My advice, and I've seeded a lot of KBG and other mixes, is this: don't put too much down. It's tough to tell when that is, but I'll try to give you a guideline or two: 1. Go get your toothbrush, and set it on the windowsill, with the bristles sticking upward. Imagine that that's your grass, three weeks after seeding. If your seed comes up that dense, every last grass plant will die, except for the ones on the outside edge, about fifty of them, that can actually get some sunlight. The rest will die. No sun. Too closely packed together. Too much seed got put down, too close together. You even got germination, eh? Too bad. They'll all die, except for the ones that are able to get some sun. So in this example, that's TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, or too much seed in one place. That's obviously one extreme. Let's go to the other extreme. If you plant just a handful of seed, to where the ground is barely speckled with some seed, but you can see all the dirt, with a few white flecks (the grass seed), it's too thin. Each plant will likely come up, and be healthy. But you'll have bare spots, even after the grass sprouts, and the fact that KBG spreads out (over a year) won't make up for the fact that you've got a thin lawn there, and could have done better. That's the other extreme. Here's how to find the middle, that successful middle ground. Keep in mind that this is an APPROACH, a way to get started. Bestlawn's advice, just above, is correct: if the seed maker wants 5lbs of seed to cover about 2000 sq feet, you should measure out 2000 sq ft, and decide that that package will be fully used, in that staked out area. But here's how to get started. You, or somebody in your family, enjoys fried eggs. More than that, you or they enjoy pepper on those eggs. Not scrambled, but fried, over easy. When you put pepper on those eggs, you don't DUMP the pepper, you sprinkle it, moving the pepper shaker, so that a nice, evenly distributed amount of pepper is all over the eggs. You look at it. If there isn't enough pepper, you sprinkle it again, very evenly, perhaps even more lightly, but you're adding more pepper, and when you're done (with that application), you'll look at it. Again. If you moved too fast, you'll even more lightly sprinkle the pepper, evenly, and then you'll look at those eggs, until the pepper is JUST RIGHT, as Goldilocks said. Here's the deal. Don't tell me you don't like pepper on eggs. Somebody does, in your family, or circle of friends. Fix the eggs. I want you to, with the pepper eater at your side, lightly, lightly, sprinkle the pepper on those eggs, evenly, to the VERY POINT, that the pepper eater says "NO. No. That's too much, and I'm not eating those eggs. I could have lived with it, last time, but this last bit you put on there, hey, it's just too much, and I wouldn't eat the eggs. I'm not going to do it. Gimme some new eggs, or take these away." That's it. Take a very good look at those eggs. With evenly distributed black spots, the pepper, and now imagine that that's your dirt, with a bunch of evenly distributed white spots (your KBG seed), at about the same density. Nicely, evenly spaced, but you're only going to apply it up to a certain point. That's it. YOu're there. You're done. Move along, and seed somewhere else.

cindjo2~ When you say "plant an inch or so deep" ... do you mean I cover the seed shell that's still encasing the cortyledons an inch or so deep?(in other words I would plant it and not see anything above ground) At that depth will the cortyledons be able to pop up through the surface? Or do you mean plant the roots down into the soil and leave the seed cased cortyledons at ground level or above? I'm so inexperienced I apologize for my dumb questions but I really want these to have a chance to survive. I wish I would have direct sown them as you say but I what started out as an experiment to see how the baggy germination method worked has left me in this situation ... well...um... because it worked! LOL caroline~Wow. Have you got a green thumb to spare?!!!! I could use one right about now. Post us some pictures when you get your sunflower heads!! I hope I can get mine to do what yours are doing.

Have they been stored in your refrigerator dry? Chilled while dry does nothing to break seed dormancy. The usual recommendation for hellebore seed that has been allowed to dry instead of being sown immediately - Pour hot water over seeds, let soak 1-3 days until swelling noticeable. Sow at 71ºF for 6 wks or more (you can do this by putting them in a bit of moist sterile sand or vermiculite in a small zip lock bag and leaving that on your desk if you wish). Then give them a moist chill for 6-8 wks (approx 40F). Then raise the temperature to cool - 50ºF. If no germination in 4-6 wks, repeat the cycle from the beginning.

I prescrub the seeds in a sieve and add alot of water to the sieved gel juice. About half the time it takes 3 days at room temperature but sometimes up to 5. It is a lot less messy, time consuming and disgusting to do a little cleaning on the font end. No nasty sludge/floating mold to deal with. I use 16 oz deli containers with lids, but ziplock bags work just fine in an emergency. I've left seed in for a week many times with no sprouting, the ones that did sprout were sprouted on day 4. Sometimes seeds sprout inside the fruit, generally in store bought fruit possibly from long term storage, so I wouldn't rush to take half fermented seeds out just because you are afraid of sprouting, its going to happen, rarely, or not.