Well they've had warm and dark, warm and bright, cool and dark, and cool and
bright conditions and still no sprouts. I SOPPOSE the seeds could be poor or
old, but I would like to believe Burpee's would sell better quality seed
than that. Everything else I got from them has done very well.

As far as sowing in the Fall for a winter crop...what zone are you in? Is
this feasible in zone 6b? I've been in this particular area for about 3
winters now. I am a native of zone 7, and I am not sure it could over winter
there (then again perhaps I'm not giving that delicious broccoli enough
credit). The temps here in this area (WV Panhandle Zone 6B) get below
freezing at least some part of the winter, and of course last year we had
one of the coldest and snowest winters this area has ever seen. Can broccoli
survive this?

On a side note my poor poor tomatoes have had the crap beat out of them by a
nasty storm that moved through the area yesterday. It all but killed one of
my Sweet Treat 100s (5+ FT tall cherries). I mourn the loss of the poor
thing. I managed to survive the ravages of hungry rabbits while it was still
a young plant, and is (was) just as hardy as the rest of the tomatoes until
this...

"V_coerulea" wrote in message
.. .
I've never had a problem germinating broccoli in warm conditions. If I
did,
I wouldn't get any at all.
After germination, they prefer cooler growing conditions. I'd say your
seed
is old or poor quality. Get some new seed and I'll bet they sprout in 10
days or less. We sow seed in the fall for a winter crop that goes on into
Jan-Feb.with side shoots, and we plant another crop to bear in April. In
winter we supply extra heat to germinate the seeds (10 days), then grow
them
cooler at the 1 leaf stage before they fall over.

"Agent Friday" wrote in message
...
"Mike Stevenson" wrote in
t:

Well I'm guessing this is related to heat. The temperatures inside the
house during the day are in the mid 80s(F) (well in the un-air
conditioned parts of the house.) My broccoli seeds still have not
sprouted. I dug a few out of one of the peat pots and they have simply
turned brown, they had not even busted open. I'm concerned my hopes
for a Fall crop of broccoli may be dashed. I think I am going to try
moving the tray they are in into the bedroom, which is air conditioned
down to around 70F.

From my searching on the web, heat has been my best guess as well. One
site mentioned that the plants should fully mature before hot weather
arrives, so I'm guessing that the seeds may have the same attitude about
heat.

My one surviving plant is in the ground and growing nicely. I don't
expect
to eat it necessarily, but I'm just letting it grow for the fun of it.
Maybe I can get some seeds from it.

Have a good one,
--Steve