Good points Danita. Your timeframe is spot-on for germination time for most salvias, too.
When Danita and I were exchanging comments a few months ago about
S. pachyphylla, she reminded me that Norm Deno did much of his experiments using paper towels in plastic sandwich baggies. When I did the sinker-floater germination test that I mentioned above on
S. azurea, I used coffee filters, folded in quarters and left on the kitchen table. March indoor temps were probably 55-ish (evening) to 70-ish (daytime). I do something similar when I want to cold stratify seeds but have run out of winter. In those instances, the baggies of coffee filters and seeds go into the fridge, of course
In the case of the sinker-floater test, using coffee filters made it easy to note when each radical emerged. At that point, a toothpick is good for gently picking up the germinated seeds and placing them in their pot of moist potting mix. Of the 88
S. azurea seeds in the sinker-floater test, 59 overall germinated. Of the 59 that germinated, 8 didn't send up cotyledons.
@Miamiu might like to run a paper-towel/coffee-filter test on a few seeds to be able to keep a close eye on what they're doing.
