clc wrote:

In the case of lettuce, only a few days longer. In the case of okra,
they will not germinate. Ditto for tomatoes. I always find that even
the oven is too cold for okra.
Now I place seeds in a wet paper towel, fold the towel with seeds in,
place the towel in ziploc bag, place bag on pipe exiting my water
heater. The temp is typically mid-90. One day and they are off to the
races (two days and they root into the towel and give you a headache).
It is the consistently warmest place in my house, easily beating
fridge, stereo and sunny window.

All of my tomatoes germinated in a room that never gets above 68 degrees and
the only extra heat was from the fluorescent lights above them. I didn't
put them under the lights for germination purposes, I put them under the
"heat" of the light for germination.



Every seed has its own preferences. Tomatoes are weeds and will
germinate under a very wide range of conditions. Peppers will not
germinate well below 70F. Lettuce will not germinate well above 75F:
it's a cool weather crop. I generally put the lettuce flats in the cool
cellar until they germinate, then I put them out where they will get
enough light. I've not had good luck with fluorescent grow lights. They
don't give enough light to keep the plants from getting leggy, even if I
put them within 2" of the plants.

If you use the paper towel method and if your seeds root into the paper
towel, just tear off a square of paper towel with the root and seed
embedded and plant the whole thing. The paper will decompose. This only
works if you space out the seeds on the paper towel so the roots don't
intertwine.