Hi folks, in your experience, is there any point in hanging on to trays full of seeds that I planted about 8 weeks ago with no sign of germination? They are in an unheated greenhouse. I was a bit too keen and think I planted too early. Is it wishful thinking to assume they will just sprout when they are ready? What happens to them when they don't sprout? Do seeds sort of die?? I did tomatoes, chillies, cosmos, dahlias and sweet peas. Not a cheap mistake!! That'll teach me!
At the beginning of March I sowed some Dahlia seeds which I had collected last October/November from seed pods in my own garden. I 'overwintered' them in sealed packets in dry, airtight plastic boxes in my garage. The seeds were sown on multipurpose compost, watered and put in an electric windowsill propagator at a temperature of about 19 deg C. Most of them had not germinated after several weeks and on examination appeared to have rotted.
Interestingly, some Dahlia seeds bought from a commercial company all germinated quickly under exactly the same external conditions.
So, in your case, I don't think the reason is entirely due to the low temperatures in your unheated GH.
As a member of the RHS I raised the question with them. The Horticultural Advisor suggested that I had sown them a little early and they could well benefit from cold chilling (cold stratification) for about two weeks before sowing again. I put them in the fridge and the two weeks is now up so I will sow some more this next week and see what happens (it being later also). I have read that even seeds that do not need chilling may germinate more quickly after a period of cold storage.
You may want to try the chilling before sowing now process. Let me know your results good or bad and we will go from there.
Thanks MH. Shall do. I emptied one of the trays of sweet peas and there wasn't a sign of any seeds at all. I'm guilty of over watering too. good luck with yours. Trial and error (a lot of error on my part) is all part of the learning curve I guess.
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Thanks MH. Shall do. I emptied one of the trays of sweet peas and there wasn't a sign of any seeds at all. I'm guilty of over watering too. good luck with yours. Trial and error (a lot of error on my part) is all part of the learning curve I guess.
Now I don't know if it was the singing that did it, but two of the seeds I'd almost given up on have sprouted! Yippee!