In past years, I have found that germination of impatiens was really hit & miss. I have only had one variety that germinated over 60%.

This year, there were new instructions that I had not seen before. Apparently with some colors and also with some varieties germination is hindered by the "red spectrum" in both artificial and natural light. It is advised to cover the tray with blue plastic for germination.

I have some larger zipplock storage bags for cheese that are blue and taped them on the dome over the seed tray. Last Saturday I had seeded Envoy Orange Star Impatiens and the entire tray has germinated. I will be using the blue plastic for all my impatiens.

Impatiens are surface sowed. Press seed into the soil. I find that misting them daily and keeping the dome on until after the 2nd set of leaves are formed works well. Temperature for germination is between 21ºC & 24ºC, which is 70ºF and 75ºF

envoy tropical butterfly does good for me

just a couple a green heads sticking up in carousel salmon double so far.. can't really see them in the photo.. sorry

These were started about 2 weeks ago. They have stretched a bit . They needed to be closer to the light. Light used was standard shop fluorescent.

pretty baby pics John!!

John, those look like nice healthy plants. Question for you. Will you transfer those seedlings to a 4 inch pot or will you plant them directly in the flowerbeds? How do you keep squirrels, rabbits and deer from eating or digging up your tender seedlings? Do you put anything like a bottle or jar over them to protect them until they get established? On one of the other websites, one member had ordered some cuttings from a supplier in NC and they were the double pink impatients. Beautiful! Have you seen them or have them?

Pippi:

These will go into regular cell packs and then back under the lights for a day or two. After that I take them out to my cold frame until ready to plant out. If the weather gets below 32 degrees I put a light bulb in the coldframe and cover over with tarp. As soon as we are past frost free I plant them out. As to rabbits and squirrels I always frustrated by them and never seem to when a batlle. Right now I have a number of pansies that are much smaller than they should be because the squirrels have dug them up.

What me worry?

Daisy gives a hand

I started a bunch of seedlings in the sponges that were meant for hydroponics ... every zinnia was dug up every day when I got home from work by the chipmunks rooting around.. they must have thought the squishy ground had something good in it... the weather warmed up and they were not looking so good anymore... I finally gave up after a week and did not replant them again

We have squirrels, there's a chipmunk around here and Bambi to deal with. I sprayed with Liquid fence the middle of last week but it rained all weekend, (about 2 inches)so I need to spray again. Going to try mix up my own concoction. That Liquid Fence is expensive. Pulled off some information from internet.

Alison, was it you that told me about buying plugs from NC Farms for those beautiful pink double impatients? If so, you might want to tell others about this source.

yes.. they were great.. I bought un rooted cuttings .. and rooted them myself... for those of you who don't like petal mess these are not for you.. but once they started blooming they didn't quit

http://www.ncfarmsinc.com/stor...

and they got pretty big from those little cuttings

tropical envoy butterfly... same tray as the top of the thread

nice!

thank you... one of my favs last year

I sowed a tray of impatiens today. I used rootrainers, which I've never used before. It's the 32 cell tray.
http://www.stuewe.com/products...
You can't tell from the picture in that link but it also comes with a clear humidity dome, which can be removed and used for bottom watering. I put blue plastic over them as Stokes recommends, we'll see if it helps germination.

Have any of you used rootrainers?



Karen

I have not... but always looked at them.. looking forward to your results

I hadn't checked those impatiens seeds in a few days, so I just looked at them. I think I see radicle emergence in a few cells. The sun isn't up yet and lighting isn't so great, so I can't swear to it. I'll check them later today when I can see better. The rootrainers are staying very wet (with bottom heat and dome on, lots of condensation on the dome).

Karen