Seed Germination ?

I read in the propagation forum that a great way to germinate seeds was by placing seeds between two sheets of paper towels that is nicely wet and put into a ziploc bag. Poppysue said she did all her seed germination that way and if Poppysue says it, I'm doing it! Just have a couple of questions, do you completely seal up the ziploc bag or do you leave it open a little to get some air? I'm also wondering if each bag has to lay flat to get the light it needs or can the ziploc bags be stacked a few high. I have about twenty ziploc bags going so far and laying them flat will be a space challenge. Any suggestions that anyone has about this germination method will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jann

This message was edited Mar 21, 2007 8:36 AM

You keep the bag closed to make sure towels won't dry up. The amount of air in the bag is sufficient. I never put them in light to avoid algae and fluctuating temperature. The best place so far is in the water heater room where they get some free heat. If you are growing seeds that needs light to germinate, that would be different though but always stay clear of direct sunlight.

I am using this method for bigger seeds and for those I am not sure about the success rate (saves some potting mix).

NEVER seal the bag. The seeds need water AND oxygen. You really run the risk of seed rot otherwise. Just keeping the bag unclosed but flat and out of direct light works great for me. Good luck!

Ok, that's one for keeping the bag open and one of keeping the bag closed. I'll close them halfway for now. I'm checking them everyday and lightly misting them to make sure the paper towels stay moist. If all these seeds sprout, I'll be in the greenhouse for DAYS!! Thanks! Any other input would be appreciated. Thanks

Close the baggies.

Some seeds require warm for germination, some require cold.
This requirment should decide where you store the seed packets.

I used to use ziplocks and would zip them closed. Then I read Deno's recommendation that you buy the cheap, thin sandwich bags that fold closed and just fold them. He said the cheap plastic lets through some oxygen, and the folding does the rest. I have been doing this since then, and it seems to work very better than ziplocks--fewer problems with mold.

I'll try the fold over kind next. I got to work this morning and I've got hundreds of sprouted seeds. I am so excited! I stopped potting them up just to make this post. If I have great sucess with this, I'll never plant another seed! I'll need stock in Scott towels and Ziploc! Have a great week everyone!

Jann

Sometimes roots will grow down into or through the paper towel... If this happens, don't try to rip them away! Just cut out the little bit of paper towel and plant it with the sprouted seed. Some people use coffee filters instead of paper towel (roots won't get into a paper coffee filter).

I'll try the coffee filters for the next set of seeds. I'll probably be planting all the ones that sprouted over the weekend for the next several days. It's a good thing I have lots of friends who like to garden. I am so excited, I've had almost a 100% germination rate with this method and the seeds sprout a whole bunch quicker than the package said they would. We have a greenhouse where I work and they are making space for me as I speak.
I made the pots myself out of strips of newspaper and used the Pot Maker I bought last year from Johnny's Seeds. I work in a library so newspaper is abundant. I was thinking that I was going to need some tray bottoms which are pretty expensive but I came up with an alternate solution. We use a lot of paper at school and they have tons of case tops so I got some of those and put them in a garbage bag and stapled the ends, this made the box tops waterproof. I'm going to have very little money tied up in all these plants which will make my DH happy and myself thrilled. I'll post some pictures of my efforts soon.

My enthusiasm just skyrocketed after reading this thread - if I've any energy left after work today, I'll get started!!

I referred to making my own pots for my seedlings with a gadget called a PotMaker. I thought I had gotten it from Johnny's Seeds but I must have gotten it from Burpee.com because that's the only place I could find it. I found that making the pots went a lot faster when I wrapped the newspaper strip around the PotMaker and put a scotch tape dispenser nearby to pull a tiny piece of tape off to secure the bottom of the pot. The pots stayed together much better when I secured the bottom with tape and put one staple in the side to secure the side of the pot. I'll post a few pictures this evening as an example. Here is the link to the PotMaker:

http://www.burpee.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=718&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=1711&iSubCat=11&iProductID=718&iSubSubCat=11

worth it's weight in gold in my opinion.

Here are some shots of my seedlings potted in the PotMaker pots. Ok, so you can't see the seedlings yet, but they are in there. You can see the way I put a paper carton lid in a trash bag to waterproof the lid. I was just getting ready to order some manufactured bottom trays but thought about this and decided to try it.

I put a staple in the side to secure it. I actually ran out of staples tonight and the pot held together when I filled it with dirt. I probably could skip that step but it makes it more stable so I'll probably keep doing it. You can see both pieces of the PotMaker in the background of this picture.

I used the base of the PotMaker up until this week. Sometimes the bottom of the pot would flare out and I'd have to keep twisting it on the base. I decided today that I would secure the bottom with a small piece of scotch tape. I have an office type tape dispenser and it was great for making these pots. I got a rhythm going and I could make them very quickly. Here's a picture so you can see how the bottom is just folded and taped. I'll post some more pictures as the seedlings grow. You are supposed to be able to just drop these pots directly into the soil but I think I'm going to spray mine with some water and removed the paper before I plant them since I've used tape and staples.

