"Don't think I said seed size determmines germination time. " Maybe I misinterpreted this: "One way to tell a little about how fast a seed will germinate is by the size of the seed" "I factor in the weather etc and he will be disappointed." If you reread my post, you'll see that I said those times are for ideal conditions. I then said that the seeds went down after it had started to cool so only the rye and fescue would have a chance. "You are in Florida or Arizona aren't you BP? You guys can still seed" Nope. Utah. We've already had snow. Long past time to safely seed except for dormant seeding. We've got a very short window for fall seeding. It was in the upper 90s at the end of August and it snowed in early October. I managed to get pretty good germination from my wheatgrass, but I soaked it first to speed things up.

may use starting soil & use VERY diluted fertilizer for first drinch then every 2 weeks.

This is my first year germinating seeds, and my second year growing peppers...so my experience is extremely limited! That said, I've had almost 100% germination! (I say almost because I tossed the seeds I didn't need - and *most* of those had a white root emerging). I received some Thai chili pods on December 8th, 2008. I left them on a paper towel on the kitchen table - western windows, stable temperature. A couple days later, I sliced the pods open; and a few days after that, I began to scrape the seeds from the pods. I separated out the ugly, spotted, hollow, and malformed seeds, leaving only the largest. I ended up with about fifty seeds, and again I left them to dry on the kitchen table....until January 30th. I put the seeds in a cup of water (I guess that was a type of "soaking"), and tossed the ones that floated. Then I moistened the paper towel, set the seeds on top, slipped the towel into a zip-lock bag, put the zip-lock in the bottom of the 'fridge, and forgot about it for three days. Finally, I remembered the seeds (which had been shuffled about....you know how the bottom of a 'fridge is). The seeds looked fine, so I set the zip-lock on top of the 'fridge. Two days later, I noticed the white root emerging from several seeds. A day after that, I noticed a grey mold on the paper towel and decided to remove the sprouting seeds....(I'd never even considered providing a sterile environment, or washing any of my materials, starting with the seeds themselves...!). Planted four seeds per "cell" in a six-cell pack. I also put about ten seeds that had not yet sprouted into one of the cells. They've all since sprouted. I had plenty of seeds left, so I put them back into the zip-lock, this time leaving it on the table. Two days later, I planted ten more seeds, five to a styrofoam cup. I just couldn't stand to waste any more sprouting seed, eventhough I'll be thinning them eventually! I draped a bit of plastic wrap over the top of the soil until seedlings began to emerge. Then I removed the plastic, and raised my lights just a bit. When I was sure that the seedlings wouldn't dry out, I lowered the lights back down. I was worried that my pods might not have been mature, given that they were picked in December (from a garden in Sacramento, CA). Then I was worried that I hadn't dried them properly. And then, after they'd begun to sprout, I was worried that the mold would get them! Thankfully, my worrying was for naught! Josh

Nancyjane, you've read my mind. I am the type of person who transplants the second (or third) "weaker" seedling in order to give it away because I can't bear to kill anything I've grown. I was hoping for a Murphy's Law kind of outcome because I really want the cowpeas. Happily, I can give away the extra squash seedlings to my sister, if, hopefully, there are any. Mav72: I did direct seed again since the weather will be in the 80s here in NYS, I replanted the cowpeas in the same spot and could not find any of the seeds I originally planted. I will start some plants in a 6-pack too as I can never have too many cowpeas. Thanks much.