Pelleted seeds

I've noticed in Stokes seed catalog, they sell pelleted seeds..I'm not familiar with this type of seed. What is the pros and cons of using pelleted seeds besides a higher price tag? Can they be used for WS or just in a greenhouse under lights? Do they look any different than a regular flower seed?

HI Pippi21,

Pelleted seeds have a clay coating around the seed so it is easier to sow. Petunia seeds are very tiny, so it would be difficult to sow 1 seed per cell. I press the pellet into damp warm soil, one per cell. Then I mist the tray until all the pellets have changed color and the clay disperses. You need to put a dome on until germination, which should be within 3-5 days if you have some bottom heat. Petunia seeds need light to germinate, so don't cover the seed with soil. The advantage of pelleted seed is easy sowing, with one per cell.

No I do not wintersow petunias, since our growing season is short ant the seeds are pricey. I like my petunias to be in a 4" pot minimum and blooming by May, so I start the the beginning of March, indoors under lights (timer set to 15 hours). A lot of petunias will take about 8 weeks from germination to start blooming.

I do not have lights in the GH. I rely on Mother Nature for that and is the reason I do not start up the GH until March 1st. After March 1st, our daylight hours are over 11 hrs and by March 21, the days are at 12 hours.

Pelleted seeds are easier to handle and to count.
I can not see tuberous begonia seeds, but when they are pelleted:- I can see them and count out the number of seeds. I do not waste the seeds as I would if they were not pelleted.

Pelleted seeds are indeed easier to handle, but they are exrtremely expensive. Just when you're a beginner it might be a solution. Or if you only want to sow a few seeds.
If you sow not pelleted seeds in a small container, you'll have have a lot more seedlings.
It depends on the kind of seed wether you can WS them or not. If you can WS a non pelleted seed, you can also WS the pelleted seeds.
And I agree with CLScott, that a lot of seeds are waisted when they are not pelleted, but if you look at the process to pellet the seeds, there is more waist of other things.
And, not every pelleted seed will germinate, just as not every not pelleted seed will germinate.

It might be clear, I prefer non pelleted seeds.

Jonna

Joanna,

I have used unpelleted seeds for petunias, and mistakenly put them into nursery 6-pack cell-packs. In order to remove the extra seedlings, when would be the time frame as they are quite small, as you know. What is the ideal...(in the future for me, as I will use what I have for now) for starting them? At the moment I have two choices...the 6-packs or small containers that used to have produce in them. They are clear plastic square domes, which cannot be recyled, so I thought to use them for seed-starting. The were great for tomatoes, as when they germinated, I just took them out and then put them into the six-packs, off heat but with light. The petunias are so much smaller...what is usually the timeframe for shifting?

Thanks so much for any help and anyone else have good suggestions? I hate to waste any seeds, but also the time in growing the seedlings. They do not yet have true leaves. Do I need a toothpick and strong glasses to separate them now so they grow properly? (This may sound funny to experienced growers...)

Evelyn,

I usually seed my petunias in mass in four inch square pots and don't transplant them until they have 2 sets of true leaves (sometimes larger if I get busy). I always plant them up to the first set of true leaves.

Evelyn,

I use the containers for Petunia's (and many other seeds). When they germinate I choose for one of these options:

- When I have time enough, I thin them out with tweezers and transplant them to individual pots later.
- When I'm running out of time, I transplant a quarter inch of the earth wit the seedlings into seperate small pots. When I have time again, I'll thin them out with tweezers.

I also hate to waste seeds, but with very small seeds it's impossible to avoid that. If you sow a very small quantity of those seeds it might happen you won't have enough plants. Sometimes transplanting goes wrong.
I always keep the leftover seedlings for at least a week or 2, so if something went wrong after transplanting, I can try it again.

the do some now & save some backups for later is great advice.. I do the same

I planted a package of pelleted Waves Petunia. There were 20 pellets in the pack and so far I got about 90% germination. They are healthy and happy, all those Waves for less than the price of one in a pot at the nursery. Try pelleted seeds, when you think about it, you're still literally paying only pennies a plant. Here's the packs of Impatiens (very inexpensive!) and Petunia pelleted seeds.

nice ones!

Thanks Jonna, onewish, and trc65! Now I am getting the picture...think small! :-)

Evelyn

I'm sowing foxglove and snapdragon seeds indoors for the first time ever. These seeds are also tiny so I placed several in each Jiffy peat pellet. They all germinated and are looking good. From reading everyone's posts here, it looks like I can thin them out soon. I'll have to use tweezers as they are tiny plants. I will discard the ones I thin out and keep one good plant per jiffy peat pot. When the outdoor temperature is right, I will transplant them outdoors into the flower bed. Does this sound like a good plan?

madwife...did you put them over heat, or just under lights??

You really don't have to discard them. Snaps, especially. They are easy to transplant, I break apart the Jiffy cube and either plant in 6 pack cells or Jiffy peat pot strips. I routinely plant more smaller seeds on a Jiffy then when big enough to handle transplant them. This year I started Kniphofia, celosia, and Blue bedder salvia that way. I just started several Jiffys of Rainbow coleus, the seeds are tiny, but once germinated they grow fast. Every one is transplanted to it's own cell pot.
Back to the thread, I planted pelleted Achillea, Summer Pastels. It appears every pellet germinated, can't wait to see them bloom. Here you see the seedlings of pelleted Achillea, plus the cell packs of celosia started in Jiffys and transplanted. Remember the old saying "Smallest plants, Bestest colors". What this means is, do not discard all small seedlings and save only the large vigorous ones.

Sorry, the Achillea pack was scanned too small. Here it is.

I did summer pastels a few years ago... they turned out all yellow

:(

Heh heh heh, sorry but your post made me laugh out loud, I'm still giggling. Here's hoping I have more colors. Did you plant only the biggest plants, those proving that old saying?
BTW I haven't forgot your Iris, I promise!

Evelyn: I have never used a heat mat (I don't even know what that is). Would an old heating pad work? I also don't have grow lights. They are in our back porch which is a 3 season room; and this is only my first year. I started them later than others would, so I haven't had to deal with too much cold weather. I will go out and purchase more Jiffy pellets and transplant the little seedlings when they have two sets of true leaves. Clearly, I'm going to have to pitch most of them. But they are all doing quite well so far. Better than I expected:-)

Nice picture, Karldan. That helps me see the possibilites!