My approach to seed germination

 Introduction

My first season of growing chilies was not easy. I had many ups and downs. But in the end, I learned a lot from it. The main goal was to grow the seeds I had received in Hungary. Impatient as I am, I could not wait until spring. So, I went to my local garden center and bought some seeds there. My intention was to do a kind of test run to be ready for the Hungarian paprika. In the following I will concentrate on the process of seed germination. At the beginning, I will tell you how I proceeded and which methods I used. Then I will show you the result and the conclusion I have drawn from it.

 

Procedure and methods

I have planned to plant six different chilies this season. Trinidad Moruga Scorpio, Paprica Giallo, Piccante Tondo Calabrese, Chocolate Habanero, White Habanero and Tabasco. I bought the seeds in my local garden center, from which I also bought the soil and the growing bowls. I used two different growing bowls. One was four by six trays and the other was four by nine trays. I used the same seed starter mix for both.

 

I moistened a tissue, then placed the seeds on top of it and another moistened tissue on top of the seeds. Then I folded the edges to the middle and wrapped everything in cling film. I did this for each type of chili separately. After this procedure I put them in a shoe box and kept them in a warm place, about 20 degrees Celsius, for two days. After this time, I opened each package and checked the seeds. Where necessary, I added some extra moisture and stored them again for two more days.

After a total of four days some roots had already formed. So, I started to prepare the growing trays. I filled each place up to the top with soil. When they were filled, I shook the whole bowl back and forth, but did not press the soil any further together. Then I dug small holes about two centimeters deep into each bowl with a pencil. Afterwards, I carefully began to transplant the seeds into the small holes with the roots pointing down. Once they were in place, I covered the holes with soil and watered them. Wherever the seeds were still visible, I covered them with extra soil.

 

After all the seeds were planted in the bowl, I covered them with a plastic lid and a kitchen towel and kept them in the same place where I had previously placed the shoebox. Within two days, the first seedlings could be seen. I checked them daily and kept the soil moist but not wet. A week and a half later, when they all showed up, I placed the bowls in a place with plenty of natural light.

 

Results

There were about ten seeds in each seed bag I bought. I tried to make each seed I had germinate. Out of a total of 60 seeds, about 80% began to form roots. When I transplanted them from the tissue into the earth, some of them had bonded too strongly with the cloth, which caused the root to break when it came off.  In the end, about 75% of the seeds were successfully transferred, so that a total of 36 seedlings were ready to grow.

The paper tissue method made it possible to select the seeds that had already germinated, thus minimizing the unused tray capacity due to seeds that had not started. On the other hand, the seeds that had developed furthest were destroyed, resulting in reduced seed efficiency. Furthermore, the consensus on the ideal temperature for germination of chili seeds is about 25 to 28 degrees Celsius, which was not given during the process.

 

Conclusion and implications

In summary, the method to be used depends on the cost of shells and the supply of seeds. If the seed is planted directly into the soil, the error caused by the transplantation can be reduced, so that a seed utilization of 80%, but also only a shell utilization of 80% can be achieved.  On the other hand, the paper tissue method leads to a seed efficiency of 60%, but a shell utilization of 100%, because it can be determined whether a seed has germinated or not. If seeds are available in sufficient quantity and the costs for the shells are high, the paper tissue method is therefore ideally used. However, if the seed is scarce and the cost of the trays is low, it is preferable to plant the seed directly into the soil.

Also, the ideal temperature for germination has not been reached. The place I used was only about 20 degrees. If I used a more suitable place, perhaps the percentage of germinating seeds could be increased. In addition, I replanted all the seeds at the same time, regardless of the condition of each seed. If I transplant them in respect of their development, the error caused by the root connection to the tissue can be reduced, if not eliminated.

I have used the tissue method because I have already had positive experience with it. Nevertheless, next season I will plant the seeds directly into the soil because the method is far less labor-intensive. Additionally, I made a mistake with an order and now I have too many growing trays.  But I will continue to use the paper tissue method on some of them, just to see if I can reduce the error by replanting them in terms of their growth condition.

 

In the next article I will write about the time from seedlings to young plants.

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