What's your thought on older seeds that are pelletted? Do you think they loose their vitality sooner? Do you think the clay coating will kill the seed over time? I sowed a bunch of Tidal Waves that are well over a year old.

I sowed some a few years old.. they were ok

Good to hear. I hope they germinate

I have never had any luck with old pelleted seeds, including petunias. Sorry.

Well, I guess it will be an experiment. I will report back in a few days.

I wish you luck. If it works, I may try again. WAIT! I just remembered, some of my lisianthus this year were from last year and all of them germinated! But never the petunias...

Petunias- I've always used the wintersowing method- i.e. outside in milk jugs- but I don't sow them until spring or close to spring. I generally have good germination, including with seeds that are a few years old. But I do think the pelleted ones don't do as well when they're more than a year old two old. They might still sprout, but percentage seems to decrease or germination delayed. That's just personal opinion/ experience.I've wondered if the clay coating hardens or otherwise becomes difficult.

OTOH, I've been using the same batch of pelleted alyssum for about 3 or 4 years, and saw no increased resistance to germination as of last year. Maybe it depends on the genus or cultivar, or the material and amount of clay mix used to form the pellet???

The problem is, with WSowing, the weather can have a big effect, and it changes so much from year to year...Last year was extremely hot and dry, the year before unusually cold and wet. That makes it harder to draw conclusions.

Karen

I think perhaps that alyssum seeds are generally viable longer than petunia seeds regardless. (Actually, I've never seen pelleted alyssum seeds!)

I grew the last of my pelleted petunia seeds last year, when they were about 3 years old, and had roughly 30% germination.

Here you go, woofie. Multi-seed pellets. Each pellet grows a little hunk of seeds. Highly recommended

http://www.harrisseeds.com/sto...

http://www.harrisseeds.com/sto...

Highly recommended.

Karen

Karen, you mentioned that you had bought a large quantity of the Clear Crystals alyssum. Were those pelleted? Just wondering how long you'd had them and how they seemed for viability. I got some of the purple ones last year and I really like their clumping habit, although they don't have the scent like the Snow Crystals do. Do the white Clear Crystals have the same strong scent as other alyssum?

And I'm a cheapskate. I separate those little clumps into individual plants and pot them separately. With the Snow Crystals, at least, one little plant once took over an entire 14" pot!

Yes, woofie, they were the multi-seed pellets from Harris, linked above. I love the multi seed pellets, and the extra-large flowers of clear crystal.


I'm not qualified to comment on the fragrance. My smeller is awful.

I checked my seed stash. My alyssum clear crystal are dated 2009. As of 2012, germination still excellent. So 2012 would have been my 4th year using my original 250 pellets


I haven't sown them yet this year, but I still have quite a few. I also ordered some purple, and I think it was you who recommended those.

Karen

The Snow Crystals also have those same large flowers; possibly the same critter under a different name? They are extremely fragrant, which the purple shades of Clear Crystal most definitely are not, although someone else (Joanne maybe?) mentioned that the purple ones aren't as fragrant. But I can't detect any scent at all on the purple ones I grew, so that's why I was wondering about the white. Anyone else have experience with the Clear Crystals alyssum? The price on those pelleted ones looks pretty good to me.

Wahoo! The Tidalwave petunias have germinated. I have Cherry, Silver, Purple and Hot Pink. Looks like 100% for most colours. I had two packages of Hot Pink (package of 20 from Stokes germinated and it appears one entire package of 10 from Veseys did not germinate. It may germinate tonight since the rest popped up during the day today.

Yay Joanne

good I am so glad!!!

Cool. Tidal waves are awesome.

Karen

Looks like most will germinate. Some more did last night

That's great! Hate it when seeds don't germinate......

I started some pelleted lisianthus that were probably 2 years old, and the germination was fine. Don't think I've had any left-over pelleted petunias to try.