One more thing! I started this thread about germinating seeds wrapped in moist paper towels and kept in a damp ziploc bag. One of the questions I had when I started was if I needed to lay each ziploc flat or would it be ok to stack them. Well, I ended up doing so many seeds that there was no way that I could lay them out individually so I stacked them in a box top and four days later, I had a ton of sprouted seeds to plant. I've been very happy with how method of seed germination this has turned out so far. It sure speeded the germination time.

How clever, jjayroe!! And I was too tired when I got home today to do anything, but I don't work tomorrow so have BIG plans!

Morning folks. I am located in Brazil. I have freshly picked seeds of DELONIX REGIA, commonly called FLAMBOYANT or FLAME TREE.
I am looking to trade for seeds to make bonsai. I have also a small number of fresh seeds of Lophanthera lactescens, picked this morning (03/13/2007). I will germinate some and trade the rest.
Anyone interested, the email is opalheads@gmail.com.

Opal, I think your post would be better as a new thread over in the seed trading forum... While I don't mind O/T posts, I think you'll get a better response if you put your trade offer in an appropriate place. You might also want to edit your post so your email thread isn't displayed for all to see (this is a new forum, so posts are visable to all members as well as to subscribers)... interested parties can Dmail you, and then you can exchange email addresses, regular mailing addresses, etc. :-)

When I was in grade school, we did this "seed-in-a-towel-baggie" thing as a project once :) Cant remember whatever happened to the seeds, but they did sprout, I was so excited :D Im gonna have to start doing this again :)

This message was edited Mar 14, 2007 11:03 PM

JJayroe,

Is this your first year using the paperpots? I just wondered because is another forum, a fella said he noticed last year that the plant roots wouldn't go through the bottom of his paper pots. He thought the newspaper was too thick, maybe.

Then I wanted to ask another question to all -- how old are you people? LOL! Obviously under the magic age of 40!! HOW do you see those little sprouted seeds? (The ones in a ziploc with a coffee filter) Then what? How do you move them (what utensil do you use) and where do you put them? I can understand Morning Glories and Nasturtiums, but those little seeds? They make little seedlings! I want to understand this, so tell me the details -- here's why:

I germinated a package of 100 primula seeds in a ziploc bag as per instructions. But I panicked when they all came up. I didn't know what to do with them, so I clump transplanted them to a 6 inch pot and killed the whole 100!

Suzy

jjayroe...

Can you explain to me how the Potmaker works? My friend who makes things out of wood wants to try making this. He wants more details about how it works...he thinks he can improve anything! Do you have any comments as to how it could be made better?
I'm interested in your thoughts...
Thanks,
Pinger

I'm on the back side of 40 but I get my reading glasses out to plant the sprouts. This is an updateon how it's been going. I went home yesterday and planted seedlings from 6 pm to 11 pm last night so I'd say it's been pretty successful. The coffee filters definitely work better than the paper towels simply because the roots don't get intertwined. Almost everything I've planted has germinated. I'm going to need a bigger yard!! I have noticed that some of my ziploc bags have gotten kind of slimy so I think I'll do better with the sandwich bags that just fold over.

This is the second year that I've used the paper pots but I always wet the paper and strip it off before I plant the seedling. I use a staple to hold mine together and don't want to plant that. A lot of the seedlings I've done are pretty small. I got out my eyebrow tweezers and poked a hole in the dirt with a pencil and plopped the seedling in the hole and used the pencil end to pack the dirt around the seedling. It's worked pretty good for me. For the ones that were very tiny, I just put them on the tip of a sharp knife and used that to get the seedlinginto the dirt.

I had a friend bring me a couple of German Black Tomato seedlings and she used a clear small SOLO cup sith one hole in the bottom. Here's a picture of what she brought me. It looks like she used an icepick to poke the hole in the cup. I like the paper pots but it does take time to make them and I have so many seedlings that I'm going by Wal-mart today to buy some of these cups to try

I use the clear ones. I tried poking holes in them with a nail one at a time and it was a nightmare. So I pulled out the old drill, fitted it with a 1/4" bit and drilled through the stack - then took off the ones that I got through and kept it up until all of them were drilled. I love them - you can see the root development!

The Potmaker itself it simply something to wrap strips of paper around. What you do is cut strips of newspaper about 1 1/2 inches longer than the base of the Potmaker. I'm a media specialist and teacher by trade, here's a picture:

You wrap the strip about the PotMaker completely and fold the ends over. I begin the fold at the place where the newspaper strip ends to secure it.

I then fold all the ends over the bottom of the PotMaker to form the bottom of my pot.

After folding it over the bottom, I just secure it with a small piece of scotch tape. The PotMaker comes with a wooden bottom and the directions say to put the PotMaker with the newspaper on it in the base and twist it until the pot holds its shape. I just found that I couldn't always make it stay put, I probably had too much paper at the bottom. The tape works great especially if you have an office tape dispenser so you can pull pull it off and secure the pot.

