if you have hundreds.. or thousand or seeds .. just try any number of methods.. and keep notes.. and let us know how which works.. etc ...

back in my seed days.. one trick i had was.. find some sticks around the yard ... and plant a line of seed with a stick at both ends .. so you know where you are.. nothing more stupid than weeding out your seedlings because you forgot or dont recognize whats growing ...

but the sticks at least tell you.. you did something there..lol ..

anyway.. when they are an inch tall.. and during a rainy day.. take a hand trowel.. and move them around ... spread them out if you will ...

or do it in early evening after a good afternoon watering.. or in the early morn of a day you know will be cloudy.. etc ...

understand.. you are growing a root mass.. and you will succeed in growing the flowers above.. always take care of the roots thru proper watering..

ken

ps: also try a few in a pot.. in cell packs.. in trays.. etc .... i once did way too many in a 8 x 8 disposable aluminum cake pan.. and then never got around to transplanting them ... as i found i could root cuttings of the seed i planted 2 months too early in my MI .. i had to keep pruning them back until late may when i could take them outside .. lol .. who knew Is rooted so easily ... i had a million of them by the time it cam to plant.. lol.. boy did i waste a lot of them.. but i had fun inside while it was snowing ..... learned a lot also.. and that was my original point.. try a bunch of methods...

If it’s Impatiens walleriana, just surface sow in a shady area.

I am surprised that they self sow here. ( zone 7a, NC) I often find them coming up in pots of soil. So I think surface sowing works with these.

I started seeds too early too. ( this year) I have been willingly hauling flats of them in and out of my house to get some sun. I also have some lights indoors. But I guess I'm a little tired of it because I planted some out today even though it could freeze again here. Some of them are pretty hardy.

They need warmth to germinate. The soil temperature (not the air temperature) needs to be 70 ish. No point sowing outside until then.

The one thing I found is, they need dark to germinate? Not until I covered the pot with foil did they germinate. Many times of trying. I had been so successful with my typical methods with everything else, that it never occurred to me that might be a possibility. But there you go. Years ago, but it taught me to find out how to germinate each type of seed before starting ;)