I tried the filter/baggie method recently with different varieties and I bombed. Not one seed sprouted. I am going back to my old process.

I'm not saying the paper towel method doesn't work. The technique seems to work well for others.

This post was edited by pretty.gurl on Sun, Mar 3, 13 at 9:59

I haven't been real excited with the results I get with the paper towel method either. The only reason I use it at all is to make sure my seeds are viable and actually germinating. Transfering the germinated seeds to soil hasn't been all that successful for me either. Others swear by it.
Bruce

Interestingly, I have had a lot better luck with the seeds sprouting roots in paper towels vs soil, but then some have stopped, (and, maybe that is what has happened with the ones that never came up in the soil). And then I have some varieties, like Cowhorn, my tomatillos, Jalapenos, and many others that every single one of the ones that sprouted roots popped up sometimes in a day after putting in soil. It's just that some varieties were horrible, as in 0%... haha, so my experience with it this year has ranged from 100% to 0%..that's quite a range. ;-)
Pam

Try a modified method whereby you don't germinate all of the seeds but as soon as you notice a few sprouting plant them all and be gentle when handling sprouts. a planting method that works well is to use fluid seeding with the sprouts:
Bring a cup of water with a tablespoon of cornstarch or cleargel added to a boil- much like you were making gravy. Let it cool then place into a baggie with your sprouts. Snip of just enough of a corner to allow the sprouts to flow through and dispense into a row of planting media. Cover lightly with more media, water and keep warm until seedlings protrude.

This process eliminates 2 key problems of the paper towel method-1. Sprout damage due to handling and 2. seedling drying out after placing into media. You might just want to skip the paper towel altogether and just soak seeds for 12 hours, then drain and repeat rinse & drain every 6 hours thereafter until you notice sprouts.

Temperature change when moving the seedlings to soil, maybe? Perhaps those particular seeds (you seem to indicate that they tend to all be of a cultivar) are sensitive to some part of the process and don't lend themselves well to it? I only had issues with the method before I had my seedling mat, but they were minor, especially compared to my issues before using the baggie method.

A different issue I had was with putting seeds in a larger container, I had to add an extra piece of wet paper towel to keep it moist enough in the large container. That's what popped into my mind when I saw the thread title, so I'm just adding it here as an afterthought.

I'm thinking temperature change, too. My results so far:

About 140 seeds in paper towels at 83ðF -- 92% germination rate.

Transferred to unheated single starter cells by tweezers or fluid deposition, about 60% of those are up and growing. A significant number (10?) were lost to "helmet head" (probably because they weren't planted deeply enough); one to fumble fingers and one to a bad cat.

The rest just never came up. Some never developed at all; some put down a root and never got the energy to poke their heads up. Some are up yet show no lust for life.

Bottom line is that I'm getting at least 50% healthy plants out of the process, even as I learn by killing them. Next year I could easily see a 75% yield, which is just fine with me.

P.S. Be very careful not to touch the rootlet when planting; don't handle the seed with your fingers.

Use 3% hydrogen peroxide on soil and in the bag moisture to control fungus. The peppers don't seem to notice it, but I would avoid letting the full strength stuff come in contact with rootlets.

This post was edited by DMForcier on Mon, Mar 4, 13 at 14:11

This is my first year growing peppers from seed, and I had some problems after transferring my seedlings from paper towels to pots. Just about all of my seeds germinated in the bags, but after a day or so after planting they were shriveled up and dead. In my case, it seems to have been related to the large drop in moisture in the pot compared to in the bag. It ended up being much easier for the top few cm of substrate to dry out than I had anticipated, and I believe this is what killed my first couple of batches. In later attempts, I made sure the substrate was completely soaked through, and kept the pots covered for a few more days until the plants were stronger and had established their roots a bit deeper to where it takes significantly longer for the substrate to dry out.

DMF, your part about not touching kinda tickled me. With my tomatillos, day 4 nothing, day 7 (in paper towel) 2-3" long roots... WHAT? the only way to extract them was to gently tug on the roots to get them to release from the paper towel, some broke, some let go and came out, I planted all and they were all up in 1 day... my friend broke several roots of her peppers and they all came up. It's amazing how much rough housing they can take and still grow. When I did my peppers I had tweezers that I sterilized in alcohol, then dried off, then dabbed my fingers in alcohol, grabbed the seeds with the tweezers and put into the pots and covered.

I'm wondering too if my seeds were bad, since I had 0 germination with my purple and golden cayenne (some started in soil, some started in paper towel). and dang it, I wish I had kept a log, so I knew which ones did well in the paper towel and which didn't, in order to compare next year... I might try to back track a log.

thanks for the thoughts guys. It could be a drop in temp, as I didn't put them on the heating mat after transferring to soil. Maybe I should have. I pretty much put them in flats on a table in the sunroom.

Pam

Well, when I move the germinated seeds the rootlets are almost microscopic. I did let the first batch go too long and ended up cutting the paper towel around the little rooties to avoid handling. (Paper towels are incredible tough when you're attempting fine work.) Maybe breakage isn't much of an issue, but it can't help. And fingers are dirty things.

I do have one immortal(?) BJ seedling. It came up with serious helmet head. I used small nippers to cut around the seed case and two tweezers under a magnifying lamp to pull the case apart. I didn't expect it to survive - this was an experiment.

Yet it did survive - with two little stumps where the cotyledons would be. Okay, not the first time for that. But then the ADHD cat got hungry and ate it while my back was turned. No roots, no cots, just a stem. But it wasn't badly chewed so I stuck it back in its little cell. Where it resides to this day, green, upright, and laughing at the Reaper. I expect to see a leaf in a few days.

