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laurelzito

How to germinate Viola seeds

Laurel Zito
14 years ago

I want to germinate some viola seeds I bought, but I did not realize how hard it would be. The last time I tried I only got one plant. I have had luck with winter sowing of pansies. I want to know about this have to put them in the refrigerator or freezer. I think a direct sow will create a healthier plant, but if I was to do this whole complex put in frig five days, germinate, move out doors, can someone give me detailed instructions on how these steps work? I am in San Francisco and we are like 50 degrees here right now, and we grow all year, there is no snow, so I don't know if I could chance just planting them outside. And why do they need total darkness to germinate? Obviously they don't because I never would have gotten one plant with the direct outdoor sow. I have a photo of the one plant I did get a few years ago. But, it only produced one flower.

Here is a link that might be useful: Viola I grew from seeds

Comments (15)

  • sarahbarah27
    14 years ago

    I just started 48 Viola seeds last week and as of this morning about 20 of them have germinated. I think by total darkness they mean that the seeds must be covered with soil. The seeds I had came from a seed packet from the farm store, I didn't give them a cold treatment or anything. This is what I did:
    1. Filled plastic cell packs (6 packs) with moist Pro-Mix
    2. Made a little hole in each cell with my pinky
    3. Put one little tiny seed into each hole
    4. Covered them lightly with the soil that got pushed away by making the hole
    5. Misted them with a spray bottle and covered the tray with clear plastic
    6. Placed them in a sunny window in a room that never goes below 64 or 65F at night and stays about 70 or 75 degrees during the day (I am not saying that these are the proper temperatures, but it has worked for me)
    7. When they started to germinate I removed the cover to allow for air circulation.

    I have never tried winter sowing, so I have no advice to offer with that, maybe a post over in the WS forum could give you more advice on that.

    Good Luck
    Sarah

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks I want to give them the treatment, because one plant with one flower was a very disappointing yield. I have to buy a cell/flat, but the kind I see in the stores are always much cheap thin plastic. If I buy a flat, I want one that I can use again without it being bent out of shape after one use. I have to do an online search for that. I want to also ask in the voila forum as you suggested, but I think they frown on double posting.

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    14 years ago

    tropical, 'viola' covers a lot of plants and they don't all have the same germination requirements. i.e. Your Prince John viola from your photo is v. cornuta, and while a moist chill (not freeze) wouldn't hurt, should germinate in approx 21 days @65-70F. Which viola seed did you buy?

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    On the package it says Burpee Viola Blackjack, but does not give a Latin second name. I had good luck with a black pansy called black moon, so I thought this might be similar. The package only has sewing direction for climates that snow and are colder then my zone 10. I read on the botanical interests webpage you have to put it in the refrigerator or freezer, but maybe that's not correct? We are running about 50 degrees here, I thought I could do an outdoor sew.

    Special Germination Instructions: Even though easy to germinate, Violas do better with stratification, a process of subjecting seeds to moist/cold treatment to break the seeds dormancy. Indoors, sow seeds into moistened soil and place in the refrigerator or freezer for about 5 days. Seeds can then be germinated. Viola seed also requires darkness to germinate. Make sure seeds are planted at recommended depth of 1/8".

    Here is a link that might be useful: How to germinate viola seeds

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    14 years ago

    It looks like your Black Jack is also v. cornuta - I'm only seeing them advertised by Burpee and sister company Cooks Garden where they also refer to them as Johnny Jump Up (= cornuta) .

    While the moist chill isn't required, you may get better (higher percentage) germination with it, if your temps are averaging day/night around 50F, that's probably cool enough - it's doing the same here and I'm putting seed containers for things that could use the moist chill outdoors. While probably safe in sowing and placing your pots outdoors, don't expect to necessarily find germination within the 21 days at the cooler temps, you likely won't find seedlings until your temps warm up a little. I wouldn't be overly concerned about the light/dark requirements either, this type self sows reliably without anyone trying to regulate amounts of light.

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I have some wild johnny jump ups that reseed like weeds, but the cultivated ones do not reseed. Normally I buy them as plants, and they can only be increased in numbers by division. I have never gotten one reseed what so ever on the violas. Here is a photo of the weed ones, that I actually have to get tough and pull them out. All of these reseeded in shade.

    I am going to try the refrigerator, I have a small drinks refrigerator, I got for the purpose of chilling things like bulbs. I want a high yeild this time.

    Here is a link that might be useful: wild johnny jump ups

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I guess I will do the cold treatment then the warm treatment, because the birds will eat them if they hang around. I will end of having to weed and disturb them. I have so much grassy weed poa annua, it sprouts daily, I have to disturb my soil frequently. Although I have gotten some poppies and snap dragons to sprout with a direct sow. At least I think they are snap dragons and not just weeds. This is after thinking it over. If I don't sow in flats, I can not tell if I am getting the weed johnny jumps or the ones I planted and you can not tell the difference until it blooms, which is why I sort of tried to cut down on the amount of wild johnny jumps. Each flower makes like 100 seeds on the seed head. They are nice cute little flowers, but I like to try different colored ones.

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I had so many seeds I used a flat and direct sewed the rest, so I will have to see what comes up now. I put them on the sunny side of the garden, where there are less of the johnny jump up weeds, so I hope I can get maybe one or two plants. I put in some already grown just in case skippy blues.

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Next time I am going to wait until April to sew them. I only got two plants, and they were all created by direct sew. The ones I put in flats were very weak, and never grew. San Francisco has a mild climate.

  • taz6122
    13 years ago

    I didn't get any germination last year. I kept the extra seeds in the frige until spring of this year. I then sowed just like I would any seed of that size, didn't cover, kept under lights and misted until germination(5-7 days). After germination I placed the container in a bowl and kept 1/4-1/2" of water at all times until ready to go in the garden.
    {{gwi:216978}}

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I did get a huge amount of germination from the indoor sow, but none of the plants lived. They stayed very weak. I did get three plants, I found a new one, from the direct sow, that lived to give flowers. But, johnny jump ups, as in the photo posted above are easy to reseed. Violas are more difficult.The violas are more compact plants. The johnny jumps have bigger flowers and a more branching habit. They actually self seed if you let them. Each flower head will make seeds that you can see or even harvest.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The viola from seed

  • taz6122
    13 years ago


    The johnny jumps have bigger flowers and a more branching habit.

    Those flowers are only 1/2-3/4" and there is about 8 plants there.

  • Laurel Zito
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    The link in my posting above is wrong. I was sure that I used the Burpee Viola Blackjack link and now I can't find that link anymore on Burpee. It has been changed to the
    king Henry Viola - cornuta

    My photos pertain the Burpee, which has a better germinate rate then the Botanical Interests. When I grew the prince john I got exactly one plant, that did not even look like the correct plant.

    The johnny jumps up which are also posted a photo earlier are viola tricolor and the ones I was trying to grow are viola cornuta. Someone else commented that the link was wrong, but now it's really wrong, I don't know why it keep changing. But, I just got those seeds at Lowes Osh or home depot, so it may be possible to find them out there in the racks if one wanted to try the same flowers. One can also buy johnny jump up seeds but those are viola tricolor.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny Jump Up defintion wikipedia

  • taz6122
    13 years ago

    LOL! Wikipedia information is entered by everyday people like you and me and has as much mis-information as any forum. Try googling johnny jump up flower or try daves garden and you will see that JJU is viola tri-color.