Flower seeds and germination "situation"

My experience with growing flowers from seed started........5 days ago. I'm in zone 6, and attempting to grow Petunia, Lobelia, Begonia, Calibrachoa, Pansies, Nasturtium, Impatients, Phlox, and Snapdragons from seed. I'm using 72 pot Jiffy seed starting flats with heating mats and UV bulbs overhead.
All the seed packets (Burpee mail order) list anywhere from 10-14 week germination time frames (with the exception of the Snapdragons which were 8-10 days. Seeds were sow 2-3 in a pot with Jiffy seed starting wafers for substrate. The flats were seeded within an hour of being prepped with the wafers this past Saturday. All seeds were placed as per packet instructions; some on top of the soil, some lightly pressed in and some 1/8" deep and covered. Light is being applied for 12 hours a day which brings the soil temperature to 76-78 degrees. When the lights are off, the soil will cool to 71.9 - 72.8 degrees.
Imagine my surprise when on the morning of day 4, I had germination of multiple types of seed. This evening, day 5 I have germination of everything except:
One Begonia flavor, one Calibrachoa flavor, and two Pansy flavors.
Twelve other types of the same flower seed have all sprouted.

My question is, should I count my blessings and concentrate on keeping the damping under control next, or have I done something wrong that has accelerated the germination of these seeds?

Hi BigZig and welcome to Dave’s Garden!

Well, if your seed packets list germination times as 10-14 weeks, I think I’d buy my seeds elsewhere from now on :-) … Seeds just don’t take that long to germinate!

Pansies, for example, normally germinate indoors in less than 14 days. Petunias will normally germinate within a week or so.

If the instructions used the word “sprout” instead of “germinate”, they may have been referring to the time when you could expect to see buds, prior to blooming. One definition of the word “sprout” is: “To begin to grow, as a plant from a seed”.
Another definition is: “To put forth buds or shoots”.

Usually, instructions for when to start seeds indoors revolve around your average last frost date. For example, 6 to 8 weeks before your average last frost date. In your case, that would probably mean to start your seeds somewhere around March first.

So, it looks like you’ve started things a little too soon. Your plants will probably get a little larger than expected, before you can put them outside. Meanwhile, supplying adequate lighting will probably become a problem. How do I know? Because I made the same mistake when I first started growing from seed :-)

Art

I was about to say that you picked some relatively difficult plants to start from seed, like small-seeded perennials, but three cheers for you: you're doing great.

Maybe the "10-14 weeks" referred t6o some seeds that might have benefited from "cold-moist stratification", but obviously your seeds did not need a lengthy cold-wet period to break their dormancy.

(Unless you sowed 100 seeds and got 5-10 prompt sprouts. Then the seeds might have benefited from stratification by giving you more sprouts. I had that happen when I didn't know what "stratification" was. I ignored the "requirement" and eventually got 20% or so germination anyway.)

No, I see you said "Seeds were sow 2-3 in a pot ".

They MIGHT have meant "start these indoors 10-14 before last frost. When they emerge, pot them up and keep them indoors under lights for three months, then put them outside and selling plants in bloom shortly after the last forst".

I've noticed that almost every seed packet will SAY things like "easiest to grow, earliest, best tasting and most popular", but when something means extra work, they kind of skip over that part.

Or could it have been a typo for "10-14 DAYS"?

P.S. I tried those self-inflating Jiffy pellets once and hated them. they held a lot of water and never drained out enough to let air in. Some other people have said that the roots were not able to push out through a mesh covering over their Jiffy peat pellets. They had to tear the pellets' covering while planting out.

Germination is much more likely 10-14 days, it seems to me. I hate those Jiffy pellets.

If it is going to be hard to keep all those plants indoors for 10-14 weeks, you have enough time to start over, if you saved some seeds.

Also: practice on preventing damping off! Those peaty pellets will hold as much water as you give them, which encourages damping off.

Avoid humid air. (encourage drafts)
Avoid stagnant air. (a small or intermittent fan is good)
Try to avoid damp soil surfaces (under water. Bottom-water if you can, Don't mist.)
Start with a clean and nearly-sterile soilless mix (you've got this one already)

I like to use a seedling mix that drains rapidly and has open spaces, voids, pores or channels so air can diffuse into the soil rapidly, instead of trying to diffuse (slowly) through a water-filled medium.

You can "open up" a seedling mix by adding coarse things that don;t hold much water: coarse Perlite, granite grit or pine bark shreds. Somewhere around 1/10" to 1/8" or 3-5 mm is coarse enough. Sand is not coarse enough, not even "extra-coarse sand". That will all be smaller than 1 mm, and most of it will probably be smaller than 0.1 mm.

