Peppers and eggplants...I don't always use fresh seed and my basement is still pretty chilly this time of year. I was able to start rosemary from seed last year, but so far no luck this year (I forgot to take cuttings).

Here is a link that might be useful: Zone 5 garden blog

Triploid watermelons. The seedless kind.

Triploid watermelons are a little harder, but if they are not overly wet in the starting pots and are in 85º temperatures, they come up ok and are very healthy there-afterward. Plant the seeds lying flat or tips upward at a 45º angle [because the hulls tend to stick on the cotelyns.

Oriental poppy seeds have been difficult.

I wish that GW would hurry up and fix the html problem.

Aliweed, my success at germinating rosemary is sporadic here, too.

I don't have a lot of trouble germinating the vegetables I do, though I don't really plant anything exotic. What I'd really like to be able to grow from seed are evergreen trees. I get them sprouted, then they die. Need to do some more reading. I'd like to start some trees from the seeds I collected where we spread my grandfather's ashes. But I digress... this is a veggie forum.

The hardest thing for me is celery. It takes a long time to germinate, and grows really slow!

I'd say luffa.

I will second luffa. I used to have a lot of trouble with peppers and eggplant. But now that I have a system it takes 10 days to 2 weeks. The key is to keep the starting mix warm and moist.

you have to have parsnip in there. But parsley, pepper and celery are what converted me to the coffee filter technique.

Chinense chillies. Apparently I don't have it in me to wait a month for something to germinate.
When I harvest seed, it inevitably ends up all over the place and my traditional nemesis, parsnips, are coming up everywhere! Their timing is excellent as the tops got to a decent size before first the first autumn cold snap (here, we are wussies: it's about 55 degrees fahrenheit)
There's a lot to be said for fresh umbelliferae seed and I'm all for things that really WANT to grow, even if it's in middle of the garden path...

Okay, really dumb question here, but how does one get seeds from a seedless watermelon? Or any other veggie for that matter?

Kim

I probably shouldn't complain but my seeds usually pop up in 3-5 days. Started eggplants, parsley, sage, lettuce, eggplants and peppers last week and everything is up except for the peppers. It has only been 7 days so I am trying to be patient.

Seedlesss watermelons are sterile hybrids between two other kinds of melons, a normal diploid and a tetraploid parent used as a pollinator. If you get a viable seed from a seedless watermelon, it won't grown another seedless watermelon.

I find some herb varieties to be a tad finicky but with the exception of parsnips I have never had germination issues with any vegetable varieties that I grow from seed, either indoors or direct (knock on wood).

I have, however, struggled with my onion seedlings producing consistent crops to the point that I have given up for now and purchase onion plants and sets. I simply have not had the interest in learning the day length stuff and how to properly grow and produce onions from seed - too many other things going on.

Not to say that I will never gain an interest in growing them properly in the future. It is just that I have not yet gotten that spark of obsession that gets me going on the challenge. I am also a seed saver and onion seeds do not stay viable for very long, so they have not been a priority for me from that standpoint as well.

For years I got sparse germination with direct-sown parsnip seed until I figured out how to seed them correctly. No problems with them any longer.

Flower seed germination issues: Oriental Poppies, Double Hollyhocks. Little or no success trying to start either of them both indoors or direct.

-Tom

Veggies: Hot peppers, but they aren't impossible, just a bit touchy. I used to have troubles with onion seeds, but that turned out to be a problem with the source, not my methods. Oh, and I haven't quite got a handle on carrots yet.

Herbs: There are plenty I haven't tried yet, but parsley has been a pip, even when it self-sowed the seedlings died for some reason!

Flowers: Those darn poppies and double impatiens.

But the number of seeds that are "easy" for me far outweighs that little group!

Cauliflower, grapes, and thyme. The cauliflower seeds were that "packed in 2003 for 2010" BS that seed savers does. Grapes and thyme, I seem to get about 1% germination.

Seedless watermelons by far.They are very tempermental and require bottom heat.I usually pre-sprout thme first.

Hardest to germinate, EGGPLANTS and some PEPPERS.
I have never tried to grow things like Rosemary. Why bother. With parsley, I just direct sow and I dont time them and realy don't care how fast or slow they germinate.
With the melon/squash family, soaking the seeds can help.

The major germination problem is due to lack of adequate soil temperature. That is why in an ideal soil temperature you shouldn't have any problem with any seed. And that is whay you can direct sow many things when the soil and air temperaturs climb over 75F.

The hardest for me would definitely be peppers of any kind. I germinate the old fashioned way - little pots on the window sill. Tomatoes and cucumbers always come up within the first week or so, peppers take much longer.
One time I got impatient and after 2 weeks I dug out a pepper seed to see if it was doing anything. I was kicking myself in the backside when I realized that the seed had tiny little roots. I learned my lesson to never abandon hope on pepper seeds for at least a month!

I use a heat mat to germinate peppers otherwise they do take forever. I think they take a little over a week on a heat mat. I was checking the last of the 4 pack of peppers I had under a dome on my heat mat a couple weeks ago, and I dropped the 4 pack. I was so mad at myself, b/c I could see in the pile of dirt on the floor a few little seeds that had started to form roots. I carefully picked them up and put them back in the 4 pack a put a little soil over each seed. To my surprise, 2 days later they were all up and are doing fine now.

Peppers definitely need warmth to germinate, about 85 degrees. I use the baggie method(to save space)and place said baggies on the shelf above my computer(upon which is the router and modem), which puts out plenty of heat. I just planted a bunch of sprouted pepper seed into their cell packs yesterday(after only a week)and will be keeping them in the oven with the light on for warmth(no worries...don't plan on baking anything for at least a week, LOL). I will be setting up my lights any day now...then on to tomato seeds...

