Ways to start tobacco seedlings

[BigBonner]

I was asked by a member about how to germinate seeds in a jar .

At one time I had pictures showing how I did it , but where I placed them , I don't know .I may have deleted them .
Here is what I did .

One ,clean peanut butter jar , plastic or glass , any clear container with a lid would work .
Two ,Wicking fluffy soil . Regular potting soil may not work .
Seeds , allways do a little more than you need . Be carefull that you don't use thousands of seeds and only need 50 .


Take a bowel and put enough soil in it to fill the jar to shoulders .

Mix in the seeds , do not pour the seeds all in the same spot in the soil , after mixing in seeds add small amount of water to moisten the soil . Don't get it too wet or it may pack too tight .
Pour the mixed soil into the jar , keep the jar warm but not too hot . DO NOT SET JAR IN THE SUN it will over heat inside of the jar .

Wait for a few days and check for sprouts .
From my results, is that one variety may germinate qiucker than others some as much as six days .Some varietys will have a better germination rate than others .
When the sprouts are showing life you can move them to cups or trays keep the soil in the new trays moist and warm but not hot sunlight for a few days .
Just dump the jar out and move the sprouts into containers . Put the soil back into the jar and there should be more germinate if you need them .

When finished with the sprouts clean the jar and toss the soil so as you don't get seeds from a previous batch mixed up by reusing the same soil .

This is one way but ,The method I prefer is with a tooth pick and a damp piece of paper towel and place one seed at a time where I want them .

 

[DGBAMA]

Thank you for your insight. I am thinking of using small disposable cake pans, the ones that come with the clear plastic covers. vermiculite & potting mix for soil. Cover until sprouting, remove covers and wait for first leaves, then transplant to individual cells/cups.

 

[rainmax]

I but where I placed them , I don't know .I may have deleted them .
Here is what I did .

I can borrow you some pictures if you meant so:









This are some old seeds from 2009 and didn't germinate well, but i make this shots today and I believe they talk for themselves.
I didn't use toothpick but bigger stick for souvlaki . Thats why seeds look so small.
It's very nice job touching this small plants and relaxing. I hope they would grow.

 

[marksctm]

Maks,
Did you just lay the sprout on the surface of the soil and leave it, or do you try to set the root below surface of soil a little.
Thanks Maks,

 

[rainmax]

I just make little hole in the middle of every bed before. Than i just drop in sprouts. Maybe 3 mm. I didn't touch the soil, water mist did the job and close the hole.
Few weeks ago I just put it on the soil and water mist. The sprouts wasn't satisfied very much.They grew very slow.That's why I try this method. I will let you know the result.
This is just testing different methods I will start seeding 11th of Mart. I like this method the most just need to wait what plants gonna say. Hope you understand my Indian English.

 

[marksctm]

I just make little hole in the middle of every bed before. Than i just drop in sprouts. Maybe 3 mm. I didn't touch the soil, water mist did the job and close the hole.
Few weeks ago I just put it on the soil and water mist. The sprouts wasn't satisfied very much.They grew very slow.That's why I try this method. I will let you know the result.
This is just testing different methods I will start seeding 11th of Mart. I like this method the most just need to wait what plants gonna say. Hope you understand my Indian English.

I think I'm going to try it with the moist paper towel and plastic bags also this year.
BigBonner does thousands that way, so I gotta go with the pro.
It seems it would take less time to set up, and you can see the seeds and sprouts better.
And I can understand your Indian English just fine.
Thanks Maks,

 

[Knucklehead]

Here's some photos of a germination test I did using BigBonners Baby Greenhouse. These plants are 6 weeks old or older. I can't remember. I took a fistfull of dirt, moistened it and squeezed out any excess. I put it in the jar, added seed and shook them up together. I put it on my nightstand until the seed germinated. After awhile I put them in a window and they've been there ever since. I've added zero water since the initial dampening of the soil and the jar is still condensating on the inside. As Big said, just dump out the dirt and pick out the plants. I fell in love with this method and asked Larry to repost. Sow em' and forget 'em.

 

[marksctm]

Here's some photos of a germination test I did using BigBonners Baby Greenhouse.. I fell in love with this method and asked Larry to repost. Sow em' and forget 'em.

By no means am I disputing the method, I'm just asking, But!, all I read is how not to cover seeds with soil or germination would be low if any.
I know some seeds would not get covered, and sprout, but wouldn't you lose a lot of seeds that way?

 

[Knucklehead]

I think they all came up. I just had a few on the tip of my finger. There's maybe 3/8" of dirt with the jar on it's side.

 

[marksctm]

I think they all came up. I just had a few on the tip of my finger. There's maybe 3/8" of dirt with the jar on it's side.

I'll give it a try with a set number of seeds and see what I get, I got a jar the size you used, half full of last years seeds, so I might try all kinds of options on germinating them, but the paper towel idea, and the jar idea seem to be the least troublesome.
Thanks Knucks,

 

[Knucklehead]

Keep us posted on what you find out. I haven't tried the paper towel method so I'm not claiming the jar is better cause I don't know.

 

[deluxestogie]

Very new seed (1-2 months after harvest) tends to be photo-dormant. Skychaser also reports some varieties that are photo-dormant. If you expose the seed to light (less than an hour works), then any photo-dormancy should be eliminated.

If you bury seed and leave it buried, the seed leaves (cotyledon) may die before reaching light.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Very new seed (1-2 months after harvest) tends to be photo-dormant. Skychaser also reports some varieties that are photo-dormant. If you expose the seed to light (less than an hour works), then any photo-dormancy should be eliminated.

If you bury seed and leave it buried, the seed leaves (cotyledon) may die before reaching light.

Bob

That's an excellent point. I hadn't noticed until I looked at the photos again, but it appears that all the seed that came up are on the edges, where the soil is especially thin. There are no seedlings in the center. Hmmmm I will also be trying the paper towel method beginning tomorrow. Thanks guys.

Larry's statement to put the soil back in the jar makes sense now also. After dumping the dirt, pulling out the sprouts and replacing the soil back into the jar, some seeds wind up closer to the surface so they can sprout. I'm not as in love with this as I originally thought.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I'll be doing the paper towel method this time since I am doing more than one variety. I can label the same bags and stack them on the Bunn to keep warm. I will also be using color coding to keep track of type, so they will be transferred to different color Dixie cups after. Should be a good system.

 

[BigBonner]

I use plant stakes with numbers . Notice the plant stakes in the picture . The only problem is when the plants get to growing good you cannot see the numbers on the stake
. Notice behind the hand is younger plants and under the hand is older plants . These older plants have number stakes in them , you just have to part the plants to see them .
Each number is asigned a variety and each tray containg that variety will have the same number .

 

[Knucklehead]

Notice behind the hand is younger plants and under the hand is older plants .

Hey Big, not being picky, but you misspelled ham twice. LOL

 

[johnlee1933]

Hey Big, not being picky, but you misspelled ham twice. LOL

He He He Right on Knucks.

 

[darren1979]

I started my seeds this year with the paper towels method. I have to say it went very well, i had around 95% germination rate.
One word of warning using this method is you have to babysit it more than you would with soil as it drys very quickly', as i found out when the gf opened the window by the seeds, luckery i checked the next morning but still lost one tray of seeds.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Put damp (not wet) paper towels in zip lock.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I put my seeds in a damp paper towel, then in a zip lock bag and put on top of the water heater. I don't do this to my tobacco seeds because I usually plant way too many varieties to keep track of.