beckygardener said: The refrigerating (chilling) time is still debatable. I think it was Michele who said she doesn't chill hers.
You are correct, I do not chill mine. I only put them in the fridge if I am not planting right away and it's not the cold stratification that I do it's just the cold storage. I put them in there straight from the pod (no drying them out first) so they will actually stay plump and moist and not dry out until I can plant them and the other reason is so they are all in one place and don't get scattered by the cat thinking they are something to play with.
I see no reason to dry the seeds out first just to turn around and have to rehydrate them before they can germinate. Now if I was going to store them for a good bit before planting like some people wait and plant the following spring that would be different. I would definitely dry them out before storing so I wouldn't have mold issues with the seeds. And I probably wouldn't store in the fridge, I would just store them in a paper envelope in a container somewhere since they do not have to be cold stored.
I planted my seeds on July 27 (and the rest a few days later) and here is one seed on July 31st. So basically in 2-3 days they started germinating and this is day 4 growth, there are others sprouting also. I will have to take a photo tomorrow when I go back to the garden to show how many more have sprouted. I will have some that will take longer to germinate but most will germinate in a short time frame.
If I would have put them in the fridge and did the actual "cold stratification" and left them in there for 4-6 weeks (the recommended time) and then brought them to room temp for them to germinate I could be already transplanting my seedlings to the beds or pots. Keep in mind that even with cold stratification some of the seeds still can take a month or more to germinate.
If I were going to plant the seeds over winter or the following spring or indoors then maybe I would do this but since I want to get them planted as soon as possible and then transplanted by mid September I don't.
