My First Year Starting From Seed! -Initial Results-

Quickstrike · March 26, 2011

I planted the following varieties 5 days ago:

Stupice -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
Sophie's Choice -- ~100% germinated - 18 seeds planted
Sun Sugar -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
Ludmilla's Red Plum -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
Big Beef -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
Opalka -- ~100% germinated - 9 seeds planted
Carmen Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
Gypsy Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted

The odd thing is, the Opalka tomato seedlings all came up first! I thought for sure that one of the 'early varieties' would pop out the quickest -- although Sophie's Choice was a close second.

I am a little worried about the Sun Sugar germination. I see about 4 of the 18 that I planted. The Carmen and Gypsy peppers are around that mark -- just doesn't sound right to have a cherry tomato germinate as slowly as a pepper.

The Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix that I bought wasn't as good as I expected. Lots of big chunks of wood and what looked like mushrooms. I really should have taken it all out of the bag and broken up the clumps / sifted through it.

This leads me to believe that the Sun Sugar seeds might be planted too deep [~1/4" compared to 1/8" - 1/16"]. At what point should I start removing some of the mix from the top?

I think that I might add some foam underneath the sections of the tray that have fully germinated. The Opalka and Sophie's Choice seedlings are getting very long and leggy because of the heating pad.

tam91 · March 26, 2011

If some have germinated, you need to get them under lights right now. If they don't go under lights right away, they get leggy very fast.

The others will probably get there, some take longer than others.

When you transplant them, bury them right down to the first leaves, that'll hopefully fix up the leggy ones.

Quickstrike · March 26, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by tam91

If some have germinated, you need to get them under lights right now. If they don't go under lights right away, they get leggy very fast.

The others will probably get there, some take longer than others.

When you transplant them, bury them right down to the first leaves, that'll hopefully fix up the leggy ones.

Thanks for the helpful advice.

I actually bought [and started using] a 4 foot x 4 bulb T5 fluorescent light fixture, yesterday.

It came with 4x 54W 6400k tubes - do you think I should replace half of the 6400K tubes with 3000K?!

I discontinued using the heating mat because the lights add [probably too much] warmth to the top of the soil.

I was just primarily concerned about the lack of germination in several cells.
Not sure if I should just wait a few more days - hope for the best.. start poking around at the planting mix - remove some of the top soil from the seeds that are 'struggling'.. or, simply, pull the plug of mix out and try to germinate some new seeds of the same variety.

Any ideas?

TIA.

Aphid · March 26, 2011

My advice is to let them alone ,, keep them nice and warm(80f) with the heating mat. and always water from below ,
I use plain old cool florescent bulbs(4 bulbs side by side) and keep the seedlings as close as possible without touching I drape a piece of mylar over the fixture so it hangs down both sides .. timer set to 16hrs on / 8 hrs off .
you probably have plenty of time to start more seeds if you really need to.

that is just how I do it ,, lots of good advice here

bullish · March 26, 2011

I'm new to starting from seeds also (I am using 4 seeds per variety, for most of my varieties), and I had a few varieties that for some reason had low germination rates (25%), while the rest were close to 100%. After 2 weeks I gave up and decided to throw a few extra seeds in the empty cells. This was yesterday. I guess the worst that can happen is multiple seedlings sprout in the same cell and I will thin them out. Better to have too many than none!

March 26, 2011	#1
Quickstrike Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada! Posts: 37	My First Year Starting From Seed! -Initial Results- I planted the following varieties 5 days ago: Stupice -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted Sophie's Choice -- ~100% germinated - 18 seeds planted Sun Sugar -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted Ludmilla's Red Plum -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted Big Beef -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted Opalka -- ~100% germinated - 9 seeds planted Carmen Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted Gypsy Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted The odd thing is, the Opalka tomato seedlings all came up first! I thought for sure that one of the 'early varieties' would pop out the quickest -- although Sophie's Choice was a close second. I am a little worried about the Sun Sugar germination. I see about 4 of the 18 that I planted. The Carmen and Gypsy peppers are around that mark -- just doesn't sound right to have a cherry tomato germinate as slowly as a pepper. The Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix that I bought wasn't as good as I expected. Lots of big chunks of wood and what looked like mushrooms. I really should have taken it all out of the bag and broken up the clumps / sifted through it. This leads me to believe that the Sun Sugar seeds might be planted too deep [~1/4" compared to 1/8" - 1/16"]. At what point should I start removing some of the mix from the top? I think that I might add some foam underneath the sections of the tray that have fully germinated. The Opalka and Sophie's Choice seedlings are getting very long and leggy because of the heating pad.

March 26, 2011	#4
Aphid Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Nashville TN zone 6-B Posts: 133	My advice is to let them alone ,, keep them nice and warm(80f) with the heating mat. and always water from below , I use plain old cool florescent bulbs(4 bulbs side by side) and keep the seedlings as close as possible without touching I drape a piece of mylar over the fixture so it hangs down both sides .. timer set to 16hrs on / 8 hrs off . you probably have plenty of time to start more seeds if you really need to. that is just how I do it ,, lots of good advice here Last edited by Aphid; March 26, 2011 at 09:58 PM.

March 26, 2011	#2
tam91 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Crystal Lake IL Posts: 2,484	If some have germinated, you need to get them under lights right now. If they don't go under lights right away, they get leggy very fast. The others will probably get there, some take longer than others. When you transplant them, bury them right down to the first leaves, that'll hopefully fix up the leggy ones.

March 26, 2011	#5
bullish Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Oceanside, Long Island, NY, USA Posts: 48	I'm new to starting from seeds also (I am using 4 seeds per variety, for most of my varieties), and I had a few varieties that for some reason had low germination rates (25%), while the rest were close to 100%. After 2 weeks I gave up and decided to throw a few extra seeds in the empty cells. This was yesterday. I guess the worst that can happen is multiple seedlings sprout in the same cell and I will thin them out. Better to have too many than none!