Winter Flowers and Vegetable seeds

[Farhan Ahmed]

Bhai your media/Soil seems very heavy and compacted> i hope you, very lightly covered the seeds. I hope you are not over watering.
Secondly regarding the plastic trays....to be frank. I must have sowed thousands of seeds, but i have failed almost every time i attempt in plastic trays. Its gets water logged, poor drainage, compaction. I do not recommend it unless you have extremely well draining media, and your media is not one of them. Its moisture retentive media, coupled with plastic trays is a perfect recipe for failure. Seeds will vanish even before germination.

[new gardener]

@naheerameer
i also used same medium for my seed sowing .. i m also from Karachi i go to Abdul Seeds store at empress market or their shop at Defence Phase IV ..
i get very slow germination rate in seed trays as compare to the pots. i use the same seeding compost only as u do.. but no result. my personal experience is very bad for for seed trays . they do show result but very very lately well u wonder if i share my experience of seedling growth rate difference .. just mix some soil the ratio would be like 3:4 of soil and compost . then it would show other wise pots are best for seeds as u also watching it urself in ur pots

[naheerameer]

Exactly! Oh my God thank you two!
I just wish I hadn't given in to my obsession to how good seed trays look and accumalted three
Pots really do show a stark difference in germination.
I keep the plants in full morning sun and the results are showing. Capsicum which is supposed to be easier than chillies to germinate has not germinated, but chillies in the pot are now thriving! I will add a pic of what the chilli seedlings look like (dated two days ago) and my medium:
What I am really interested in knowing is why all my seeds in pots only germinate when there are coincidentally more than one together in the same place. Even with my eggplants I find that they are clumped together. I do my best to spread seeds evenly and I can see alot of ungerminated seeds further away from the pack in the pot.
Also should I add sand to this compost I have to make it drain more? The sand available at nurseries in Karachi..

P.S- Going back to my original question- The seeds store guy told me this is the season to plant all of the seeds I mentioned earlier.
He says some gardens have begun preparing their paneeri also so I should go for it now. I thought I had to wait till Oct... I would love to be one of the first people in my friends to have a flowering winter garden this season so should I go for it now or should I wait till Oct as suggested (Referring to all seeds other than tagetes which I plan on planting according to suggestion by Tahir Khan bhai.
Tahir Bhai, one question- I also bought a coconut coir stick recently. I'm wondering, will I be needing it to dress the top of all the seeds in the picture above?

[bushrasherwani]

cant say much about the others but if your iceberg was from pride seeds lahore, it may be bcoz the seed was old, same happened to me here in Sialkot, weather is fine I used a mixture of compost cocopeat and sweet earth almost 1:1:1but not even a single romaine lettuce sprouted, just a few icebergsnand they too r not in very good shape

[Tahir Khan]

Tahir Bhai, one question- I also bought a coconut coir stick recently. I'm wondering, will I be needing it to dress the top of all the seeds in the picture above?

You have to soak that coconut coir block in water for a few hours to expand, after that dry it for a day, sieve it and use the fine powdered coir...sprinkle it on top of the seeds 1/2 -1 inch layer and moist it with a sprayer..do not pour water with a hose or a bottle directly..it will displace and spoil the seeds.

[Farhan Ahmed]

Sprinkle it on top of the seeds 1/2 -1 inch layer

1 inch??

[rafique]

Sprinkle it on top of the seeds 1/2 -1 inch layer

1 inch??

Farhan sb your check on advisory posts really admirable.

Tahir would mean Just sprinkle a thin layer for thin/very small seeds and more for big ones according to seed thickness.

[naimulhaque]

i am a new member of ur forum a s o to all members=wich seeds r sutable in this seson

[Tahir Khan]

Sprinkle it on top of the seeds 1/2 -1 inch layer

1 inch??

1 inch will be sufficient, some seeds are quite small dust like...the best solution for sowing such seeds is to prepare a 1 inch layer of fine coco coir or compost on top of the prepared soil...moist it with a sprayer and sprinkle the seeds on top (do not cover the seeds at all), cover the pot with a clear plastic lid or a polythene bag and place it in a shaded but warm location for good results.
If the seeds are larger like that of snapdragon, they can be covered with half to one inch of fine coco coir or compost.

[Tahir Khan]

Tahir would mean Just sprinkle a thin layer for thin/very small seeds and more for big ones according to seed thickness.

Yes, compost should be sprinkled according to the diameter of the seed...dust like seeds should be sprinkled on top of the compost without covering them....larger diameter seeds can be sprinkled with one to half inch of compost...for very large seeds like sweet peas or nasturtiums...they should be soaked for 12 hours and then direct sown into ground plugs like farhan bhai made.