I put one staple in the side where the newspaper end is to secure it. I then slip the pot off the PotMaker and it's ready to fill with dirt.

Ok, I'm going to gloat. Here's a picture of the greenhouse where I work. Am I spoiled or what?

Here's an updated picture of my seedlings planted in my paper pots

If I must say so myself putting box tops in plastic trash bags was a pretty good idea, it's working like a charm for my seedlings.

One other thing that I did was to make a master numbered list of what I was planting and marking each pot with the corresponding number. Sure beats marking every pot.

Excellent tutorial...
So there is nothing you would change about it?

Very cool - but looking at it, couldn't a small straight-sided juice glass work? Hmmm... I may have to try that out - I have one that would be perfect. Excellent idea putting them in the plastic lined box tops!

I stopped at our local dollar store and purchased transparent plastic cups. They didn't have the size of cups that my friend had so I got the smallest ones available, which were 9 oz. and cost $2 for 70 cups. I like the smaller ones better and am going to find some of them. The 9 oz. will use a lot of dirt but they will have to do for tonight. I'm betting that you can scoop up the dirt with the cup itself and they will be very quick to pot up. My friend, who is a master gardner said they worked perfectly and you can monitor the root formations. She said she punched the hole in the bottom of the cup with a knife.
Someone asked me if I'd change anything. I'm going to give try these plastic cups simply for convenience sake. I've made a couple hundred paper pots and I'm burned out on it. I'm not going to use ziploc bags anymore to germinate my seeds. I'm going to use the plain old sandwich bags that fold over and germinate the seeds in coffee filters instead of paper towels. It just plain works better. I'm NOT going to start every seed I have in one day, it's too much to handle all at once. I'll post the pictures of the seedlings in the plastic cups in a few days so you can see how they do. All I do is pour water in each box top each day where they can bottom water.
I have used several different potting methods this season and I'm going to be interested to see which method grows the plants best. I've got seeds planted in the Peat Pellets that you add water toand I'm not impressed with them. I've got the plants in PotMaker pots, plants in standard seedling trays and now the plastic cups. I'll keep posting my progress.

I posted in another thread that the easiest way to get holes in the bottom of the cups is to leave them in a stack and drill through the bottoms with a 1/4" bit if you have a drill. Doing those one at a time was a real chore - even with a nail and hammer. I love the plastic cups. I wonder if the small bathroom dixie cups would be biodegradeable - they don't have wax on them like the kitchen ones do... I may have to put wet potting mix in one of them and see what happens!

One other thought! I'm not going to plant really small seeds using the filter and plastic bag method. The seedlings are really too fragile to handle well. I bought some foil mini loaf pans and punched holes in the bottom with a knife and placed them in a 13X9 foil pan. I bottom watered the loaf pans and planted my tiny seeds in those. I'll transfer them to cups when they get big enough for me to handle. I saw a post where someone germinated a 100 seeds and lost all of them. I can see where that would happen with those tiny seeds.

This message was edited Mar 21, 2007 8:36 AM

The dixie cups will work if you're careful. The problem I've had in the past with paper cups and with newspaper pots is when it's time to transplant the cups/paper just falls apart. I had some mold on some too, which I didn't like. JJayroe, be careful numbering the sides with no other ID like a peice of tape with the number, when the pot gets wet the number won't be legible.

I LOVE the plastic cups from the dollar store, I normally get hubby to drill 3 holes in the bottoms for me. Something else that works great for trays are the foodservice foil trays from Sams. You get 15 for like 10 bucks, so they're cheaper than "real" seed starting trays, and a little sturdier too, I think. They held up really well, and I just rinsed and stuck in the hoophouse when I was finished with them last spring.

I tried the paper towel germination, and I think it's easier to just direct sow in the cups or pots. I also tried the sponge germination one year, and it was fun, but same problem when it was time to get them into dirt, although it was easier to plant the sponges than remove the seedlings from the paper towels. :)

All went well with using the plastic cups last night. I'll probably stick with this method, it's much easier to fill the cups with dirt since they are rigid. I used a sharp knife with a serrated tip to punch the holes in the cups, it worked great. I decided to punch one more hole on the side of the cup at the very bottom to help with watering and drainage. I am going to be out looking for the smaller cups, I went through a good bit of potting mixture to fill up the 9 oz. cups. I used a Sharpie to label the cups.

Okay so I am going to try the paper towel/baggie method after reading everyone's posts!!! I have a few questions though. If the seed packet says sprouts in 7-10 days does using the paper towel/baggie method speed up that time? And when do you plant the little seed sprouts? Do you wait until the plant is about 1 inch long? Also can you use this method on seeds that don't like to be transplanted like poppies? And last of all I have a ton of lavender seeds that I had planned on sowing today and I am wondering if I can use the paper towel/baggie method to speed up their germination. Sorry so many questions!!!!!!