Astilbe seeds not germinated after 3 weeks? (Fungus Gnats!!!???)

14 years ago

I sowed 100 Astilbe seeds three weeks ago, and I can only see 3 ultra small seedlings as of today. I saw Fungus Gnats all around my seedlings of other plants (especially Lobelia and Lisianthus) today and I hurried to buy "Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer for Soil and Turf." I sprayed it all over my entire seedling collection about one hour ago.

Do you think my astilbe sprouting seeds have been eaten by Fungus Gnats and now I am left with only three? If so, I will go buy another packet of seeds and plant them again.

But my hope is that maybe the seeds still have to wait to take some extra time to germinate.

So my main question here is: if you have experience with Astilbe seeds, how long does it take for them to germinate?

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Comments (3)

Belgianpup
14 years ago
Astilbe need light to germinate -- you didn't cover them, did you?

Some are slow -- what variety are you starting?

Sue
rinomanfroni
Original Author
14 years ago
I am growing Astilbe x arendsii, also known as Astilbe Bella
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morz8 - Washington Coast
14 years ago
Average germination time for astilbe is 21-60 days, any seedlings appearing within that time frame would be considered the norm.

Your Bayer product/imidacloprid was overkill and I hope you didn't mean you sprayed this in an enclosed environment, like indoors. Imidacloprid isn't appropriate treatment for gnats. It's use outdoors is even in question given the possible consequences to bees and pollinators.

A very effective safe for you/your seedlings approach would have been to use BTi - Bacillus thuringiensis israelenis - for fungus gnat and mosquito larvae. But it was too soon to assume fungus gnat larvae were feeding on seedling roots.