Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

New to growing your own tomatoes? This is the forum to learn the successful techniques used by seasoned tomato growers. Questions are welcome, too.

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old April 13, 2011   #1
jcr1709
Tomatovillian™
 
jcr1709's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Middlefield, Connecticut
Posts: 24
Default Germination Help Needed

Been starting tomatoes from seed for 4 years now, always with great success, but this year I'm at about 11 days since I started the seeds and only have 8 or my 80 plants that have germinated. I've read that sometimes seeds can take 14 to 20 day sometimes, but if I wait that long before I start more I'll have to buy plants...dread. Here's what I've done in the past.

Moistened soil blocks made with seed starting soil with 1/4" deep divot in the top for the seeds. I top the seeds with sifted stand (heard this lessens possibility of stem rot rather than the soil)

Add seed (this year I did about 4 per block because some of my seeds are 3-4 years old now, wanted to lessen the possibility of no plants.

I place them in a seed tray with drainage, cover with plastic wrap and put them in a consistent 75 degree environment (an old wall oven with a small buffet warmer in it . All the blocks are about 70-75 degrees soil temp.

The only thing I did different this year was I moistened the soil a little more than usual since I went away for about 5 days after starting the seed and I didn't want them to dry out. Can you destroy them if they are too wet?

Also, some of the seed I saved in the last few years I did something different I read here. After fermentation, I did soak them for about a minute in a very light bleach/h20 solution (heard this lessens the possibility of mold. Dried them properly and store them in small containers in a cool dry place.

The seeds that did germinate so far did so after about 5 days. Any great advice would be appreciated. Ifi I start more seeds (with bought seed can I expedite the process a little faster so I will have healthy plants when I put them out around the middle to end of May? I am dreading the possibility of buying plants, not to mention the terrible selection of what's available and the cost.

Thanks,

Jamie
jcr1709 is offline   Reply With Quote
 

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:46 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★