Re: seed starting - Amy?

> Amy mentioned something about some seeds needing light to germinate.
> May I ask, how do you know which seed need light to germinate?
> The seed packets tell you so little.
> I have been starting a lot of seeds this spring, some do well, others don't.
> Haven't been sure why.
> I seem to have more trouble with very fine seeds.

Actually, most seeds are don't cares -- though since you have fine seeds
and planting depth is correlated with seed diameter it's easy to cover
very fine seeds to the point that they can't emerge.

Pansies are an example of "needs dark" to germinate.  Can't think of
others off the top of me head.  All the good seed starting books have
this info.

When in doubt, I surface sow and cover with an EXTREMELY fine layer of
milled sphagnum moss (which prevents damp off).  If you can *see* the
seed, pressing it slightly into the medium will help it not be too top
heavy.  It's better to sow too shallow than too deep because if too
deep, no germination and some rot.  If too shallow, you can always
transplant early and settle the seedling *A BIT* deeper than it was, not
a lot, but a bit.  I follow a general rule of as deep as *ONE* time the
diameter of the seed -- the conventional wisdom is *TWO*, but in my
climate that can lead to rot because the soils are very very warm.  I
tend to start under grow lights; my biggest failures are keeping things
the right consistency of moisture.  Direct sow fails for that reason
because I live in a drought -n- drown climate.

Again, if you need to know more than one or two species, a good seed
germ. book will help.  Several have been mentioned.  Also, buying from a
place that has that on the packet helps.  Stokes is pretty good about
this.

-- 
Amy Moseley Rupp (amyr@austx.tandem.com)  Austin, TX, USDA z8b, Sunset z30
Amy Moseley (amy@ece.utexas.edu) Graduate Student in Software Engineering
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index