6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
In my opinion you are wasting your time. Beans come up in a couple of days with direct planting and you would have to wait until it get's a lot warmer before you could do anything with them anyway. Plant some tomatoe and pepper seeds instead.
garden_fool is right. If it's warm enough for them to grow, they are up and growing in a couple of days. If it's not they will just sit there anyhow.
If you want something early try favas or peas. They can both be sown as soon as the ground can be worked.
JMO,
Tom
Parsley is slow to germinate and can take 30 days. Some people recommend pouring boiling water over the seed and soaking overnight before planting. Also suggested is to keep the temperature over 80F until they sprout. I haven't grown it myself but that's what I've read.
This plant is featured in Fine Gardening this month - I immediately wanted some seed! Although some pics look sky blue, the one in FG looks purple and mauve.
The author (mrimpatiens.com) suggests sowing the seed and providing a "season" of stratification (damp, dark, and cool).
gardenin, the Scarecrow motion activated sprayer works great on deer, crows, dogs, cats, herons...and I suspect turkey but I can't tell you that from experience, the only wild turkeys around here were re-introduced a few years ago and they don't seem to have really established yet. It needs to be connected to a water source (hose) so can't be used in freezing weather.
Flash tape and bird netting are two things that are recommended for deterring them, but remember they roost in trees - if you are trying to protect a woodland planting you might have to get creative with the netting or you would have them flying up and over it.
Thanks for all the advice! I will give this careful thought.
There's a good foot of snow at this place at the moment. One person suggests I sow the perrenial seed over the snow. . . . but I'm not sure this just wouldn't be throwing out bird seed for the birds.
IF the seed melts down to the ground through the snow in the spring. . . . THEN I would consider something like this just before another snowfall. But I'm no expert in this area. . .
I think I'll ask this question again in this forum.
Gerberas are somewhat a pain in the butt to grow from seed. Normally there are only a couple viable seeds from each flower. You can just throw them on soft soil in the spring where you want them to grow. Or you can start them in seed starting soil, making sure to have the fluffy end up sticking out of the soil. Just like it would naturally land from the air carrying it. The fatter the seed the better chance you have that it is viable. Keep moist but not soggy.
I love my Gerberas! Not supposed to be hardy here where I am, but I have had mine for 3 years already, always come back, and have had a few reseed without my help. Don't be surprised if they aren't true to the parent.
Good Luck!
Daniella
Call your county Cooperative Extension Office or check the web for your county Master Gardener group - they can help provide the last expected frost date range for your area and recommended vegetable variety list.
In my zone 8b, peppers like more heat than tomatoes so I start those seeds about 2 weeks later than my tomatoes. I use 6 packs planting 3 seeds per cell thinning to the strongest as they grow on and bumping up as needed before planting outside.
Tomatoes can be bumped up into larger pots (community pot > deep 4" or deep coffee [plastic or paper] cups > 1 gal - set deeper each time to encourage more root development before setting them out in garden or giving them to gardening friends!
I have an indoor seed starting arrangement made from metal shelves, each with 2 stoplight fixtures equipped with daylight spectrum bulbs or 1 warm & 1 cool bulb (set about 3 inches above seedlings and left on for 14-16 hours daily) and seedling heat mats with thermostats to control soil temperatures. After the seeds emerge I remove the clear plastic dome and turn on my small circulating fan for an hour daily to provide air movement which strengthens seedlingÂs stems; as seedlings grow on I bump them up to individual pots at the 2 true leaf stage, start ¼ strength liquid balanced fertilizer, lower the soil temperature and keep raising the lights to maintain proper distance. Be sure to label each pot or youÂll loose track of varieties.
Take pictures and keep notebook of what, when, where so you can make adjustments in the future.
Note: All seedlings need to be hardened off over 7-8 days before finally planting out in the garden  less transplant shock that way! Tomatoes only can be planted deeply leaving 2 sets of leaves above ground; in no time youÂll have big, healthy plants and early tomatoes provided you keep soil moisture even and drench soil with Epsom salts (2 T./gal) to keep blossom end rot at bay provided itÂs a problem in your garden!
Beans and cucumbers are easily started in the garden after soil has warmed a bit  they hate cold wet soils.
Happy Gardening!
TJ
I started with just a few plants in the basement about three years ago. Last year with a four year old daughter helping and wanting her own flower bed out front, we went from a one light set-up to a three light set-up with a timer, and from strictly vegetables to both edible and beautiful to look at. Needless to say, we've both learned a lot along the way. As I write this, she has her nose in a catalog, and we invested in "The Gardener's A-Z Guide to growing flowers from Seed to Bloom" (Eileen Powell)
OK, back to the point. It's something that I tried just to see if I could do it. Now every seedling that goes into the ground is started "in house." If you have a little helper like I have, it's well worth however much it cost'.
I do it because I get unusual plants/exotic colors only catalog seeds can give me. I do it because I like doing it. Yes, you can get earlier bloom with some plants. With others (like cosmos and zinnia) I find they do best planted directly outside. You learn from experience.
Lately (after doing it for 30 years) it's become a bit of a chore so I stopped doing seeds that need to be started before March 1st and buy those plants in the nursery.
I use an 8 tray light setup with two shop lights next to each other on each level, each light with one ordinary 40 watt tube and one full spectrum tube.
Keep a list of when each plant needs to be started (by weeks before last frost), keep the lights no more than an inch from the plants, and always have a fan or slightly open window in the plant room to prevent fungus. Try to water from the bottom and without soaking the top of the soil.
Have as much fun with this and go nuts obsessing over whatever you feel comfortable with. Rewmember, it's for pleasure!
This link should help you *greatly* -> http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/cedars.htm
It helped me a great deal, fwiw. Got me a fair-% of C deodara germinated using this 'method'... Cedar seed is *super-sensitive* to damp-off, if you were unaware of that, so be VERY cautious in how moist the media/seed is kept at all times. Seems all Cedrus is more or less same in requirements for germination, and all sensitive to damping, as well :-)
Many other articles at that site worth reading, too, if interested in growing the seed out in pots - just change the last term from /cedars.htm to /articles.htm
HTH,
Alex
Wet a paper towel or paper coffee filter and squeeze out as much water as you can. Sprinkle seeds on one half of surface, and fold the other half on to it. Seal in a ziplock plastic bag and keep in a warm place around 70 degrees. On top of most refrigerators works. Look at it after 3 days and every day after that watching for germination. If you had 10 seeds and 6 germinated you would have a germination rate of 60%. If the seeds are so small you have to unwrap to see if they are growing be sure your paper does not dry out. Al
NatureGirl--
Just wondering how your experiment is going. I have also have a bunch of old seeds, some of them no doubt came from the '80's, for I remember them from when I was a kid.
Mellikat