the seeds came from Parks seeds as do the following pictures:

Petunia multiflora Dolcissima Flambe
Destined to Become America's Favorite Petunia(formerly Dolce)!

Petunia multiflora Petunia Dolcissima Fragolino

Petunia grandiflora Dolcissima Limoncello
Award-Winning Color and Form (formerly Dolce)!

I have grown those before - I don't remember them as being particularly fragrant. They are pretty, although they aren't going to trail as much as the cascade series which is what I use in my baskets.

I don't expect them to trail . . . instead I will be planting vinca major with them to form long trailing vines.

How did your petunias turn out? Were they as nice as the pictures? I am particularly keen on the lemon yellow ones.

Seandor

No, they were very pretty but not quite as nice as the photos. Then again, when are they ever? LOL.

I gave several of each to my girlfriend, who just adored them and requested more the next year. I planted some of the yellow ones only last year in a yellow garden, and they were very nice, but I planted some other kind of light pink ones with burgundy veining that got all my attention - and darn if I can find the seed packet or remember where I got them from! I would have grown those again in a heartbeat. This year I am doing Cascade petunias, Azure Pearls, Pink Lady and Tidal Wave Silver.

There is a petunia called strawberry sundae. seeds are available at T & M

Here is the link - could this be the one, Zarebeth

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en/product/7705/1

Here is another:

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en/product/7518/1

THANK YOU! I am pretty sure it was the Prism Pale Burgundy. Of course, I have gotten all my seeds already... hmmm, wonder if I could find a few more to make the shipping worthwhile? Off to T&M I go...