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I just got my order of petunia seeds. 25 seeds clumped together barely make a spot large enough to see. They are already pelleted and shipped to me in a small glass tube.
I'd appreciate any hints on how to get these microscopic seeds out of their tube and into planting mix, in individual amounts so I am growing individual plants and not a dozen seedlings coming out of the same tiny spot.
There is a good reason the commercial greenhouse I work in buys petunia plugs, not seeds. They realize that growing from seed is best left to the professionals, when it comes to tiny seeds.
Sow or sprinkle your seeds on top of the growing medium, do not seed individually, transplant later.
You can get the seeds out of the glass vial by using a bamboo skewer to scrape them out of the vial onto a white plate. Then use the sharp tip of the skewer to spread them around on the white plate so you can see each individual seed separately from all the others.
If you want to germinate each individual seed in it's own pot right from the start without having to transplant later I'd suggest you start them in peat pucks. Super easy to work with. You need to soak the peat pucks in a tray of water for a few minutes to get the peat to swell up with water. Use needle tipped tweezers to pick each individual seed up and drop it into the tiny depression in the center of its peat puck and press it down a little bit into the wetted peat. Place all the seeded peat pucks together in one tray, that makes it easier to keep them all evenly moist at all times while the seeds are germinating.
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Or - this is something I'd suggest you practise with just white sand alone first before adding the seeds to the sand - so you can see how and where the white sand is landing on dark coloured soil:
When I'm planting a lot of really, really tiny seeds like petunia, portulaca, snapdragon, campion, some kinds of poppy, etc. together in a single large area of soil I empty the package out into a small amount of fine white or pale coloured dry sand that I've put inside a salt shaker with small holes in the cap. Use a bamboo BBQ skewer or a chopstick or thin knitting needle to stir the seeds well into the sand. Then cap it and gently and evenly broadcast sprinkle the sand and seeds mixture out of the salt shaker all over the pre-dampened growing medium just as you would sparingly sprinkle salt out of a shaker onto a plate full of food. You will get more even and well spaced dispersion of seeds this way. Then immediately mist the soil with water
You can do a similar dispersion without the salt shaker by emptying the packet of seeds into a small amount of sand that is in the palm of your hand and stir it together in your palm with the skewer. Then using your thumb and index finger of the free hand take a wee pinch of mixed sand and seeds, hold it over the medium and gently roll the pads of your thumb and finger together in a circle to disperse the sand and seeds. Repeat again and again all over the medium until your palm is empty.
When you get really good at dispersing it that way it's possible to easily disperse tiny seeds the same way without having to mix the seeds with sand.
You will likely have to transplant some the individual seedlings to other locations later once they each have a strong stem and root system.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I ran into that problem about 20 years ago when I got some India Banyan seeds from a guy in Portugal. Making it even worse, they have to be placed on top of the soil, and kept moist 24/7 in light but no direct sun for 6-12 weeks before they sprouted.
What I did was to pour them onto a sheet of bright white paper, and with a magnifying glass pick them up with tweezers.
So-o-o-, OWS-- you didn't like the answers you got on that other forum, eh?
I still think the best idea is the sand or corn meal trick. Tweezers work if there aren't too many seeds for it to be inconvenient....If you have a surplus of seeds, just do the best you can and thin out crowding after sprouting.
...... I still think the best idea is the sand or corn meal trick. .......
Guido, that woman who told those people there about the corn meal doesn't know much about good practical gardening. I'd take a hard pass on using cornmeal or any other kind of ground up cereal.
The problem with cornmeal is that cornmeal absorbs the water and swells up into gluey mush which will solidify into a hard mass. The swelling and solidifying mush can cause problems such as enveloping or else displacing the tiny seeds by pushing them up out of the soil, block air circulation in soil, prevent seeds from germinating properly or from growing stems or roots strong enough to struggle and fight to get through the solidifying mush.
But even if the seeds were still able to germinate and grow roots and stems strong enough to get through the interfering mush my biggest concern would be with the mush soon turning into a mass of long tendrilled fuzzy molds because the mush would never get a chance to dry out and shrink. That mold and its spores would contact the seedlings and encourage fuzzy 'damp off' mold to happen to the new little seedlings and kill them within a matter of just a few hours.
It would all just be a nasty mess, a waste of seeds and a waste of soil that can't be re-used.
A cheap and easy hack is to place the seeds on a length of small ply cheap toilet paper. Use a small watercolor brush to spread the seeds out. When you are finished, mist them with a spray bottle to fix them in place, then sprinkle the recommended amount of dirt on top. The toilet paper will disintegrate in a few weeks, if you keep the soil damp.
I just got my order of petunia seeds. 25 seeds clumped together barely make a spot large enough to see. They are already pelleted and shipped to me in a small glass tube.
I'd appreciate any hints on how to get these microscopic seeds out of their tube and into planting mix, in individual amounts so I am growing individual plants and not a dozen seedlings coming out of the same tiny spot.
At least I already have a magnifying glass
I assume the glass tube was for shipping purposes? Never heard of someone paying extra to ship glass. I buy my Petunia seeds in a packet and never had a problem. Just tip and put in your palm and plant each seeds in a cell tray.
How about using a Qtip to get them out? How big is the glass?
Guido, that woman who told those people there about the corn meal doesn't know much about good practical gardening.
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I won't argue that point, never having tried it...For those who don't know what we're talking about, the trick was to dilute, so to speak, tiny seeds with some form of a powder-- sand, dirt, corn meal, then each pinch of the mixture will have only one or two seeds in it (hopefully).
OTOH- I just came across this video that suggests for carrrot seeds (why not any other small seed too?) to mix the seeds in a cornstarch/water gel, put it in a plastic bag, cut a small hole in a corner and extrude the seed/gel solution out as needed down a row....I should think any moisture retaining properties here would be appreciated for the seeds. We're talking, after all, about direct seeding outside, not seed starting in small containers inside where excess moisture is so often a problem.
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