How can some seeds in the same tray not germinate?

[John3]

I have tried this once but did not use ziplock's used a 1 oz cup that comes on some of the jars (if doing this again i would stop at McDonald's and ask to get some of those ketchup paper cups and put one seed into one cup) and fish emulsion is ok but if I had kelp I would have used it instead.
Here's the notes found on the net.
I had it all laid out better but could not find that copy - so here's the rambling notes
Maybe this will help. (Black Tea)

When I say diluted tea and fish emulsion, here is what I do:

Boil one tea bag in a small pan of about 2 cups water for a minute or two.

Discard the first batch of tea because it hasn't had time to leach the tannin outta the leaves.

Refill the small pan with another 2 cups of water and re-boil the same tea bag.

Discard the tea bag and add enough ice cubes to make a quart of diluted tea.

Put about a quarter teaspoon of fish emulsion in a quart jar with the diluted tea. Some folks use a tiny pinch of

Miracle Grow for this. You're after the nitrogen basically.

Put the lid on tight and shake until dissolving the fish emulsion (or Miracle Grow).

MAKE SURE THE SOLUTION HAS COOLED TO BELOW 80*F.

Put the tomato seeds in the jar and let them sit in this solution for 12 - 24 hours in the refrigerator to kinda

stratify them in a fake winter mode.

Run the stuff out of the jar into a fine mesh strainer and rinse the seeds off very well. Save a shot glass or two

of the solution.

Put the seeds into a folded paper towel and dampen it real good with the saved solution.

Put the packet into a Ziplock baggie and keep it at ambient room temp like 68*F - 78*F and check the seeds

beginning in about 5 days. Some folks swear by bottom heat at 75 - 85*F, but I've gotten mildew before sprouts

doin' that especially with lazy germinators. And if the seed is fresh and ready to jump outta it's shell, then we

ain't even talkin' all this trash in the first place. Just plant'm and stand back!

Check the seeds every day after 5 days until they sprout.

about the tea. It's supposedly the tannin that helps penetrate the dried out hulls of old seed. The nitrogen

is supposed to "wake up" old seed

I didn't mean to imply using the entire quart of diluted tea and fish emulsion to soak a single little bit of tomato

seeds.

What I meant to imply is that you should dilute the tea and fish emulsion down with a quart of water so the tea

isn't too strong.

Okay, first you're only using one tea bag ... and you boil it once very briefly to activate the tanin. Pour off that

first water and boil the tea bag again in fresh water to extract the tanin ... a low boil for several minutes ...

maybe about five.

THEN dilute that strong tea down by adding enough cold water to make a quart of liquid.

THEN add a teaspoon of fish emulsion to the jar and shake it up really well to disolve the fish emulsion which

usually is a very thick gunk ... almost a paste ... in the bottle it comes in. So you have to shake it up in the

diluted tea to dissolve it.

See, what you're tryin' to do here is extract the tannin from the tea bag but then water it down so it's not too

strong to tan the embryo. And you're tryin' to get just an itty bit of nitrogen to wake up the old seed ... but not

enough to burn it.

Okay, NOW you have a quart of soaking liquid and you can divide it up anyway you want. 2 pints. 4 cups. 8 half

cups. Whatever. And soak 2 or 4 or whatever separate bits of seed in each portion. You only need enough to

float the seeds actually ... and then when they sink, you know you have seed that's capable of sprouting.

(Tomato seeds or pepper seeds should sink if they are good seed. If they float at first, don't fret. Shake'm up or stir them around a bit and let them soak up some moisture.)

I would not soak different seeds together because then you don't know what you have and I like to keep my

tomatoes marked by name.

I would not save the tea after I soaked the seeds because there's a chance of having a stray seed in there and

get it mixed up with the next batch of seeds. False economy ... it isn't worth the few pennies you're saving by

salvaging the tea after you've soaked a batch of seeds. Keep those seeds separated and labeled by name tags so

you know what the heck you have in the garden.

The first batch of tea supposedly doesn't have the tannin content you're lookin' for.

The first boiling supposedly awakens the tannin but doesn't leach it out effectively. Then the second boiling

supposedly extracts the tannin.

That's the way I understood it at the GW pepper forum where I saw the deal about using tea to break into the

dried out seed coat.

The use of the fish emulsion was from another source who recommended it as an organic alternative to using a

pinch of Miracle Grow for the nitrogen.