Tonia
Anything that has now germinated needs light.
Alberta

Some people can have trouble with the Jiffy pots as they can dry out before you know it. Try to check a few and see if they are dry below the surface. I have only used traditional flats and seed starting soil and never used the Jiffy Pots so I am just remarking what I've read about here. I start my seeds under lights right after I plant them. A few varieties shouldn't be covered with soil most are covered with a fine layer of soil. The package should tell you the planting depth. Daylily, walking stick, hibiscus may take longer to germinate (these aren't your traditional 'easy' seeds to grow). Pansies should be pretty easy to germinate.

Thank you for your information.
I didn't use the pots, but the pods in a tray with a lid, they seem to be staying pretty wet. I take the lid off for a couple of hours a day in hopes they don't smell or get moldy.
The directions with the tray said i needed to germinate in the dark. I had always put lights on my seeds before & wondered if i was doing it wrong.
Its really trial & error i guess, but one never wants to lose the time already invested waiting for them to come out of hiding & have to start over a different way.
I have had a few germinate.
Thanks again.
Enjoy your day!
Tonia

I just used the Jiffy-7 pods for the first time. I planted zinnias and purple cone flowers five days ago. The zinnias showed up 2 days later, the cone flowers started sprouting on the fourth day. They all look wonderful so far. I didn't really read the directions, I just kind of followed instinct. First, after the pods expanded, I felt like it would be best to cut back the netting on the top a little bit and loosen them up a little as well by gently squeezing a few times. After I got my seeds in, I lined them all up in a cookie sheet and put them out on my patio in a place where they would not get any direct sunlight. Every morning I am filling the tray with about a 1/4 inch of water without pouring any directly on top of the pods. This seems to working so far. Hope this helps.

...I don't like jiffy pellets, peat pots and newspaper pots...

Suggest the AHS(American Horticultural Society )book by Alan Toogood which should be available at the public library or through their interlibrary loan system and one might think about what is written pertaining to seedsowing containers. I only use new containers for seed sowing and transplants unless I use expensive containers. then I use a rated and registered horticultual disinfectant that biodegrades and is safer to use than bleach.Recycle means Recycle in bins for pick-up by city services...

Take the germinated ones out and plant them in their own pots. Return the ungerminated ones to darkness. Seed starting is a daily chore. Let the seedlings go for only one day and they are ruined. It's a labor of love.

I start them all under lights, in small plastic cell paks. The ones needing darkness I cover with soil and many layers of black plastic wrap. As the sprouts appear, I remove the wrap and forfeit the other ungerminated seeds in each cell. No transplanting needed that way.

re pansies ....a very good presentation on pansies can be found an the North Carolina State University Floriculture Site. HIL#521 written by Professor Douglas Bailey...
special note to seedling fertilizer selections; diseases and sanitation...
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/hil521.html

Here is a link that might be useful: ncsu HIL#521(pansies)

... I think we are being laughed at on the "WS" Convo pit....
the simplicity of stating:"no damping off", "no fungus gnats","no mess", "no fuss" and so on will be addressed in this forum again at some point...
suggest running a search here on "damping off"
also That Seed Site

I only plant veg. seed in trays and have found that wife will buy cakes in an all plastic round box. I help her eat the cake then put about 3 inches of real damp potting soil in the box and put the lid on so it wont evaporate the moisture out and place it in a real warm place in bright light. soon the soil will warm to room temp. and then I plant and put the lid on until seed sprout and then move the lid and keep moist and watch them grow.

Hi everybody. Another from-seed newbie here. My thing is native prennials, most of which I am lucky enough to already have growing on my property and need no "help" from me! I have had my eye on a few new ones ,though, and decided to give the seeding thing a try.
I too have issues with the Jiffy greenhouse kit. I planted lobelia (cardinal flower), ironweed, and blue mist (conoclinium?) as well as a few odd rudbeckia, all about 10 days ago. I followed the directions on the package to the letter, and yesterday I discovered it is not a total loss as I noticed one single tiny seedling-the rest are all lifeless and most are grey and fuzzy. Trouble is, I contacted both the maufacturer 1-800 number AND a local greenhouse and the advice I got was ompletely opposite each other. Jiffy's rep said cover immediately with little or low light, while the greenhouse said they always put on light immediately after planting and left them open to the air.
My pellets were not soggy after expanding but the mold still turned up after the second day.
I'm pretty clueless which set of advice to follow, but thankfully I do have more seed held back in reserve.

Any advice for this greenhorn? I guess I should stick to barerooting it....Embarrassing to think I killed ironweed!

I am not sure, but none of the plants I mentioned need scarification or winter temps, do they?
again, those were cardinal flower (lobelia), ironweed, rudbeckia and blue mist

well there's part of my problem...at least one of my varieties, the mist, does indeed require cold strat.

duh

i love sowing in trays, but if ya have to use those peat thingi,s at least empty them into the trays, for some reason its worked better for me that way, now i just use stay green starter soil, works great!! and is cheaper than miracle grows. i love it!! i never knew about some of the things about dark germinataion til ponderosa lemons! LOL now i know they need the dark to germinate. mine never germinated, but once they were covered they did, the first ones i had forever never germ, but once cov. they did. ones i just got i covered inadvertantly right away and they germinated right off the bat!!! LOL its crazy about this stuff. just had to add this, dunno why :'))

I have used Jiffy 7 pellets for many years with ZERO problems. I use the "greenhouse" with 25 pellets 5x5.
Soak them to expand, open up the mesh on top and plant.
As soon as I start getting germination I remove the clear top an put them under lights. I have always had very good germination results.
I can't say much about flowers, as I don't really normally start any, only vegetables, mostly tomatoes and peppers.
I transplant up to newspaper pots filled about 2/3 with Miracle Grow potting soil when they are ready.
Always water these from the bottom.
In the extremely unusual event I see mold or whatever I use a very dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide (3% dilulted 20:1) in a small sprayer.
The last 2 years I have also used a heat mat which speeds things up considerably. I have the cheap one (about $20) with no thermostat. It heats about 10-15 degrees above the ambient temperature.
JMO,
Tom