Germination after 2 months!

[svalli]

What is the longest that you have had for tomato seeds to germinate?

I sowed two Anna Russian seeds February 21st and kept waiting for them to emerge like the other varieties sown same day. Finally I gave up and sowed lettuce on the same peat pellets. Yesterday I noticed a tomato seedling next to the lettuce plant. It has taken two months for this to germinate. I have had earlier tomato seedlings to emerge from peat pellets, which I let dry up because the seeds did not start and reused them next year by moistening them. This is different since the pellet has been kept moist all the time.

I hope the seedling will grow fast, since it is a bit late for my short season.


Sari

[carolyn137]

The longest it's ever taken for me to germinate tomato seeds is 2 1/2 months, but that was a pretty special situation.

They were seeds from the USDA for the variety Magnus that Craig had gotten and he couldn't germinate anything and he's darn good at germinating tomato seeds. So he sent the rest of the pack to me to see what I could do.

I soaked all the rest of the seeds in the pack in K nitrate water and then watered when needed with K nitrate water and it took that long to get ONE seed to germinate.

I won't tell the rest of that story, but seeds for Magnus that anyone lists these days if from the seeds that I was able to save from just two fruits.

I have no idea of the age of those USDA seeds, this was back in the early 90's when it was still possible to get some seeds out and many of them were crossed and many had horrible germination rates.

Do you know the seed age of your Anna Russian seeds or how they were stored or anything else?

[svalli]

Thanks Carolyn,
Is K nitrate same as saltpeter or nitrate of potash? I have to remember that, if I have hard time to germinate any older seeds.
I got my Anna Russian seeds from TGS for season 2008. I have stored them in the original package in a plastic box, where I have rest of my seeds. All other varities purchased same time and even some seeds from 2003 have germinated fine. I have resown 4 Anna Russian seeds to different soil month ago and none of them have germinated. I hope I can get this one plant to produce ripe fruit, so I can save fresh seeds from it. I like hearts and this one should be so early, that it is good to grow here.

Sari

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by svalli

Thanks Carolyn,
Is K nitrate same as saltpeter or nitrate of potash? I have to remember that, if I have hard time to germinate any older seeds.
I got my Anna Russian seeds from TGS for season 2008. I have stored them in the original package in a plastic box, where I have rest of my seeds. All other varities purchased same time and even some seeds from 2003 have germinated fine. I have resown 4 Anna Russian seeds to different soil month ago and none of them have germinated. I hope I can get this one plant to produce ripe fruit, so I can save fresh seeds from it. I like hearts and this one should be so early, that it is good to grow here.

Sari

Yes, K nitrate is saltpetre.

I used to use that at a 0.2% concentration but decided that just a good was a 12-18 hour soak with a few drops of added liquid seaweed or fish stuff , or for the non-organic folks a pinch or two of Miracle Gro or PEters, etc. Nitrate ion is known to be somehow involved in seed germination but the seed physiologists I contacted several years ago don't know how it works.

There shouldn't be any problem with 2008 seeds, but that's the packed by date and not the seed age. Still, TGS is one place where I know they do germination tests on the seeds that they sell.

You said you sowed 4 more seeds to "different soil" but I hope you mean a different artificial mix and not something with real dirt in it.

See how these latest ones do but if it were me I think if you don't get any germination out of these 4 seeds, and even if you do, that it would be courtesy to contact TGS and tell them your result. Just a gentle suggestion. They can't correct a seed problem unless they know there is one.

[ContainerTed]

Svalli, this year my germination nursery did not have the temperature control I would have preferred and the wild temperature swings from 60 to as high as 82 produced some weird results.

Right now, I have some seedlings as much as 8 inches tall in their first pot-up containers and still have seeds from the same variety and the same packet just germinating. Now, mine are only 6 weeks into the process, but I am at a loss to explain the phenomena I'm encountering.

Another example is the Dwarf project seeds sent to me. Three cells of 3 seeds each of the 3 varieties. First two cells of each did beautifully. The third cell of each was like I had not placed seed in them. No germination at all. I know it isn't the seed, so it has to be the environment they were in.

And then, maybe it's just a weird year for things. The cells that showed this problem are scattered all over the two 72 cell flats.

Maybe one of our resident "Tomato-ologists" can shed some light.

Ted

BTW, I have at least two plants from each of the peppers you sent seed for. Even though there was a bit of Postal brutality, they came through like champs and are healthy and in the early stages of hardening off.