I hate peat in seedling mixes. I gather that "sphagnum" quite different from "peat" or "peat moss". For one thing, it is much coarser.

https://allthingsplants.com/ideas/view/drdawg/1972/Sphagnum-Moss-vs-Peat-Moss/

Thanks for the warm welcome! I gave "ease of use" no consideration whatsoever when I picked these flowers. I simply put together plants by size and color for use in hanging baskets (Christmas gift for wife).
The Jiffy pots were a learning curve as well. I believe I soaked 30 of them before I realized there was a top and bottom to them; the netting was getting purposely torn open to allow for seed placement. I am concerned about the moisture they hold. I'm hoping the combination of dome removal and bottom heat will start drying them out a bit.
Looking ahead, I'm somewhat confused as to when the time to transplant is. I am reading that when the 1st two(2) true leaves appear it's time to move them. Almost all my sprouts have two(2) leaves on them at the top; are these not "true" leaves?
Pleased with the Nastortiums so far, and can claim 100% germination on the Purple Wave Hybrid Petunias that went in.
Haven't seen anything from the Atlas Mix Pansies yet though........will wait I guess.

You are correct, the two leaves on your little sprouts are the "seed leaves". the next ones will be "true" leaves, and will look like the mature leaves. Seed leaves are often quite simple and do not look like the mature leaves. Once the true leaves are growing the seed leaves will wither away.
In terms of when to transplant, when they say do it when there are 2 "true" leaves, they are generally thinking that you had put dozens of seeds in a little pot to sprout (to save space) then plan to "pot them up" so you have one plant per pot to "grow them on". Since you only put one or two in each pot, you can skip this step, and just pull or cut off the weaker sprout. I often cut rather than pull because you might pull up the other sprout also if the roots have tangled together. You have lots of "soil" in each pot for one plant, so you will not need to transplant for a while.

Ok - that makes sense. The only flower that I can't wrap my head around with that concept are the Nasturtium. I have 100% germination with the six(6) that I sowed, and within two(2) days they were pushing up against the top of the plastic dome of the seed starter. The two(2) initial leaves were dime sized (much, much larger than everything else that has started).

On day 6 (from sow), I opted to pull the first two(2) Nasturtium seedlings and move them to a peat pot without a dome so they wouldn't be limited in their height growth.
Was this too early to move this seedling?
Do I need to be concerned with head height of seedlings?

This is also the day I made my first, possibly fatal, error. I will not be using the Jiffy seed starting wafers again; I ended up shearing off the root sprout right at the seed trying to remove everything from the planter cell. I went ahead and moved this less than one week old seedling to a potting soil mix/peat planter anyway. Today, day 7, that plant has begun pushing a second set of leaves.
Note of interest: a second plant that was transplanted had 3.75" of root pushed outside the mesh that those Jiffy wafers use. I sliced open the mesh up to the root, but was unable to free the root due to fear of damage (I already seperated one very healthy root from a perfectly good seeding). I'm going to wait a week before I transplant anymore to make certain they will take in the richer soil - I have three(3) more plants already pushing against the plastic dome.

Well this may end up fine, but if the nasturtiums don't make it just buy another packet of seeds in a few months, put half in the pots, then also try just planting them outside in the place you want them to grow, once it is warm outside. Keep a sharp eye out for aphids, they like nasturtiums. (Google aphids nasturtiums and look at images-prepare to be grossed out!

BigZig....You don't have to cut off the extras...save all your babies as you can repot them later when they get more growth on them..............
Some tips for you to consider: you need your seed trays closer to your lights (prop them up closer and remove your props as they get taller, don't worry your lights are usually not strong enough to burn the babies. Yes, I agree with most about hating the peat pellets...ick! Personnaly I make my own mix (peat and peralite) but there are many that are suitable for seed starting. I use a bit of vermiculite to top off my seeds as it helps to control mold if pots have gotten too damp. I never water my seedlings til they are up and growing strongly. I start with damp mix (not soggy!), then I mist everything til lightly damp, cover with a dome til things begin sprouting, I mist once daily, maybe twice if it looks as tho they are drying a bit too much, keep the top lightly damp.. After things begin sprouting I take the dome off for a few hours and then recover again, misting when necessary, they love it. Once up and growing strongly I transfer them to a tray in the open air and keep those that need the protected envirement a bit longer covered with the dome. After they come out into the air I gently water them and mist several times a day, they'll love it. I don't worry about extras in the pots as they can alllllll be potted on after they've beefed up ( be aware that can live in the cramped conditions for months). When I go to transplanting them I let the pot dry a bit and gently dump the whole pot out and tease roots apart and repot into individuals pots, usually I use 2 1/2" pots, (which I obtain from dumpster diving at the nurseries)

As far as germination times, it truely can vary. I find many germinate within 3 days when packet says longer so don't worry. Things that need special treatment sometimes truely don't...one that comes to mind is Aquilegia. Most do a cold treatment but I find I get great results without. I started mine on 1/30 and they are germinating now, 10 days later.

Come on over to the thread by Pfg on seed germination part 2. We'll help you along so ask away!!!! Hope this helps....(I've grown thousands of seedlings over the years). Once you get the hang of it it will get easier, I promise. And as far as the annuals, some are started early (petunias, violas, snapdragons). those such as Zinnas are started later toward the end of March. Annual vines don't get started til 2-4 wks before last frost. Keep your plants close to the lights as it helps prevent stretching............!!!!!! They can even touch the bulb of a florescent light unit with out any damage! Kathy
Ps. Most of my front garden was filled with perennials grown from seed. !00ft long X 40ft wide