Tom, re: onion day-length. It's simple and basic: you live in the north, so you need to plant long-day onions. People in the south need to plant short-day onions. That's all you need to remember.

I read in one of Steve Solomon's books a fact that has changed the results of my seed sowing: vegetable seeds don't need a lot of water to germinate. I was keeping mine too wet: "soak media, let drain, sow". Well, DON'T! Moisten your mix, just MOISTEN it, don't soak it. If you grab a handful and squeeze it and water drips out, it's too wet.

Cover to keep the moisture in, but check once or twice a day and uncover immediately as soon as you see sprouts. If you cover and only check once or twice a week, it's practically guaranteed failure due to damping off.

Tropicals like tomatoes, pepppers, eggplant need up to 85F to sprout. They come from warm places and that's their trigger.

Sue

Senecio confusus. I know, not a veggie. No problems with veggie seeds that I've tried.

okra which I soak over night. parsnips which do not germinate as fast as other seeds, so I mark them by planting radishes between them. Radishes jump right up & by the time I pull them in 20- 28 days the parsnips are up.

Stevia is really difficult, but I got 3 out of 12 seeds to germinate and grow into large, beautiful plants this year!! Peppers and eggplants have always been fairly easy for me- I put a small heater under the table but make sure that it is connected to the timer along with all the grow lights. Although both seeds need warmth to germinate, they also need a drop in temps of at least 10degreesF between days or it encourages rot. I do have problems with spinach though.

Eggplants, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Ridge gourd, Bitter melon, Snake gourd, bottle gourd.

Anna

Most difficult for me is Lacinato Kale (also known as Dino Kale).

Next runner up would be any kind of eggplant.

For luffa I got 100% germination in about 4 - 5 days by using the coffee filter method along with weak chamomile tea. Works every time. I use it on all my squash seeds and gourds. I will never go back.

Erin

what are your hardest seeds to germinate

my real old dead seeds. they just never germinate.

Most vegetables are really. Not difficult like certain flowers, trees, cactus or palms.

Hardest ones can be luffa, okra and gourds, but trick if hot temperature and good draining soil to prevent root rot.

Eggplants and peppers ara rather easy for me. Eggplants just need warm temperature, and peppers sometimes benefit from a short cold treatment. Celery is also easy for me, it is just slower.

Parsnip can be another hardcore: the seeds need to be as fresh as possible (up to 6 months old), if some seeds dont work, buy elsewhere. Then, they should be easy like a carrot or celery.

Good king henry is a vegetable that is really hard to germinate. It is erratic but germinates better if treated with some cold period. Crambe is also similarly difficult.

I would say pepper and eggplant

Germination of chili seeds I haven't got much problems. The winged beans seeds are the hardest for me.

Cantaloupe has been hard for me. I can germinate Watermelon pretty easily, but Cantaloupe was pretty hard. I might have only had one or two germinate out of 6-10 seeds. This is of course on a heat mat. I'm going to try strawberries in a couple weeks. I have them in the freezer right now to simulate Winter then Spring.

Often when seeds are hard to germinate, it's because they have not been given the proper conditions. I use a heated, lighted greenhouse to germinate most of my seeds. It is kept at 75 degrees during the day, a little cooler at night. Works great for all Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Fabaceae, which love heat. I couldn't get celery to germinate there, though. That did better in my unheated basement, under conditions which would have rotted the others.

I tried growing Martynia (the young pods can be eaten like okra), and attempted to start them in peat pots the first time as transplants. Only 1 of 16 cells came up - disappointing. I threw the dead cells on the garden, and turned them under in the Fall. In June the next year, almost all of those "dead" seeds germinated! They just needed cold treatment to trigger them. It turns out that the best way for me to grow them, is to just let them volunteer.

C. chinense peppers often have delayed or staggered germination for me, even from fresh seed. Same for some eggplant; "Casper" has staggered germination even from new seed, while "Diamond" has nearly perfect germination even after 5 years. Go figure.

Parsnips give me poor germination, but I'm probably getting them in too late... my soil is generally too waterlogged to plant in Spring. They might be better winter sown, since wild parsnips grow in my area.

Bitter melon germinates well in the heated greenhouse - when the seed is only a few years old. It doesn't age as well as cucumbers or melons, though, and has more sporadic germination after about 4 years or so. Some gourds have given me trouble, but that was usually seed from swaps, of unknown age. They can have very prolonged germination.

Chilliwin, I've had winged bean seeds sent to me that had zero germination - completely dead. Good seeds will respond to soaking. Soaking them overnight, and planting only those which expand the most, has worked well for me. Those which are slow to expand can be soaked for another night, after which you will probably get a few more good ones.

Old seeds can sometimes be revived by a nitrate soak. Add 1 tsp. of a high-nitrate liquid fertilizer to a gallon of water. If an organic fertilizer is used (such as manure tea) then boil the solution to destroy pathogens & allow it to cool. Yeah, boiled manure tea... wouldn't that smell great in the house. ;-) Plant the seeds in sterile seed starter, then soak the pots in a tray of solution overnight, and drain any excess in the morning. If any additional water is needed to keep the soil moist, use only plain water (if chlorinated, allow the water to air out overnight in a bowl). This technique will work on a wide range of seeds, from beans to tomatoes.

I had some yardlong bean seed that was sent to me, which looked shriveled & under-developed. The first time I tried to start them in pots, I got 0/32. The next year, I tried the same seed with the nitrate soak method, and got about 60% germination. Too bad they turned out to be daylength sensitive. :-(