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Re: Starting seeds in the dark?

In article <341389AA.9728B18E@pacbell.net>, Alex Teller
<alextell@pacbell.net> writes
>The moral of the story is: You  all are right.  Very tiny seeds which
>you must sow on the surface need to germinate in darkness or deep
>shade.  They have no protection from the sun because they germinate on
>the surface and in nature they couldn't survive in the first hours after
>germination if the sun were to hit them.  So they wait until there is no
>sun and there is enough moisture to get them through the first few
>days.  If you cover your flats with a newspaper and keep the soil moist
>they will germinate and form a root system so you can give them
>gradually more light and finally after a week or two they can get a
>little bit of sun.  Later they will take full sun.  Lobelia seeds behave
>like this, for example.

I'm not sure you're right!

My understanding is that some small seeds need light to germinate
because they're so small that if they germinated underground, they'd
likely die before they reached the surface. And after all, if they're
germinating in the spring in a temperate climate, they're not THAT
likely to shrivel.

On the other hand, some seeds prefer no light because of the likelihood
of drying out, which you identify. Others don't seem to care that much.

So it's worth checking whether a seed has particular requirements in
this respect. Chiltern seeds in the UK, which sells a lot of unusual
seeds with germination requirements that are not well known recommend
that if in doubt you cover seeds with their own depth of medium, but
leave a few just pressed into the surface in case they do require light.

-- 
Alison Brooks  

O-
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