I have been trying to germinate tomato seeds lately with poor success. I am
not sure why. I have been using some rock wool cubes that were given to me.
These seem to soak up water well--maybe too well. They my be keeping the
seeds too wet.

In the past, with cubes from another source they have done very well indeed.
Roots would grow out of the cube into the surrounding medium and I would
plant the entire cube.

I would appreciate any insight into what may be wrong. The question
uppermost in my mind is: Just how wet should the cubes be? Should they be
saturated with water? Should the be a bit on the dry side although still
moist?

Bill

Repeating Decimal wrote:
I have been trying to germinate tomato seeds lately with poor success. I am
not sure why. I have been using some rock wool cubes that were given to me.
These seem to soak up water well--maybe too well. They my be keeping the
seeds too wet.

In the past, with cubes from another source they have done very well indeed.
Roots would grow out of the cube into the surrounding medium and I would
plant the entire cube.

I would appreciate any insight into what may be wrong. The question
uppermost in my mind is: Just how wet should the cubes be? Should they be
saturated with water? Should the be a bit on the dry side although still
moist?

Bill

I've had almost 100% germination this year with my peppers and tomatoes by
putting the seeds in a wet paper towel in a custard cup (on cup for each
variety) and sitting them on top of my fluorescent light fixtures to keep
them warm. I start them out soggy wet, but let them dry out to just really
damp. I check the seeds every day; when I see the first one or two
germinating, I plant all the seeds in that cup in a margarine cup of
potting soil. If it's a lot of seeds, I use a half a paper milk carton.
Then I transplant to plastic 4-packs when they are up good and most have
one set of leaves. I just moved a bunch up to 4 inch pots today, and I'm
wondering what I'm gonna do with them all.

I just scattered tomatillo seeds in a custard cup of wet potting soil and
kept them warm and damp. They didn't germinate nearly as well as the
peppers and tomatoes, but I still got too many of the.

Trying to extrapolate to the rockwool cubes, I think I would soak the seeds
overnight, then put them in damp cubes and keep them a bit on the dry side.

Warmth makes a big difference too.

Good luck, and best regards,
Bob

Yes, sufficient heat and air circulation.
I germinate tomatoes in Jiffy-7s with 95% success.
I have been giving away heirloom seedlings a month now.
If you do not have jiffy7s available , try supersoil potting mix .

Then, I let the seedlings grow a bit leggy. Snip off all leaves except the
last 4 or 5 top ones. Transplant horizontally with the tops turn straight up.
The 'limbs' ( for lack of a better word) will grow roots and give the plants
more nutrition.

Good luck.
HTH

/z.