The Fastest to Germinate are:

[barkeater]

Carbon
Saras Galapagos
Indian Stripe
Big Zac

I'm always curious which varieties are the first to pop up.

Anyway, I sowed 33 varieties Tuesday afternoon and these were up in 3 days. This morning 10 more have made their appearance. Yeeha!

[elkwc36]

Bark,
I find it interesting the Indian Stripe came up so fast for you. I got seeds from Carolyn and the first time after ten days and everything else up I started to check and killed one under the surface. I ended up planting them and had 100% germination but took 10-12 days both time. And many of my others in the same trays were up in 3 days. Jay

[carolyn137]

The Indian Stripe seeds I sent out as part of that seed offer were all the same age, which I wrote on each seed pack. And if you got them from me via my SSE listing they are still the same exact seeds .

I don't pay much attention to what germinates the quickest b'c seeds come from different sources, are of different ages, folks use different mixes to sow seeds and no two folks germinate their seeds the same way.

I'm just happy if the darn things germinate.

And I'm getting updates from bcday and gardenmama on how the germination went with the new varieties I sent them and they were the exact same seeds and germination times were different for a few of those varieties. bcday is again doing some seed production for me for my SSE listings and gardenmama is raising my plants to send up to me the last week of June so I can see all the new ones up close and personal and taste them, and then bcday doesn't need to send the fruits to me as she did last year.

And if you ever need to know how to pack fruits, just ask her how she does it. I think she has stock in both bubble wrap and duct tape companies.

[lumierefrere]

I planted 2 trays of seeds around the middle of the month. Almost everything is up. I had only 2 Golden Queen germinate out of 4. Today as I was watering, a new one just broke the surface. Its siblings are 1"+ and now it showed up. Same source--my garden last year. Same seedless starter, same temps, same everything.

[barkeater]

My Indian Stripe were generously sent to me fresh this year from Sandhill Preservation by a very generous seed trader who just wantred a few Big Zac seeds. Even better, 4 more varieties have germinated, 18/34 now in 4 days. Especially important, another Ramapo F1 is up.

[elkwc36]

Carolyn,
Yes you had the date on the package. I think it may of been 03. I was just noting the difference each of us experience and also how sometimes my impatience can be bad. Ha. Had almost 100% on all the seeds I got from you. Regardless of the age you had on the pack. I only had poor rates on two varieties out of 114 varieties and then zero on 5 Blaby seeds. I want you to know I'm happy and not complaining at all if it came across that way I apologize. Best wishes with your upcoming surgery. Jay

[Tomstrees]

Black Prince & Sweet 100 ... they jumped out of the soil !

~ Tom

[nctomatoman]

I started at least 100 varieties of tomatoes this year, including a few CVs from purchased packs, but mostly saved seed ranging from seed saved between 2000 and 2006. 80 varieties germinated in 3 days, 20 varieties germinated in 4 days, and a very few took a bit longer (typically, Mexico Midget took the longest at 15 days!). I think that the more seed that you plant per cell, and the more cells you plant at the same time, leads to a more uniform "procedure" - with, to me, a main variable being seed depth. Using the 50 cell plug flats that I do generates an assembly line approach, so that you end up with nice, uniform germination times.

[carolyn137]

I want you to know I'm happy and not complaining at all if it came across that way I apologize. Best wishes with your upcoming surgery. Jay

****

I know you're not complaining Jay, so don't worry about it.

And thanks for your best wishes for surgery, which is coming up two weeks from tomorrw. Now that I do worry about.

[barkeater]

Good luck, Carolyn. My mother who is 77 just had it last Friday.The operation took longer (4 hours) because they said she has bigger bones than they expected ( don't they take x-rays??). So it was painful the first couple days. But now she's complaining about how hard they are working her in rehab, so she must be healing well.

So far, only 2 varieties have not yet germinated: Kelloggs Breakfast and Yasenichi Yabechur (sp?).

Prue, Boxcar Willie, Cosmonaut Volkov, Moskvich, and Polish were the laggards, and the first just germinated the past 2 days.

[carolyn137]

Good luck, Carolyn. My mother who is 77 just had it last Friday.The operation took longer (4 hours) because they said she has bigger bones than they expected ( don't they take x-rays??). So it was painful the first couple days. But now she's complaining about how hard they are working her in rehab, so she must be healing well:smile:.

*****

Sure they take X-rays, the follow up for my left new hip and one for the hip to be done were taken last Friday. But they never know until they see what the acetabulum is like, which is hidden under the femur head on X-ray, until they know what the situation is.

Would it make you feel better to know that my surgeon's PA, who came in the first day after the surgery last June, said that one of the parts of the prosthesis was Brontosaurus sized? Last Friday I gave Rich two books and one is about a family of dinosaurs who live in present day LA and the book is called Casual Rex.

So my surgeon said he'd bring his vet ortho kit with him for this new right one.

[TomatoDon]

I did not count the days to germination, but was very happy how strong Stump of the World and Earl's Faux took off. Both did exceptionally well for me. Hope Earl sees this.

Don

[barkeater]

Thanks for the info, Carolyn. I told my mother Friday we are going to start calling her Dino! Then she asked me don't I know Jeopardy is on at 7? So I never got a chance to talk to her. She MUST be getting better

Anyway I'm very excited as, even though it took 12 days, the Kelloggs Breakfast you sent me germinated, and most importantly, the REAL Box Car Willie you sent came up 4 days ago. I will return the favor this fall, and have bags for the blossoms. Thanks again.

[jerseyjohn61]

Folks I'm way behind schedule this year, but catching my
stride now. Soaked seeds Thursday, planted them Saturday
and tonight I have plenty of perky puppies poppin'!

The early ones out of the gate:

Cherokee Purple
B.W. OTV
Black Krim
Ramapo F4
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Kalmann's Hung. Pink
B.W. (Sud)
Grandfather Ashlock
Stump of the World
Omar's Leb.

Happy to be FINALLY underway and am actually stunned
over germanation. !/2 of the above are from saved seeds.
Last year was my first attempt at saving my own and
thanks to the good advice from all of you out there, seems
like I got it right. Thanks again....JJ61

[the999bbq]

nevermind dates... most of the plants I started this year was from seed I bought seven years ago - it was the last seeds for those varieties and was able to start of planety to select the best plant. If you take some care in the germination conditions all goes well.
I don't even put half as much care into storing them right as some people do (who freeze them, ziplock them, store them with rice to suck the environmental moisture away...)
heated propagator, with constant bottom heating and non-soggy but poor soil should do the trick - the seedlings go under the lights as soon as possible since I have to start in february/march which is still kinda dark in Belgium.
I learned about presoaking them in tea or nutrified water (Peter, Schultz, fish, seaweed) although I read somewhere on the net that plain water was better than the nutrified ones. When I have results below expectations there is the deno method (moist paper towel in plastic bag) and that mostly clears out the rest of the failures...

don't just throw away old seeds, feel free to send them to me ;-)