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. :-(

I was wondering if the millipede deniers would show up. Alot of people think millipede are harmless to growing plants, and it most cases that's true. But in some cases millipedes are a terror. They particularly love to destroy plantings of peas, beans and corn. I dug up dozens of peas each one crawling with small millipedes. They had their bodies half-way burrowed into the pea. The peas themselves were live and not rotted at all, just being consumed by the ravenous millipedes. The tap root almost always completely consumed. Without any doubt, millipedes were completely destroying otherwise healthy germinating peas. Last year too. An an experiment I planted some test peas in various other beds. In the new beds the peas grew without incident. In the beds that have been composted for a couple years now, millipede damage was complete. They love compost and moist soil, it's an ideal environment. And in sufficient numbers they can destroy germinating seeds, peas in particular. I'm not the only one experiencing this: 1 2 3 4 I had been warned that Symphylan populations might build up and wreck my vegetable garden, and for a while I thought that might be happening. However, I only occasionally see a Symphylan or two. The millipedes were off my radar. I now suspect millipedes were behind problems I've had direct-seeding various crops. Something has been chewing their roots and stubbing them off, stunting the plants badly or killing them in the seedling stage. I'll now have to do some reevaluation. Millipedes are apparently very hard to kill, poisoned baits seem to be the best way. I'm not resorting to that yet, but I am also considering selectively dropping the use of compost and relying entirely on organic fertilizers such as seedmeals and mineral powders. I understand the benefits of compost but my peas will no doubt grow better without millipedes. Oddly enough, I did get a stand of peas going. I pushed the infested peas aside and replanted. The millipedes were happy to keep munching on the old peas while the new ones got a start. Some of the new ones were having trouble but not too many. Those that I pulled up while thinning did have millipedes on them, but only a couple. It seems the peas are able to deal with two or three but not 20.

I have to chime in here for just a second, I am an early planter too. I have only been burned, i mean frozen, one time, and that was by a freak extreme freeze in Mid-May. We covered plants with everything we could find, and the only thing that kept my tomatoes from freezing was the old styrofoam coolers that we had kept in the shed. I now collect every one of those things I see at every yard sale, flea market, road side. We got down to -10 during that freeze for several days, and those tomatoes looked wonderful. I lost everything else. I wish you guys could have seen the trees around here after that, it was so sad. I have never seen trees with black leaves prior to that. That was the most difficult season I've ever endured as far as gardening goes. Last year, I had to replant, but it was because of too much rain. Personally speaking, a seed packet usually contains much more seed than I can possibly use anyway, so why not plant early? If I extend the season, get my gardening fix, and become the envy of my neighbors, that's fine with me, and if I have to replant everything for whatever reason, well, I just get to re-enjoy it. I work hard, and I do it for what I love, my kids, my garden, and my chickens, and it really isn't anyone's business what I choose to spend my money on. Happy Gardening everyone!!!

My great grandpa saved some old melon seeds (watermelon and cantaloupe) probably over 20-30 years ago. Having been my first year gardening (I'm 15 now.), I was rather excited to try to grow those seeds when I found them packed away in our freezer in old glass Gerber jars wrapped in orange and blue napkins. As soon as I popped the lid the smell hit me. It smelled amazing! Anyways, almost every seed has germinated, and I've got beautiful, robust melons climbing up a trellis. They're the healthiest I've ever seen actually....I also planted bush beans that I found alongside the melons, likely saved by my great grandpa at the same time as the melons. I got 100% germination and they're the healthiest bush beans in the garden. Not only were they the first to germinate, but they also have had the earliest blossoms! It's amazing if you ask me. What's exciting is that my mom has stated over and over that the melons my great grandpa grew were the best she'd ever had.