Ellen, you know how statistics go, It depends how you define 100%.

You can count every seed and every seedling and that makes it really hard to get 100%.

On the other hand, you can count one seedling as "germination" and if you get one seeedling in each container, you got 100% germination!!!

Personally, Im not interested in the %ages, I just want some plants. Way to lazy to do all that counting and logging and ciphering. You gotta do it in a way thats fun and not frustrating.

:)

Ellen:

Some of those seeds need warmer soil temps to germinate. I would definitely wait ....

I only apply germination percentage when I sow seeds below 15 count. :)

I agree - if I get a single seed in a pot that sprouts I consider it "germinated"

The only ones I'm concerned with germination rates are my daylily crosses. In one container, I have 100%, all 8 seeds sprouted. In another, all but one has sprouted, and I'm sure the little guy will show up sooner or later. Then, some crosses have only a couple to no sprouts yet. But daylilies can be fickle. The rest I don't care. Like dorisl, I just want some plants.

Karen

Me too, I wsowed 10 stella d'oro daylily seeds and I only have 1 sprout. I ended up digging 4 daylily plants in front and transplanted them at the back :D

I only count percentages of jugs that sprouted against those that don't. This is my second year WSing and I had about 50 jugs that didn't sprout and it looks like I will have about the same this year.

I agree with doris - it really depends on how you count germination. Me, being anal, I do count every seed, lol. I keep track of how many seeds I sowed of each thing, and then count how many seedlings I end up with (although I will count seedlings that sprouted and died somehow, since technically I did have germination.) So for me, 100% means every seed I sowed germinates.

Funny thing for me is, I'm not anal in many areas of my life, but for some things like seed-sowing, I am. But it's almost more for fun first, (seeing how much germination I get, that is) and info-gathering and/or record-keeping second.

:)
Dee

I am a bit like Dee, especially since I trade seeds and like to know the viability of seed I'm sending someone. For example last year someone sent me 10 seeds of Yvonne's Salvia and all 10 germinated. My plants bloomed late and I sowed several batches of 10 and realized I was only getting 40% germination. So I sent out additional seeds to my 'trades' so they would not be disapointed. I keep records especially for my indoor sowing - I sow seeds on cofee filters, 10 per filter, so I can see how many germinate. Then I can calculate the percentage and record it. As a matter of fact I am just a little record-keeping freak - neat columns recording the date, plant,origin of seed, germination date, and % if available. I am the daughter of an accountant, and I love keeping records - a little nerdy!!!

LOL, northerner, my mother was a bookkeeper! At least we come by it honestly, I guess!

If I could only apply some of that organization to the rest of my life I might get somewhere, lol! But at least my seeds are alphabetized, counted (both the sown ones and the ones still in the packets) and even sown in straight lines, lol!

:)
Dee

I dumped 22 containers yesterday that had not yet sprouted. These were things that I planted on a whim because I had the seed. None of them were what I would call "important" plants. I did dump all the soil near the compost bin. No telling what might grow up there. I tossed all my butterfly bush clippings out there too this winter. I know some seed pods were still on the branches. Maybe I'll get some volunteers.

I kept 8 that hadn't sprouted out of my over 200 containers. So that's about an 80% success rate for me, I think. I try not to get hung up on the math and worry more about the sprouted containers and getting them in the ground.

Like token, I don't worry about germination %s. Never have, actually. If a container has only a couple sprouts, or no sprouts, I do take mental note, simply because I sow VERY heavily, and to not have ANY germination (or very little) simply tells me I either need to do some more homework on caring for those ones, or they are late germinators, or they just plain failed for me.
But I don't worry about them ever. Long about July when there's nothing in there, I walk it over to the slope-that-doesn't-get-mowed, apologize out loud to the container for its fate, and tell it if it's interested in germinating, do it over here with all your friends (these other non-germinated containers).

Yep, I'm weird, but I have issues about 'giving up' on a container.

Im laughing at myself! In my "other life" I was a CPA and Bank Controller/Vice President. I did enough logging and counting and ciphering to last a lifetime! ROFL! I cant even keep the container count up to date.

You'd get a kick out of how I do my checkbook.

Just goes to show ya, your hobbies and your profession dont always align.

:)
D

I think anyone who claims 100% germination, either 100% of containers or 100% of seeds, is errrr....not being entirely truthful (unless they have sown ONLY the easiest most reliable of sprouters).

There are inevitably going to be non-viable seeds in every packet of seeds, even commercial seeds, and there could be entire packets of seeds that are duds, especially traded seeds. There are also going to be mishaps in the process of sowing and waiting for sprouts, that might prevent germination.

Most of my commercial seeds sprout, but there are a few I've not had success with yet - is it the seed, or is it me? I even bought commercial seed last year that was packed with the wrong seed! It was supposed to be Polemonium reptans (Jacob's ladder), got lots of seedlings last year, but even after posting on the "Name that Plant" forum, I still am not sure what it is, exactly.

The quality of traded seeds is quite variable - who knows if they were collected, stored, and labelled properly, and I've received mismarked seeds, total duds, etc.

Just the way it is.

I always thought the percentage of germination was the number of containers that germinated, I didn't realize people kept that close track of how many of the seeds germinated! Lol*

I'm a newbie but from what I've read I think there are a lot of factors that contribute to why some people get more or less germination. Seeds (purchased? traded? new? old?), soil (potting? clumpy? fine? weeds? chemicals?), location (sun? dappled? shade?), water (bottom? open container? daily? weekly? only when bone dry?), spring temperature fluxuations, etc... There are just so many factors to consider.

The upside seems to be that for the most part, most people on here at least seem to have a good enough amount of germination to want to continue doing it. So while we could probably all have BETTER germination rates, they can't be all that bad to begin with or no one would be doing it. Ya know?