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Growing from Seed

Germination advice needed

15 years ago

Hi all. I'm growing conifers from seed, mostly pine, spruce and firs. I'm having problems with seeds molding.

After stratification I place some seeds in a damp, not soaking wet, paper towel and try to germinate them like that in a plastic bag. Typically the seeds mold within a few days.

This time I've placed stratified seeds in a mix of soil and pine bark chips to simulate outdoor conditions, and kept the soil moist. Same problem, the seeds turn moldy after a few days.

How do I prevent mold when growing from seeds indoors? This does not seem to be a problem with seeds grown outdoors. Too much humidity?

Thanks.

Dave

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Comments (3)

cyrus_gardner
15 years ago
Molds and mildew grow where it is humid and there is no air movement.
Obviously plastic bag is a goog environment for them to grow.

I have never grown trees from seed but if I wanted to do it, I would soak them in water for a few days and then plant them just like any other seed, either in pot or in ground.

Some seeds will germinate better if they freez and then thaw.
Pines grow by themselves in the wood everywhere around here. I am talking about southern yellow pine.

Conclusion: definitely your method would encourage mold and mildew growth.
To be on the safe side, you may try planting in sterill soil, free of bacteria. For this purpose you can bake your potting soil in oven, or just outdoor by making a small fire on top of it. You can mix the ashes with it too. Or, if you want to spend some money, you can buy sterill poting medium.
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katskan41
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks cyrus. Yes I'm sure trying to germinate conifer seeds (or probably any kind of seeds) in a damp environment like a plastic bag could easily cause mold problems.

I have more seeds to try, so I will try to soak them for a day or two in water then plant them in a small container filled with sand or perhaps Turface. Hopefully both of those "soils" will help avoid mold issues and also help reduce the chances of damping off problems.

Thanks again.

Dave
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Thanks again for all the really interesting comments, I can never stress enough just how much I love this site. Vanisle: I've not gotten peas this year, but I do have some pole beans which I'm in the process of soaking now. I've taken dans advice on simply soaking the larger seeds, and decided to use a cupcake pan, filling the compartments ~60% with water and labelling them. The smaller seeds come in a secondary "bag-inside-a-bag", smaller, very robust and foil lined on the inside. I've simply left them inside the small bag, poked a few holes, and placed them in a compartment of water. The tiny seeds are saturated (pigmented sweet red pepper plants) and the tiny baggie is half full. As for why to pre germinate them, it's just our weather. There's currently snow on the ground and the soil is frozen. It will be 16.1*C / 61*F come next friday. Spring here is a real roller coaster as we change from -45*F in the dead of winter to the high 70's- low 80's F in summer, a modest change of temperature by a mere 125* F. Most if not all plants are started indoors here... many do catch up, but with the short growing season, I try to get more than 2-3 weeks of fruit production from my plants after months of literally babying my garden. @digdirt the coffee filter idea was a great idea, so much so that I think I'll scrap the idea of paper towels for the filters.
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dicot
15 years ago
Try soaking the conifer seeds briefly in hydrogen peroxiode 3%, then fill a spray bottle with peroxide diluted to 1% or use chamomile tea and use that instead of water to keep the paper towel damp. I also think coffee filters work better than paper towels.
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