fix pix,
The first picture illustrates the "I needed the tissue to see where I was placing the seeds in the dark compost". I use my home made compost as my planting medium in the little cell packs.

>> I got a lot of condense (water drops on the plastic foil

Calin, here is my opinion, but I'm not an expert. I think the humidity is right when there is just a LITTLE condensation. Like light fogging or the plastic. Not big droplets, Not heavy mist. Just a little fog.

I think we need to keep the soil surface from drying out. We don't need to keep it soggy or dripping. We don't need 100% humidity in the air above the soil. (Once seedlings emerge, high humidity in the air is a very bad thing - it encourages damping off disease.)

Big drops of water condensing on plastic film or a humidity dome suggests that maybe the soil surface is more damp than it needs to be. When I get that, I try to get the drops to run off so they do not fall back onto the try, and I use a turkey baster ("syringe") to suck any water out of the tray under to pots. Also, I prop up one or two corners of the clear dome (or pull back the plastic film from one end) to let some of the excess humidity diffuse out of the air and away from the tray.

No condensation at all suggests that the soil, or at least the soil SURFACE is quite dry and might be too dry for the seeds to sprout quickly. That's when I spray a little water on the surface, or add water to the pad on the tray under the pots.

I think that the best sign is when the plastic film or humidity dome just shows a little mist or fogging. Maybe just part of it will fog up, or most of it fog lightly. I think that's ideal.

Of course, there are things that can confuse this issue. If warm light falls on the plastic cover, that might prevent condensation no matter how moist the soil is. If the clear plastic is warm, water will not condense.

When you have a heat mat under the tray, and cold drafts on the clear plastic, I think that you get a lot more condensation, even if the soil is on the dry side. So with heat mats, I want to have somewhat heavier fogging, and maybe a light mist. But not big droplets.

Here's another confusing factor: if you have mist on the plastic, just mist and no visible droplets, if you tap-tap-tap the plastic, you can probably make the mist collect into droplets big enough to see. That kind iof "doesn't count".

Seedfork said:fix pix,
The first picture illustrates the "I needed the tissue to see where I was placing the seeds in the dark compost".

HOW? How does the tissue tell you where you are placing the seeds on the dark compost? If you are removing seeds individually from the tissue as you say, then how is the tissue involved?

Unlike Calin, English is my first language, and I am still baffled.
I'm only grasping at straws, but is it because the tissue allows to pick up the individual seeds more easily, and that (not the tissue) allows you "to see where you was placing the seeds in the dark compost"?


P.S. This is my seedfork :

So sorry, no wonder I confused everyone, even had myself confused, I some how had my pictures out of order. I have gone back an edited them to try and make more sense out of my post.
Maybe this picture will clear things up a bit. If not please look at the first post in this thread and see if that helps. I will try and be more careful, don't know how I did not notice that.

I still don't get what you're saying. Do you mean you have soil topped by tissue topped by seeds? So you let the seeds root through the tissue? And leave the tissue in place forever? Or????

Karen

Exactly, the seeds root right though the tissue, but you do have to wet it, I used a spray bottle. The tissue almost just melts away, the Salvia seeds are already up and growing, Note, that I used a single ply of tissue, that is very thin.

Cool!

Do you think really fine seeds like petunia and lobellia can push through wet tissue?

I need something to keep them from falling into my coarse seed-starting mix, and I've been spreading 1/4" of vermiculite on top of my seedling mix, then tiny dust-like seeds on top of the vermiculite.

Well, I know Salvia will, and I see no reason the others would not, because when the tissue gets soaked it almost dissolves , but the tissue would have to stay moist so it would need a cover. Rick, why don't you try it with a few seeds, take pictures and let us see how it goes. Once again I stress single ply, I separated the two ply tissue .

>> Rick, why don't you try it with a few seeds,

Good idea! Trying is the best way.

I have lots of Alyssum seeds so I'll mostly use them. Then test something dust-like that I have less of.

one-ply toilet paper
Kleenex pulled apart

Actually I used cheap toilet paper, just thought tissue sounded better.

Gotcha! Extra-cheap TP is just my speed.

I look forward to telling people years from now "And it's CHEAPER than vermiculite!!!"

I forget whether anyone on this thread has said it yet: I think you really should copy-paste that whole sequence into an "Idea". It would be really timely at this time of year, and Trish loves photos in the Ideas.

- soak in desert dish
- paper towel in cereal bowl
- bamboo skewer
- TP on soilless mix

Maybe add a line about how you label them at each stage. I like to use a little slip of plastic mini-slat-blind material marked in pencil, because it is waterproof and can just float along at each stage, inside the bowl or poked into a six-pack of inserts or row of propagation cells.

Hey, let's wait and see your results, if you seeds don't grow, let's forget the entire post. If you seeds do well, then we can talk about an idea post. Maybe both experiences could be worked into the idea.

I use cheap toilet paper to make all my seed tape and just place it all on the soil and lightly cover with more then water in. Seeds germinate fine.

OK.

I mix 2 parts water to one part flour to "glue" the seeds to the TP. Use an eyedropper to place it. Put it on a cookie sheet first and let dry before rolling it back up. I make these to give as gifts to my not so green thumb gardening friends too.

Yes, I made seed tapes and really enjoyed being able to place the seeds just perfectly spaced, but then the squirrels did not seem to like the spacing so precise, and dug the tapes up.

Maybe mix cayenne pepper with the flour?

Karen

I've been trying to research hypogeal germination of dicotyledons (not an easy thing to do, I've found), and look what came up in google (one of the last entries).....



You're famous, Calin!