germinate? Wow I couldn't fit that in there any way I tried!
I had some cypress vines germinate with no scarification or soaking in 2 days. That's straight out of the packet and in a peat pellet. Am I just easily amused or is that fast?
The pic is them at about 14 days.
It is fast...although someone posted either here or on the propagation forum that they had something germinate in 24 hrs, so I think for now at least 1 day is the record!
I've have several kinds of seeds germinate in 24 hours. Most recently, some coral vines. Almost all of them germinated within 48 hours, but the first one came up about 8 hours after being planted.
For some kinds of seeds, I use this method:
1. Soak with hydrogen peroxide and water while getting everything else ready (anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour)
2. Hydrate peat pots with hot tap water, just until they expand and have no hard sections left (NOT soggy)
3. Mix spagnum with water and hydrogen peroxid in a bowl to make a sloppy, very wet, foamy, aerated mud
4. Place seeds on top of peat pots (just drop them on)
5. Spoon the watery spagnum over the seed (no need to be neat)
6. Put on the plastic cover
7. Put seed tray on a warming mat under fluorescent lights
8. Check a couple of times a day; remove plastic cover as soon as about half the seeds are up
The advantage of this method is that the spagnum on top dries pretty quickly, leading to less damping off. It's also very fast and easy. To adjust the planting depth, just gloop on more or less of the spagnum. When the seedlings are about an inch tall, the spagnum has dried to a crust, which the seedlings either push off to the side, or just grow through. The roots start in the nicely dark and moist interior, and grow downward into the peat pot looking for more water. The immature stems go up through the slowly-crusting spagnum and keep dry. No misting or watering is required until the cover is removed, then I water only from the bottom, by adding water to the try until the bottom halves of the peat pots are damp.
When I did this with my coral vine seeds, I accidentally dropped a seed between peat pots. Since it was pretty messy in there from all the spooning of wet spagnum, I left the seed in the tray, but glooped some more spagnum over it. What the heck, right?
The seed sitting on the tray under a spoonful of spagnum is the one that came up overnight.
Most large seeds respond well to this method of starting, and I've also had good luck with some tiny ones (but obviously not ones that can't be covered).
Oops, just realized you said potted. Probably the fastest I've seen in a pot was my last batch of sweet peas. Surprised the heck out of me when they came up in about two days (planted in the evening, they were out of the soil in the afternoon two days later).
Thanks! That was a great little tutorial. I am going to have to try the sphagnum mixture next time I use the pelletts.
I took some tomato seeds from my garden last year - the ones that used to be labeled 'unknown' and are now known to be from Mortgage Lifter. I put them in Jiffy peat last night, around 6pm.
This morning at 7am when I woke up, I had little green bits poking out!
8o
I've never seen ANYTHING sprout that fast - I wish I knew what I'd done so right, I'd repeat it with everything!
I did add Messenger Seed Treatment to them, but I can't imagine that made the difference here. I didn't even soak the little boogers, just dumped em in and pushed them into the pellets with a pen!
-Sev
May Princess Kathy always have that sort of germination rates.
This message was edited Mar 4, 2008 4:01 PM
I've soaked MG seeds and had them sprout in a cup of water in probably 36 hours. Just had some Bauhinia monandra sprout in 3 days which surprises me.
sevidra - I think you have the new record!
When I wgot ready to go to bed last night I checked my flats. One of them had 2 little seedlings trying to pop up. i checked them this morning and there were all these little seedlings. Guess they were just waiting for me to go away before they started poppin up
.. Even funnier, this is what the flat looks like today. Looks like I got a really good germination rate off that tomato - most of the peat pellets have both seeds sprouted and growing! LOL
-Sev
May Princess Kathy always have sprouts
Wow, you guys are good! :)
I started some mesclun seed in a large pot outside Sunday evening and was absolutely tickled right to death to find a ton of sprouts popping up early this morning (Wed.)!
(Yes, I am definitely very easily amused. lol! )
I wonder if 'wild' cypress vine seed will 'do' that fast...I've got some seed from some I had growing out in the yard last year....
