San marzano hard to germinate?

12 years ago

I sowed 9 different kinds of seeds into seed starter on Friday night. 5 different kinds of tomatoes, variety of lettuce, and oregano. It is now the 5th day and all of them have sprouted EXCEPT the San marzano. The rest of the tomatoes are almost 2 inches tall.

Roma's and yellow brandywine came out first. Then red brandywine (although only 1 out of the 2 I planted), lastly cherry.

Do San marzanos typically take longer to germinate than other seeds? Or are they just harder to germinate, period.

The seed tray spent the first couple nights on my wireless router for warmth. As soon as first seeds popped out I moved them under grow lights where they are getting approximately 14 hours of artificial light a day. They're also somewhat close to a west facing window. I still have them over a heating pad which I turn on once in a while for 2 hours at a time.

Help please! Of course all the other seeds should sprout when the San marzanos are the only ones I'm most interested in...

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Comments (5)

art33
12 years ago
winstella,

I've read that San Marzanos take between 7 and 10 days to germinate (75 to 78 deg F). You should see some sprouts in a few days. Good Luck!
digdirt2
12 years ago
They are no more difficult to germinate than any other tomato variety. Same requirements, same germination times. Age of seed is the only variable if all other conditions are the same.

Tomato seeds that are slow to germinate, assuming viable seeds, are often planted too deep.

Dave
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winstella
Original Author
12 years ago
The weather is so nice today in SoCal (73 degrees) that I brought my plants out to the garden to soak up real sun and a light breeze. Not sure if this is what did it, or even if exposing them to real climate so early is a good idea, but one of the San Marzanos finally poked its head out! I will be bringing them back in when the sun starts to set and put them back under the lights until later tonight.

Hooray! I now have one of each plant that I wanted!

{{gwi:213072}}

{{gwi:213073}}

From back left to right: Red Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Roma.
Middle row: Cherry Tomatoe, San MarzanoÃ¢ÂÂs, lettuce.

This post was edited by winstella on Wed, Jan 29, 14 at 17:15
Prachi
12 years ago
Last year was my first year growing tomatoes from seed (that is my disclaimer I have grown tomatoes for a few years just never from seed)...

I tried san marzano redorta from seed... out of 24 seeds I got TWO plants... my brandywines and other non-tomato seedlings all sprouted. I admit I did the newbie thing and overwatered them... once mine grew I transplanted them out and we had a very wet spring-early summer and I got millions of green tomatoes on it but very few red ones (they were very difficult to ripen off the vine).

When I asked around it sounds like San Marzano redorta's like hot dry climates and do well that way.. all the rain didn't help.

This year I am giving Opalka's a try. But just sharing my experience (for what its worth.. I am a relative newbie)
JR4094
12 years ago
I grew San Marzanos from seed for the first time last year. Mine did take such a long time to germinate, I thought I had gotten some bad seed. But they did well and I had some of the best fresh salsa I have ever made. Well worth the wait. BTW after the seeds sprouted, they seemed to grow at a "normal" rate. I am looking forward to growing them again this year.