I've never heard of that method for germinating Mirabiis. What's easier, and works for me, is soaking the seeds in water for 24 hours and then planting them in soil , and keeping the soil moist until they sprout. Are you in a warm climate where you can grow them year round?

Hi v1rt,

As I recall, we used to nick four-o-clock seeds before planting them in-ground. I never tried them on wet paper towels. I have used wet paper towels to germinate home-hybrid zinnia seeds. Zinnias usually sprout in a couple of days. Click on the photo to see a fuller version of it.

You have to be careful to plant them before their tap roots get too penetrated into the paper towel pad. But if that happens you can always plant a piece of the paper towel along with the entangled sprouted seed.

ZM

all nicking ever did for me .. was near amputation of the two finger tips i was trying to hold the seed with ... lol ...

so i just started rubbing them on sandpaper or a nail file to just barely break/thin the shell so the seed could take up water.. and start expanding and break its own way out of the rest ...

in my ground freeze MI ... you just sow them in fall... and they pop up in spring.. i think the winter softens the shell ...

did the same with morning glory.. outside over winter.. or the sandpaper ...

im not sure anything on the husk could affect whats inside.. before it breaks open ... you may be defeating the process when you are throwing them away when natural processes are attacking the hard covering ...

i had them for around 20 years... and they just self sowed and returned ... perhaps you are making this harder than need be ...

try different approaches.. just plant some in the ground and see what happens ... presuming its spring wherever you may be ... otherwise.. they arent houseplants .. and short of a good light source.. may not grow indoors ...

and this is all presuming we are talking about the same plant with the common name of 4 oclock

ken

ps: mine of course got severe cold stratification outside in winter.. i dont know if they just tolerated that.. or its requisite ... but i always presumed it softened the little hand grenade seed shell ...

Oh that's very interesting Ken about dropping seeds in falls then they germinate in spring. I will definitely try that. I don't have to sand it right? Let nature soften the outer shell of it.

I'm talking about Mirabilis jalapa Limelight 4 o'clocks.

I'm also going to try zen_man's technique next year.

I did winter sowing few years ago using gallon milk containers. It really worked! There was more work to be done once they have germinated such as separating, transplanting, etc.

Jay, I live in Huntley, IL.

I'm asking this early because I would like to prepare and make make my garden beautiful next year. 😊

Oh that's very interesting Ken about dropping seeds in falls then they germinate in spring.

As one who has one 'clock' each year in the garden that goes to seed I have never seen spring babies from seeds that have dropped in the Fall (zone 6 CDN/ z5 USA).

(For us, I just thumb push a few seeds into the ground in late May and all is good)

How are you today I germinated my morning glory seeds in what paper towel and baggie for the first time ever and in a week some of them already had leaves it worked so well. I was going to try these kind in wet paper towel as well until I read your experience. What I did last year is soaked them for 24 or 48 hours in warm water and almost every seeds germinated and it was so quick