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KalenaPlants
12-08-2008, 08:30 PM
So I was reading this article about how you can test your seeds that you buy by placing a few of them in a damp paper towel, placing the paper towel in a ziploc baggie and putting it in a warm place to germinate.

What happened? NOTHING! :confused: In fact, a couple of the seeds turned black.

I scraped out some seeds from an organic bell pepper that I bought at the store. I rinsed and dried the other seeds, put them in a paper bag, and set them in a drawer to later. To "test" them, I took about 10 seeds and did what I mentioned above. Five weeks later, nothing. The seeds never sprouted and two of them just turned black.

Questions: What did I do to my seeds? How can I fix it? Did I harvest them correctly? What should I have done differently? Has anyone else had this problem?

Katoyia
12-08-2008, 08:37 PM
Try it with a little less water. Once I wet a new sponge and dropped some arugula seeds in it. I left for about five days and it had little baby sprouts in it.

plantoneonme
12-09-2008, 09:40 AM
I found out that some peppers are kinda finicky. I had some Chinese heirloom peppers that I purchased and tried 2 times to get them to germinate without success. I also bought some mini bell peppers and saved the seeds and had a great germination rate and we ate lots of mini bells over the summer. I am not sure why some did good and others did not.

When I use the baggie method to germinate seeds, I use a damp coffee filter instead of papertowels. The coffee filter will not get as wet and when the seeds sprout, the do not dig into the coffee filter and risk having some of the tiny roots tore off before transplanting.

I would try again and if it does not work, you may have some finicky seeds or the pepper was not fully ripe and the seeds did not develope fully.

Kim

gardengirl72
12-09-2008, 11:58 AM
I did that with some cotton seeds once. Was the ziplock baggie open or closed? If it was closed they could have sort of rotted.

KalenaPlants
12-09-2008, 08:22 PM
Plantone:

I'm going to try again. I hope the seeds aren't just particular. Ha! Smug Seeds.

Gardengirl:

My baggie was closed. It may not have had any air! I'll poke holes in the baggie next time and see how that works. Small little holes.

Thank you all!

gardengirl72
12-10-2008, 09:26 PM
My official diagnosis is the baggy was closed. I used aluminum foil, and it worked fine, loosely closed of course.

You should try the Square Foot Gardening method. It works really well also. I will try and did you out a link.

KalenaPlants
12-11-2008, 09:12 PM
My official diagnosis is the baggy was closed. I used aluminum foil, and it worked fine, loosely closed of course.

You should try the Square Foot Gardening method. It works really well also. I will try and did you out a link.


I think I'm going to get that SFG book for myself for Christmas. Thanks very much for all the help. I'm done scouting locations this week, so I'll have time tomorrow to try the seeds again.

On another yet related tip, I read on Sinfonian's blog that seeds can be kept in the fridge. Should they always be kept cold or can I store them in a cool dry place?