Good news everyone! I started my impatiens March 1st and today is March 5th and they all are sprouting! Yay! I can barely believe how quick they germinated the packet says for one flat in 14-21 days the other flat ( different variety impatiens) says 21-28 days till germination. All I can say is thats a blessing for sure! I been keeping the light on the seeds 24/7 and it has been a steady temp between 73-78 (soil temp) since I turned the one out of two light fixtures off the second day. I will most likely remove the dome once the seeds have lost there shell. Then once they all are completely germinated I will turn the light off at night, it generally doesn't fall below 65f when the light is off. Does this sound like a good idea???

I placed mine in potting soil and kept them outside. Got lots of sprouts, then over night something ate them so it looks like the next try I will buy some copper screen to place over them and give them a better change. I have always grown them in pots outside as my first experience with them was by accident as when I saw the seeds I thought they were just little papery and nothing else so I tossed them into the flower bed and ended up with a few more bulbs that bloomed in a few years without any care what so ever. So I guess mother nature does a better job than I do, but the fun is getting things to grow and sharing. Thank all of you for all your post helps make gardening so much more fun Paul

I brought in a batch of 300 moso seeds last year. I have detailed my expermentation with germination on my website trying various recommended techniques, including a table with the variables. You may find it a good read. Check previous entries to read the entire experiment. http://www.hardyoutdoorexotics.com/?cat=11 To make things easier for you, I germinated them directly in soil. I had a 75% germination rate by soaking the seeds in a 10% saltwater solution for 10 minutes, and rinsing off with water before sowing. 67% germination rate with a batch that had an overnight soak in a 20-20-20 solution. And 67% germination rate with a batch that had a soak in a 10-52-10 solution. Those two 67% germination rates were ranked in the top 3 for breaking through the soil the quickest at 21 days. A water soak also broke through at 21 days but only netted me a 58% germination rate. For those that recommend a brief refridgeration for these seeds, germination was delayed, and the success wasn't that great. Here is a link that might be useful: My exotic plants blog

oppalm: I don't know what you mean by'Is this a great country or what'? What I am saying is a fact. You can go to Walllmart and buy a citrus trees grafted for $9.00 ones that are in pots 4x4x18. They are one year old tree. I can bet that in 2 years time you should have flowers in them. If you want bigger trees go to Home Depot or even Wallmart or Costco or Orchard you can buy citrus trees that have if you are lucky have fruits already in them. My favorite place to go is Home Depot in that most of their ctrus are dwarf and have fruits in them. All you need is wait about 8 months and you can taste the fruit of your labor. Usually the costs are from $19 to $24. Are you insinuating that that is too much? I would like to know how much citrus trees cost in Russia or in Europe if you can find them. I think that price is reasonable considering the expenses they spend from their nursery to the consumer. I am not good in telling you that if you plant a citrus seed and possibly you will not get the same fruit as the mother plant. All I know is what I read in here. I read that the fruit usually are inferior in taste as that of the mother plant. Whereas a grafted tree which you bought from the store are the same plant as the mother plant. They are identical. The citrus plant has nothing to do with USA or country.