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.

Long post warning here, but just my 2 cents worth! Here is what I usually do to germinate passie seeds. I soak them in wet paper towels (placed inside of a plastic shoebox) for a long time (3 to 4 weeks). Change the paper towels as needed, usually once a week. Check them every day to make sure the paper towels dont dry out. Once the soak is done, I rub the seeds between my fingers to remove any slimy stuff, and then rinse them. I plant them in 72 cell trays (sometimes 2 per cell). I fill the cells with screened Miracle Gro potting mix (screened using an old window screen). The trays are covered with a humidity dome so they donÂt dry out, and then placed on a heat mat with a thermostat set to 80 degrees. I have had my best success with this method, and the longer pre-soak times in particular seem to help. That said, I think what happens when the seeds are harvested may be as important (or maybe more important) than how they are germinated. Most people are anxious to see the seeds when they harvest a fruit (its human nature), so they open it up right away and remove the arils/seeds. Then they either remove the arils right away or quickly dry the seeds. My opinion is that drying the seeds too fast may be detrimental. Remember there is a live plant embryo in the seed, and it may not be in a dormant state when it is harvested. So what I do with the fruits is to let them fall naturally from the vine, and then let them ripen further inside (in a cool dry place) for about a month. Then I open them up and remove the arils (they often are still intact with pulp). The arils are placed on a plate and allowed to dry without being mashed. This can take up to a week. Once the arils are completely dry, I remove them, and rub the seeds with a dry paper towel. I do not rinse them until I am ready to plant them (letting the dried dormant seed absorb water may prompt it to break dormancy). I suspect that for a seed to ultimately germinate successfully, the embryo inside the seed has to fully develop (indicated by the seed turning black), and then go into dormancy before (or just after) falling from the vine, and finally encounter the right conditions the following season (soil, moisture, temperature, etc). If I am right about this, then it may be that many passie seeds offered for sale or trade may not have been harvested properly, and may not have been able to go into a dormant state before drying out. If this is correct, then no amount or type of soaking or other treatment will be successful. Maybe this is why passie seeds are so hard to germinate. I think we must try to emulate what happens to the seeds in natureÂthis would be letting them fall naturally from the vine, and then slowly drying. One thing I havenÂt tried is a brief soak in warm (acidic) water just after harvesting (to emulate passage through an animalÂs intestinal tract). That may happen with many passie seeds naturally. A brief period of warm acidic conditions may disable any germination inhibitors that are in the seed coat. However, not all passie fruits are consumed by animals in the wild, so this may only work for some species. And this is something that would have to be done fairly soon after harvesting (for example, incarnata fruits seem to ripen maximally within a few days after falling from the vineÂas indicated by their fragrance). The last thing that I would mention has to do with genetics. In the wild, flowers are most likely to be pollinated with pollen from other nearby flowers. However, the closer the other flowers are, the more closely related they probably are (genetically speaking). So I suspect that pollinations that occur from flowers at greater distances produce more genetically diverse and viable seeds. As an example of this, I have collected incarnata fruits from a location in south Louisiana that has a good number of vines along a ten mile stretch of road. Despite the vines being loaded with fruit, the seeds germinate poorly. However, when I used pollen from a Louisiana vine to pollenate a Pennsylvania incarnata, the resulting seeds gave me a 100% germination rate within one week (using my standard method above). So I think that seeds that come from genetically diverse parents are much more viable than those from genetically similar parents. If you pollenate 2 vines that you both grew from seeds that originated from the same fruit, then they are probably genetically very similar, and perhaps not very viable. So my advice is to let those fruits fall naturally, then let them further ripen inside, then let the arils dry naturally (without mashing them). When pollinating species (non-hybrids), if possible use 2 vines from different geographical locations. I hope this helps! Mark

I've been growing paw paws from seed for many years. Don't wait until January to put them in the refrigerator. Seeds should not be left to dry out nor frozen. Forget about the styrofoam cups. If you want to plant some outdoors, put them in a protected spot, mulch, and mark where they are. If they germinate you won't see them emerge before next July at the earliest. The best approach I've found is to put them in a container with moist (not sopping wet) potting soil or surrounded by damp paper towels. Put them in the refrigerator as soon as you get them (don't freeze). After about 90 days you may take them out and plant them about one inch deep in separate pots . Use pots preferably at least 10 inches high (25cm). If you see some mold on the surface of the seeds don't worry; it doesn't mean the seeds are ruined. Put them in the warmest part of the house and then be patient. It takes several months for them to germinate once they are warmed up. Doing it this way gives them the whole Summer growing season which makes a significant difference in their size the first season. The seeds will first put out a fairly long root before anything shows above the surface. They may look like they've been broken off when they do emerge because they leave the cotyledons behind in the seed coat and don't have cotyledon leaves like most (dicot) plants. Once the weather warms up, move them outdoors in a protected location with shade during the midday. Good luck

Sorry, I've only just seen I should have posted this In "Growing from Seed"