On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 23:25:23 -0500, Sterling wrote:
The ONLY difference is that this year I did start the seeds about 2
weeks sooner than I usually do. But the peppers and tomatoes and zinnias
were on the heat mats and I don't keep my house (Atlanta) really cold.

I have had very good success in past years. I know how to do seeds. I
usually have so many seedling, I have plenty to share.

Something environmental - yes, but what????? This is very frustrating.

If they're fully imbibed, not rotting, and not sprouting, you've either
got a soil temperature problem (what is it? Stick a thermometer in the soil!)
or you've got an inhibitory batch of soil -- at least that's my best guess.
Pull a few of those fully imbibed seeds out. Put them in a tea strainer
and drip cool water on them for a day -- you're trying to wash out water
soluble inhibitors; a drippy faucet is just perfect for this. DO NOT
SOAK THEM -- most people soak seeds in too-deep a water, and they
strangle them from low oxygen tension. At this stage, of germination, it
would probably be fatal for them. Now put those seeds on several folds of
coffee filter or plain paper towel, cover with another thickness of paper,
and put it on a saucer. Cover the paper with a custard cup or a bowl, to
keep the paper from drying out. Continue to water the other seeds, and
keep the paper moist, but seeds not in standing water. Instead of paper, you
can use plain old sandbox sand -- that's the gold standard for laboratory
testing of germination, though rarely used because it's a pain to handle.

If the seeds in the paper sprout, you've got an inhibitory batch of soil.
If it's commercial soil, it may have been made with compost contaminated
with something or other -- caffeine is one of the more common seed inhibitors.
One of the suppressant herbicides may be another possibility.
Or you may have gotten soil that was heat treated poorly and has become
inhibitory. If you heat treated it yourself, you may have created the
problem, too...

At any rate, you've got seeds that sound like they're primed for germination,
but they've only made it to the earliest stages. The major factors in
germination a
-- water
-- oxygen
-- temperature (some require alternating day/night type temps)
-- lack of inhibitors for some seeds (that's part of what stratification is
about)
-- time
-- seeds capable of growth

Generally, if the temperature is too high, some seeds can be pushed into
deep dormancy. That sounds unlikely here -- the usual issue is too cool.
Too cool a germination regime tends to prolong germination time, and you
often get results like yours.

Kay