Flora in the UK makes a very valid point. Generally speaking, I doubt that the couple of days gained by pre-sprouting is worth stressing over. The main reason I do it is that peas are going into the chilly, wet, ground of early spring, and because (as addressed in an earlier post) they will grow at a lower temperature than necessary for germination, I figure I am getting a head start. One caveat, though, that I think has not specifically been mentioned here is that, once the peas have been soaked & begun to sprout, one must be certain they do not dry out, whether in the sprouting container or once in the ground or that is the end of those seeds! So if you put them into the ground, either expect to monitor moisture in the top couple of inches each day or cover them with, say, some strips of cardboard or newspaper to ensure the row stays moist. Oh--and regarding Alaska peas: these are great pea-shooter peas as they are quite round and unwrinkled. LOL Their smoothness tells you that they are better grown with pea soup in mind as they are not a particularly sweet pea. The sweeter the pea, the more wrinkled is the dry seed. Jus' sayin'. :-) Now I have to go grind up some of my super-hot dried pepper pods and sprinkle the powder along my pea rows. Seems that although I have laid chicken wire over the bed to discourage the squirrels from digging, the chipmunks slip under it and have dug up the ends of the rows to eat the seed. They did this last year to my squash & cuke seed, the little buggers. I would mention here that I am considering getting a couple of cats to live in my shed, but that would bring down upon me the wrath of folks who decry the songbirds killed by cats. So, SSSHHHHHH! Don't tell!

2-3 weeks! (non intentional) And I cooked then on top of my plant lights! I had the best germination when I did this, although it was only about 60%. I had them in little baggies with just a small amount of water, hoping to see the sprouts. After forgetting about them I noticed the seed coat would entirely remove and peel away to the inner seed leaves. Though they were lost, but I planted them shallow in soil, under light and got germination in about 5 days.

At the direction of a local daylily grower, I have planted fresh seeds, maybe 4-5 days out of the pod, directly in cups with Miracle Grow seed starter. They grew fine, but that was summer. I also put a large number of dried seeds in a solution of 1/2 gallon of distilled water mixed with 6 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide, refrigerated them for three weeks, and began to plant them by two different methods: 1) professional potting soil placed in plastic bins with drilled drain holes, and 2) first putting the seeds in a dark closet, still in solution, for a week or more. Once they sprouted, I sowed them in plastic drink cups with the Miracle Grow. Of the seeds that I planted directly from the refrigerator into the professional potting soil, few ever sprouted and grew. I think the potting soil was too heavy and coarse for DL seeds. All but seven of the seeds placed in the warm, dark closet sprouted and grew. Transplanted to the field bed in September, they are now happy and healthy young daylilies and I expect some will bloom this spring. I started to throw away the seven seeds that did not sprout. Instead, out of curiosity, I put them back in the solution and stashed them away in the refrigerator, suspecting that they might have needed a longer time to chill. Months went by. On Feb. 1, I found that one seed had sprouted while still in the refrigerator. I wasn't sure if it would grow or not, but I planted it in a cup, anyway, and put a loose ziplock bag over it to help keep the seed starter medium moist. I set it in the kitchen where I could keep close watch over it, but nothing happened. Again, I started to just toss it, but decided to move it into a small room that is kept warm for one of our dogs. I watched it for a few days, and it didn't look like it was going to do anything. I forgot about it until yesterday. When I went to check on it, I discovered it had sprouted and was about two inches high already. I realize some of you can plant the seeds outdoors with success. Here in East Texas, fire ants carry flower seeds back to their nests. Some years back, out of 5,000 red poppy seeds, I ended up with two plants, and one of those was growing out of a fire ant mound. I'm sure it depends on where you live and what kind of critters and insects you have. I'd never trust a valuable daylily seed to nature where I live. If you have a lot of daylily seeds, and it is immaterial if you lose a few, it certainly would be a lot easier just to plant them directly in the ground. I may reach that point one day, but I'm a long way from that for now. I have made one other interesting observation about seedlings. The transplanted seedlings that were placed 6" or so apart in the field bed have been growing vigorously. In the section of bed that we thinned, those left in the bed are growing, but not nearly so well. Those removed and transplanted to a fresh new bed, with long-acting top of the line fertilizer and all sorts of other good stuff, are the slowest growing. It appears that young daylily seedlings, like many animals, may thrive better when they have to compete. Nancy

Nope, Carolyn didn't keep her tomato seeds in film cannisters under her bed for 6 Years. LOL Rather, she initially kept her saved seeds in plastic screw cap vials in 100 place boxes with no special storage at all, just ambient temps. When she'd filled 5 of those boxes in the mid-90's she started saving her seeds just in regular so called invitation envelopes and still does. Switching to first person now. I find that with the ambient temps and humidity where I grow my tomatoes does not require special storage conditions. With seeds 5 yo I expect at least 50% germination and often much more. For seeds about 5-10 yo I'd double sow. For over about 10 yo there are a few tricks to use to try to wake them up. My best effort to date has been waking up 22 yo seed but the documented record is waking up 50 yo seed. Being an SSE member I never bought much seed and have built up a huge seed collection without doing that. But the question is about purchased seed in packets. Just seal them tightly when you're through sowing your seed, put the sealed packets in a sealed container in the fridge and that will be fine. For longer term storage you can freeze the seeds but before you do that you need to get the moisture level of the seeds down to about 5-8 % and you can do that with silica gel. Carolyn, who has never thrown out ONE saved seed since 1989 and darn good thing b'c some varieties disappear and some varieties due to improper seed saving morph into something that doesn't represent the variety as the original one. To date I've grown about 2500 different varieties but didn't save seed from all of them, but still, I've got one heck of a lot of saved seed out there in the back room. LOL