6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
The best thing to do is to make your own. What you want is a soil block maker. These can be moderately expensive, but it's also fairly easy to make your own from scratch if you're a little but handy. Just Google "soil block maker" and you'll get lots of hits for instructions on how to make your own and to videos showing their use. Below is a link to one reliable source if you want to get an idea of how much they typically cost. The video on that same page is helpful to watch as it shows how you can use different size cubes to "pot up" if you want to.
Here is a link that might be useful: Soil block maker
One other thing. You might want to read these reviews on Amazon for the tool I linked you to in my previous post as the comments give some helpful tips as well.
Here is a link that might be useful: Soil block maker review
I don't know what part of the country you are in, ProMix and Fafard are both well liked for sowing those seeds by many who don't want to use a regular seed sowing medium.
Neither are available to me here (No Ace Hardware here either, if they don't stock I think they will order ProMix and let you pick it up for no shipping.), I use the Cornell Peat Light 'recipe' but mixed, bagged for us by a local nursery - I don't have to buy the ingredients in bulk and mix myself.
As for the vegetables tossed back into the garden, some may germinate...it will depend on weather, birds, rodents too to some extent, things that would eat the seeds. I've had tomatoes, cukes germinate and grow in the compost pile, not peppers.
If you allow your zinnia seeds to dry thoroughly, then put them someplace cool and dry to store, they should germinate at 70-72F when you sow them in Spring. No pretreatment needed.
Don't know about zinnia seeds, but I can tell you from experience, be careful where those tomato seeds go. They self-seeded in the garden, the compost and thus plant pots, other parts of the garden. Their tough seeds live through city sewage treatment!
The Dowdswell Site is excellent, but keep in mind for growing on the plants if you did achieve germination - NZ has 4 distinct (even if mild) seasons. Their weather is approximately similar to my own. I've purchased their seeds and it's a wonderful company, but sadly it does not sound as though you have the climate to raise the plants if you did manage to germinate seeds.
If I couldn't sow them outdoors, the info I used when sowing came from Penn State hort and it said you really don't want them frozen solid for any length of time...so yes, I'd use the fridge. Hopefully no one will sit a holiday turkey on them, or assume they are leftovers gone bad or something :)
Seriously, what I've done is clearly mark a container so there is no mistaking it's something I want, put it in one of the bins, in the back. No body but me would ever clean the refrigerator so safe here.
I can't help you as I am not familiar with your climate but you could try the Winter Sowing Forum here on GW. Their definition of 'winter' is pretty flexible. Or the Annuals Forum.
Here is a link that might be useful: Annuals Forum
cribscreek, it sounds like your cool Fall vegetables may be a little late if a normal weather year - the suggestion is September for quick to mature vegetables. But, do you have a County Ext agency near you where you could get information specific to your area?
I know you've been warmer and with more sun than this Z8, my sis is in Raleigh this week greeting a new granddaughter ;) You could sow seeds for poppies and nigella now, they will likely germinate in the next few weeks with some sun and thundershowers but many of the seedlings will make it through winter, even brief snows. What I do with both those seeds is toss some out in Fall, again December, again early March - in a bad winter year I'll have seedlings from one of those sowings, and in a good year I'll have some from each sowing for a longer succession of blooms.
Here is a link that might be useful: ncsu.edu Fall sowing
If you mean when would you start them for next season, I would say around early March. I'm in a colder zone and I start my peppers indoors in mid-March for planting out in June. You might peruse the Hot Pepper forum to see when others start their seeds.
If you mean how soon can you start them after harvesting, I would say any time, as long as the peppers were ripe when you extracted the seeds. They don't need to be dried for immediate use(they may even germinate sooner than dry seeds), but do need to be dry before storing them for later planting.
DionKar,
I've grown the Ballerina Purples, from my saved seeds, for the last three years. Sometimes the seed pods turn brown before splitting open and sometimes they split open while still entirely green. I don't know why that is, but in both cases the outer part of the pods are always "soft mushy" and the ripe seeds are a light brown color. If you open one of the seed pods before it splits on it's own, the seeds will be white.
Also, when I say they 'sometimes turn brown', I don't mean 100% brown. I guess I should say that the green pods are in the process of turning brown. I've never seen one that was completely brown.
Hope this helps,
Art
Ok so I did a bit more digging around and pulled up some interesting facts:
1) Contrary to what a lot of people say, drying seeds to 0% humidity might not be bad, according to this site:
http://www.seedcontainers.net/a_guide_to_long-term_seed_preservation.html
2) Certain seeds can be dried "desiccation-tolerant":
http://howtosaveseeds.com/store.php
Any additional comments would be appreciated!
I think you would learn a lot by reading the work of Norman C Deno. The professor spend many years experimenting with seed viability and storage. His work is now free on the internet. Look under his name or 'Seed Germination Theory and Practice'. Al
Hmmmm. It shouldn't need any kind of pretreatment, although a brief moist chill wouldn't hurt it either. How deep are you covering the seeds - barely cover and see if some light helps you.
Stachys coccinea - Sow at 68F, should germinate in approx 2 weeks. Warmer temps may delay germination.
Are they in seed trays or individual pots? 5cm is getting a bit tall for tomatoes still to be in trays. You should prick them out into individual pots of seedling compost and when they are about 15 - 20cm tall and have two or more sets of true leaves you can plant them in their final positions. Can't help you with the melons really as I can't grow them in my climate but the same would apply to pricking out and then transplanting into final positions. BTW the rate of growth sounds normal to me but I do live in a cool climate. I sow tomatoes in late March to plant out in late May.
Welcome compostkid to the GardenWeb. When I read your post my first association of Victoria was not with Australia. I agree with flora's advice, but would suggest you edit your posting address to indicate your zone and your down under location. Al
Hi Tom, I got mine at the local 5 & 10, an ancient, ramshackle store that is stuffed to the gills with practically everything. But you can find them online, Amazon and Walmart etc. have them. They're called "coin and small parts envelopes".
They are more expensive than the plastic zip bags, but paper might be a better storage material because it allows the seeds to breath. But I have good results with both. Storing seeds in the fridge maintains their viability for many years.
I started out using small plastic bags, but I sometimes had mold problems if the seeds had any moisture. Then I used pieces of paper that I cut, folded, and taped. Then I moved on to cutting up larger envelopes, which didn't involve as much cutting and taping. And then I discovered "coin envelopes" at Staples. They measure 2-1/4" X 3-1/2", are made from manila paper, have a gummed flap, and they're just the right size. A box of 500 costs about $17. For me, that's at least a 5-year supply, and it saves me a lot of trouble.
Here is a link that might be useful: Coin envelopes