How long should Busy Lizzie seeds take to germinate?

rosiedee

Hi All,

I sowed three lots of seeds just over two weeks ago. The petunia and lobelia seeds are doing great but the busy lizzies seem to be really slow. I sowed them in individual seed pods and out of about forty only a few are showing any sign sof germinating. I have got them covered at the moment. Am I just being impatient?

mini26

Busy lizzy seeds are the hardest seed to successfully germniate, 1stly u need to keep the temperature constant and at the right level, heated greenhouse is ideal, then when you sow the seeds NEVER cover them just leave them in the top of the soil, the smaller the seed the less soil u need to put on the top, so for Busy's and other tiny seeds dont cover them, then put your seed tray in a black bag so they are dark covered and so that the temperature will create the moisture needed to germinate, germination will take between 2 weeks and 30 ish days but only remove the black bag cover when the first seeds start to germinate.

Hope this exlapins and helps

rosiedee

Hi Mini,

Thanks for your reply. This is the second year I have tried busy lizzies from seed. There are a few seeds germinating, I was following the instructions on the packet which said to sow on top of soil and then cover with plastic, they are in a greenhouse but not heated, so will try putting them in a black sack tomorrow for a few days, thanks again for the advice.

A._Badger

There's quite a lot of fear about growing impatiens but, in fact, they are perfectly easy to handle if you stick to a few simple rules - mostly emulating what commercial growers do.

Start with decent quality seed, fresh multipurpose compost and clean seed trays. Sow the seeds thinly on the surface of moist compost and cover them with a thin layer of seed grade vermiculite. This is important because, like a surprising number of half hardy annuals, impatiens need light to germinate sucessfully.

The best germination will take place in a humid environment at a steady temperature of around 70 degrees F. A cheap heated propagator will do fine.

This year, I sowed mine on 8th March. The first germinated on the 17th and they were all up by 25th.

I've done this for years and, I assure you, it's really quite foolproof if you follow the basic rules.

Hope that's some help.

rosiedee

A._Badger wrote: »

There's quite a lot of fear about growing impatiens but, in fact, they are perfectly easy to handle if you stick to a few simple rules - mostly emulating what commercial growers do.

Start with decent quality seed, fresh multipurpose compost and clean seed trays. Sow the seeds thinly on the surface of moist compost and cover them with a thin layer of seed grade vermiculite. This is important because, like a surprising number of half hardy annuals, impatiens need light to germinate sucessfully.

The best germination will take place in a humid environment at a steady temperature of around 70 degrees F. A cheap heated propagator will do fine.

This year, I sowed mine on 8th March. The first germinated on the 17th and they were all up by 25th.

I've done this for years and, I assure you, it's really quite foolproof if you follow the basic rules.

Hope that's some help.

Thanks for your reply. How much should I expect to pay for a heated propogator?

brownfrog

rosiedee wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. How much should I expect to pay for a heated propogator?

Depends on the size, and the type you want. The Sankey range starts from around £10, which is basically a plastic box with a heating element that will take a single standard size seed tray (or lots of pots, which can be a better method). £30-60 will get you a bigger tray with additional functions such as ventilation slots and adjustable thermostat. This price range also includes windowsill propagators, which come with 3, 6, or 7 mini trays (Parasene or Garland), and they can be very handy if you want to lots of plants of different types. And then you can go up into the hundreds for a really big one like the BioGreen. You can also buy heated cables or mats to turn a sand tray or an unheated propagator into a heated one.

Lots of different types illustrated here:
http://www.garden4less.co.uk/heated-propagators.asp

Jake'sGran

A._Badger wrote: »

Start with decent quality seed, fresh multipurpose compost and clean seed trays. Sow the seeds thinly on the surface of moist compost and cover them with a thin layer of seed grade vermiculite. This is important because, like a surprising number of half hardy annuals, impatiens need light to germinate sucessfully.
Hope that's some help.

Looks like there is disagreement here Rosiedee. The above sound right to me
(I have had problems in the past with these plants but one year they were lovely). So, don't bother with "a black sack" - that would exclude ALL light.
I have learned something too. I didn't know there was such a thing as "seed grade vermiculite". I have a few trays of seeds where nothing seems to be happening and sometimes I wonder if the propogator is too hot?

brownfrog

Jake'sGran wrote: »

Looks like there is disagreement here Rosiedee. The above sound right to me
(I have had problems in the past with these plants but one year they were lovely). So, don't bother with "a black sack" - that would exclude ALL light.
I have learned something too. I didn't know there was such a thing as "seed grade vermiculite". I have a few trays of seeds where nothing seems to be happening and sometimes I wonder if the propogator is too hot?

I'd be inclined to go with the vermiculite too. 'Seed grade' just means fine vermiculite. It's a lot more expensive, and if you've got vermiculite already, you don't need to buy it - just put the stuff you've got through a coarse sieve.

Could be - if you don't have an adjustable thermostat, seeds can get cooked. What are they, and how long have you had them in?

A._Badger

I'm glad someone beat me to it and looked up the price of heated propagators. Thank you for that.

If you can, by the way, save-up and buy one that has a variable thermostat. It will stand you in good stead over the years - mine must be at least 15 years old and it enables you, more or less, to dial in the ideal conditions for the seeds you are sowing.

And yes, there are different grades of vermiculite though, in most cases, the bags you find in the average garden centre, though a little coarse for ideal seed sowing, will do well enough.

This technique is a domestic version of a commercial way of doing things - where germination must not fail and it works with a very wide range of seeds. The vermiculite holds moisture and air around the seedling, allows just sufficient light in and provides an excellent medium for early growth (not least because it has no fertiliser in it - something else a seed doesn't want when it's germinating and in the early stages of growth).

By and large, when a seedsman tells you to sow on the surface, or to 'cover thinly' he is telling you that the seed needs light to germinate. If it's one you are told to cover with 1/2" of compost, then it isn't. Often, you will be specifically told when a seed needs darkness to germinate.

Most fine seeds need light as, in the wild, they will germinate on the surface, where they fall.

Mother Nature rarely puts seeds in black bin liners, after all.

A._Badger

brownfrog wrote: »

I'd be inclined to go with the vermiculite too. 'Seed grade' just means fine vermiculite. It's a lot more expensive, and if you've got vermiculite already, you don't need to buy it - just put the stuff you've got through a coarse sieve.

Could be - if you don't have an adjustable thermostat, seeds can get cooked. What are they, and how long have you had them in?

Brownfrog is right - it's quite possible to bake seeds, especially in a propagator without a thermostat (hence my comment).

As for the cost of seed grade vermicuilte, you can get large bags of it from gardendirect.co.uk whom I can thoroughly recommend as a useful supplier of all sorts of intriguing fertilisers and sundries.