Germinating Pelleted Seed
Increasingly, much of our seed is now coming in pelleted form. For some reason, these seeds don't seem to germinate as well, or as quickly, as our old unpelleted, treated seeds for the same varieties. We are using the same procedures as always - same bottom temps, same medium, moisture etc. The white coating seems to break-down almost immediately, exposing the seed to moisture -- I can't understand it.
Has anyone else noticed this? So for we've only had two varieties come pelleted - Amelia tomatoes last year and now Revolution peppers, - from two different suppliers and both have germinated slower and at lower rates than we would expect.
Jack
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jack Ellis on -
Hot water treated? Are you putting me on, Bob? LOL
Do you mean soaking it to hasten germination - like we do with okra seed? But If you put it in water the white coating will dissolve and you won't have pelleted seed anymore. :-) It dissolves real quick. I don't understand, Bob - please educate me.
I always ask for unpelleted seed, but I like it treated for diseases - blue, green or red. :-) It's getting hard to get unpelleted for some varieties.
Jack
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Permalink Reply by robert schuler on
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Jack... All vegetable seed can harbor harmful bacteria on the seed coat and inside the seed from the last growing season. Hot water treating seed is the only way to be sure the bacteria are destroyed. The seed pelleting must go on after hot water treatment. That is why when you purchase pelleted seed be sure it was hot water treated. Chemical treatments on the seed are not effective against bacteria. Check with your county agent if you want to learn more... BTW a lot of small boutique seed companies haven't got a clue what this treatment is... Bob.
Sunny Meadow Farm
Bridgeton, NJ.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Ellis on
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Thanks for enlightening me, Bob. There's sure a lot more to the seed business than I ever imagined.
I've always thought the chem treatment killed ALL seed-bearing diseases. Now I have something else to worry about. LOL We have had bacteria problems on winter brassicas in the past and now spray copper hydroxide regularly on a schedule -- it leaves blue residues that have to be washed off, which is a pain in the neck. But if we don't use the spreader/sticker, it it just rolls off the leaves
We deal mostly with Clifton Seed, a very fine, old line company - if it needs to be done, I'm sure they do it. Have you dealt with Twilley Seed? They have lower minimums than Clifton and cater to smaller market gardeners.
Jack
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Permalink Reply by Gena on
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Hello, I'm new to this discussion board but I'm so glad I found it! I have pelleted petunia seeds that I have been trying for several weeks to germinate with nothing happening. Used up all I had. Now I see that the problem may be that they were about a year old just sitting in their package in the humid air. I'll try buying fresh and give it another go. Almost nobody sells unpelleted petunia seed. What is recommended as a way to store seed that is not pelleted? I always have a lot of extra seeds and can't bear to throw them out. Thanks for any input.
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Permalink Reply by luke ottinger sr on
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i'm pretty new myself to this board and not an expert but i can only tell you what i do with my extra seed. i put them in an air tight container and then i put that in a box and place in a cool area. some seeds have a short life span and i'm sure with this board there will be someone that will know. good luck and good growing. luke
Gena said:Hello, I'm new to this discussion board but I'm so glad I found it! I have pelleted petunia seeds that I have been trying for several weeks to germinate with nothing happening. Used up all I had. Now I see that the problem may be that they were about a year old just sitting in their package in the humid air. I'll try buying fresh and give it another go. Almost nobody sells unpelleted petunia seed. What is recommended as a way to store seed that is not pelleted? I always have a lot of extra seeds and can't bear to throw them out. Thanks for any input.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Musumeci on
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Luke, your reply to Gena is right on. Storing seeds in a cool, dry, out of direct sunlight area will maximize the shelf life. And keeping them in an airtight container will keep them from gaining or losing moisture.
Joe Musumeci
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Permalink Reply by Gena on
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Luke and Joe, thanks for the info. I'm afraid I may have violated all three of those storage conditions! Would storing in a refrigerator be too cold I wonder? I am hoping to save some heirloom seeds this year from some of my tomatoes and cantaloupes.
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Permalink Reply by tulsacityfarmer on -
I have enjoyed this thread, as I just bought pelleted carrot seed this year. I was hoping to save on thining time. I have found carrots need a constant moisture, to germinate. I will apply extra after reading this to start. I just seeded today.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Ellis on
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Are you in Tulsa, OK? I'm surpried y'all can grow carrots in the summer. It's strictly a winter crop for us down here in SE Texas. What variety are you using?
We don't grow them anymore for two reasons (1) they always had dark stains on them that wouldn't wash-off. Something from our soil, I guess. They didn't look nice and clean and didn't sell well. We could never get them uniformly long and straight either. (2)The planting/thinning was a nightmare with that tiny seed. I can see where pelleted would be very advantageous in that case.
We just couldn't produce an attractive, marketable product that could compete with the store. the ladies that run the veg stand were always complaining that they didn't look good. So I quit planting them.
Jack
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Permalink Reply by tulsacityfarmer on
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Yes, I'm in the Tulsa area. And I usually grow a 240 day carrot and over winter them for early spring. And yes I can plant a spring crop for early summer. But then, forget it. I’m thinking about trying to grow some next year under a 40% shade cloth and some lettuce. I was going to experiment this year, but I’m way behind, because of family illness.
Jack Ellis said:Are you in Tulsa, OK? I'm surpried y'all can grow carrots in the summer. It's strictly a winter crop for us down here in SE Texas. What variety are you using?
We don't grow them anymore for two reasons (1) they always had dark stains on them that wouldn't wash-off. Something from our soil, I guess. They didn't look nice and clean and didn't sell well. We could never get them uniformly long and straight either. (2)The planting/thinning was a nightmare with that tiny seed. I can see where pelleted would be very advantageous in that case.
We just couldn't produce an attractive, marketable product that could compete with the store. the ladies that run the veg stand were always complaining that they didn't look good. So I quit planting them.
Jack
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Permalink Reply by Jack Ellis on
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We're about 120 miles NE of Houston - between Beaumont and Lufkin. Totally different climate than yours.
We don't grow lettuce. People want Iceberg only around here and we can only grow the bib-type lettuces (Buttercrunch,etc) -planted on 2/15, but we don't mess with it - no market, hard to handle etc. We grow mustard, turnips and collards in the winter. If your new to commercial gardening. I would suggest that you limit yourself to a few crops for each season - things that sell well and grow well in your area, and crops that you can do better than WalMart.
We can't compete with WalMart on things like lettuce, brocolli, cabbage, watermelons, carrots, russet potatoes, onions and others. They have us beat on those vegetables. But we can better them, on both quality and price, with tomatoes, sweetcorn, peas, winter greens, peppers, squash, cukes and red potatoes. We can grow good spinach and english peas here in Jan-Mch - but there's not much market for that stuff - Yankee food!
We are a non-profit, faith-based charity and we have three growers now - one does red potatoes and corn on three irrigated acres, another guy grows 5 acres of peas and I grow mostly tomatoes, winter greens, squash and peppers on 2 irrigated acres. The other guys have 4" shallow wells and they are okay in this drought. For the first time ever, my pond is dropping badly and we may not have any tomatoes this year. Yesterday afternoon, the floating pine needles were moving in a slow circle above the pump intake. I'm a week away, at most, from shutting down - and no rain in sight
Nothing to do but sit here and fret!
Jack
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