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Beulah North Dakota

Any germination ideas? I ordered the seeds from the seed list. Tryed the peel the hull/wet paper towel method. Peel the hull place in peet pots.Seeds in the peet pots and I am on my 3rd batch of failures.
I have tryed seeds from 9 varities of pumpkins. Need help?? I am starting to get a loser complex with this seeds.
Thanks
Dean

5/22/2003 1:57:20 AM

Knopp, Germany

Dean, my recommendation is to go as simple as possible. This is what I did and had 100% germination on 8 seeds.....file the edges very lightly, fill the peat pots with seed starter soil, make sure is is moist, but not too wet. Place the seeds in the soil, about 1 inch deep, on their sides (I believe this helps the coat to come off). I put them in my basement, on a table with a light source about 5 inches above them. The temperature stayed at about 80-85 degrees. Everyday I would check to make sure the soil was moist on top, if not I would spray water on until it was moist. Do not pour water in, this could result in seed rot. In 3-5 days all the seeds came up without the seed coat. Best of luck, I will be thinking about you. Let us know how it works out.......Owen

5/22/2003 4:43:49 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Soil heated from the bottom to 85*F & moderate moisture. No filing or seed coat removal is required. 3-4 days about 90% of the time. Cheapo drug store heating pad worked for me but may pose a fire hazard. Walmart sells a decent seed starting mat pretty cheap. Older refrigerators may be warm enough. Mine isn't.
Use a commercial bagged seed starting soiless mix (not really soil at all).
If you can squeeze water out of your seed starting mix, it's too wet. Cover pots with clear plastic wrap.

- Steve

5/22/2003 7:48:06 AM

Hensler North Dakota

Thanks for the tips. I will try agian.
We still have a week or so until we can put plants out. We had a night time temp in the mid 20's this week.

5/22/2003 8:27:24 PM