There is definitely variation between varieties, too. Some don't seem to like the colder temps (if that is what it is) and some (like alma) just want to grow through the roof.

I'm not clear on your overall yield, though. Are you seeing over 50% net after germination and planting?

Probably your seedling soil may have problems. It happened to me too when the soil is too dry. Now I use small seedling pots and keep the pots inside a plastic basket with lid until the first leaves show up.

Germinating rate in paper towel is very high for me. It also depend on the type of paper towel and cleanliness.

Caelian

You should wash your hands and tools before touching the seeds.

Furthermore, sowing in the direct seedling soil, the seedlings look healthy but the germination rate is too low and tired of waiting germination.

This tray has a lot of seeds but only few are germinated and how many are going to germinate is unpredictable.

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The same way this tray has also a lot of seeds but only few are germinated

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Both trays took more days for germination than paper towel.

The gardener like me to use paper towel is more convenient but for the professionals who grow 1000s of plants may have problems to use paper towel.

My opinion is just try both of them and use the more convenient and reliable method.

Caelian

Enjoy gardening,

Caelian

well, shoot, I responded to your last post DMF, I guess I got out before hitting send. Now I don't remember what all I said. I try to get the seeds into dirt as soon as I see a little stub of root. But sometimes they do get too long, and boy, you are right, paper towels can be tough. Next year I'm going to use coffee filters instead of paper towels.

ok... germination rate, it depended. The cowhorns had about 99% in the paper towel, and all came up in the soil. Espanola, quite a few germinated in the paper towel, 1 came up in the soil. Some didn't do anything in the soil (when I planted directly in the soil) nor the paper towel, which leads me to believe the seeds were bad. Most I had good luck with the germination rate in the paper towel and most came up after planting in soil (except the gold and purple cayenne). Like I said, I sure wish I kept a log so I could go back and see what's what, I'm going by memory now and that's not a good idea.

I don't wash my hands or tools, but I do dip both in alcohol.
Pam

I did coffee filter + baggie for first time this year. The baggies were placed in a small (narrow) cardboard box to hold them vertical. The small roots did not grow into the filter. Box was then kept warm (I don't have a grow mat). Maybe 2/3rds germinated in 4 days and all went into starting soil. Mold was a little problem in the baggies.

6 seeds * 10 different peppers (5 hot, 5 not) = 60 seeds total in the coffee filters. Now I have about 40% at or above the ground. This is a huge improvement over last year. But it was go/no go (see below). FYI, I save seeds so a lot of these could be considered open pollinated or perhaps F2.

Unlike Pam, Cowhorns were no go. NuMex Joe Parker no go. Bell peppers no go. Goliath Griller did great. NuMex Big Jim did great. Hot Wax did great. Grocery store sweets (non-bell) did great. Like night and day. No correlation to which seeds had germinated in the coffee filters or not. I suspect soil temperature may have played a roll, or perhaps some peppers tolerated the mold better.

Now I'm starting "re-do" on a few of the total failures with an attempt to control mold better. Good news is I have some pepper plants in less than 10 days. And I consider that FAST. Enjoy!

If I see mold on my paper towels during germination, I either remove the offending seed (often it is just one bad one) or else I make a fresh towel and transfer my unsprouted seeds to it (if the mold is forming all along the towel, as sometimes happens if it takes more than a few days). Also, a light bleach solution or peroxide would do the trick.

I think the temperature must be the biggest factor on speed of germination, outside of appropriate moisture levels, of course. Maybe those having trouble could measure the temperatures of their heating spots and/or soil in the pots for a better idea what may be happening? I couldn't find my old heating mat this year and had to use the sattelite tv box, which actually was too warm. So I ended up putting some spacers under my containers for sprouting, then everything was golden.

I tried the baggie method way back when and it didn't really work for me either. I had good germination on the towels, but when seedlings were transplanted over to a medium, invariably I lost many seedlings. I also didn't like having to be so cautious and gentle with the new sprouts.

I too think there is a large change that occurs between the the environment on the paper towel and the enviroment on the medium.

I have had much better luck germinating seeds in a soilless medium and growing them on, then anytime I have tried the baggie method. I have the room, I have a heatbed, and I germinate lots of seedlings. The baggie method just doesn't cut it for me.

The secondary thought I had was that besides moving them from warm paper towel to warm soil, I also keep a bit of saran wrap over the newly planted cells, until most all have broke through the soil. That keeps the moisture levels similar to the towel.

I really only use this for peppers and other types that have "special" germination, like artichokes. For peppers it really speeds up the slow ones, for artichokes it helps me get rid of the genetically defective seeds before wasting a whole large pot of soil on them. For annums I just sprout in soil on the heat mat.

Until we have real problems we may think everything about germination are so simple. Before I had problems of germination I thought germination is so easy if we have the good seeds.

Some of our forum members talked about washing the tools we use and washing our hands before we touch the seeds. It may sound simple but it is very important.

For the first time I had problem of germination due to the lack of cleanliness. First the paper towel I used was not so good it was on my dining table very long time. Secondly the plastic bag I used was not the new one, I used it many times. As a result I got fungus on my seeds and germination rate was getting low.

What I am telling you here is cleanliness and use sterilized seedling soil and keep the soil moisture are the keys to grow the seedling without much problems.

Just my opinion from my experiences.

I love to hear many different opinions from your experiences.

Caelian