When do you give up waiting?
 

Most of my tomato seedlings pop up around day five. But some can be a little longer. How long do all of you wait before you accept a seedling isn't going to sprout?

At about day 9 I'll sow more tomato seeds. For peppers, I sow earlier and give them 2 weeks before resowing.

I just had two moonflower seeds that I planted in the germination tray last year pop up through the peppers.

But if you are planting peppers, the superhots can take two weeks.

Hah! And with that, one of the batch of unsprouted tomato seeds that prompted this post pops up on day 11. It heard me! :D

Isn't that the way it goes! Sometimes I think plants have ears... "Well, now she's talking bad about us so we'd best get it in gear!" :lol:

Glad they popped!

I'll re-sow around day 10, because I have a short window for growing out larger seedlings to set out for my shorter season, but I have had some come up - usually older seeds, after 14-19 days, so I don't throw them out. Almost always, seems like the old ones pop up right after I've sown the 2nd batch.:dizzy:

I'd guess at about 40 days, but it would have to be a desperate attempt at germination of something rare or nearly impossible to find replaceable seed.


45% of my seeds germinate in 3 days, 45% in 4 days, less than 1% in 2 days, about 8% in 5-8 days. The last 1%, 9+ days, with the longest being 34 days.


Tormato


Who's in a daze, awaiting the first germinations to start in about 70 days.

[QUOTE=Hatgirl;752610]Hah! And with that, one of the batch of unsprouted tomato seeds that prompted this post pops up on day 11. It heard me! :D[/QUOTE]

There you go! You never know.

[QUOTE=ddsack;752614 Almost always, seems like the old ones pop up right after I've sown the 2nd batch.:dizzy:[/QUOTE]

Isn't that the truth?!

2 weeks for some of them,even out of a same batch that were 5 days.
Made that mistake last year,gave up too soon and I ended up with
mystery plants from soil I tossed aside unlabeled.

I re-seed long before I give up. Once I had some seeds sprout 30 days after sowing. But the process usually goes like this:
Seed, wait about 10 days (1 seed per cell)

2nd seeding, wait about a week (1-2 seed per cell)

3rd seeding, (2-3 seeds per cell) wait 5 days, and repeat every 5 days until I run out of seeds or patience.

This year I'm only waiting 7 days max before re-seeding, and upping the number of seeds per cell. I ended up planting NAR 2 months late last year because I couldn't get a viable seedling.

I start seeds in clumps,like in nature.
As the seeds pop and get too crowded I separate, tossing the original soil aside.
I don't have the patience or space for 1 seed per cell route.
Sometimes I save seeds on a paper plate and plant the entire plate.
Then I end up with a chia pet of all tomato plants.Survival of the fittest mode.
May the best plant win.

The methods and "hardware" I use (seedling tray and plastic cups and mix) are not "recoverable" so I figure I can just let it go and tend to it like any other planting. Most of the time I'll start more at about day 21 (if I have more) and keep the original in a separate grouping of starts.

Last year was a total disaster for me when I encountered a bag of mix that killed everything. Replanting was good and hope was abounding. But then I had to have surgery and after getting a small percentage of my starts into the garden, even those didn't do well.

But, I've had seeds wait until week 7 to germinate. Patience is the first skill all gardeners must possess to keep our sanity.

I always start the older seeds first to give them a chance to come up with the fresh ones.

[QUOTE=Hatgirl;752607]Most of my tomato seedlings pop up around day five. But some can be a little longer. How long do all of you wait before you accept a seedling isn't going to sprout?[/QUOTE]

Never give up..

Some tomato seeds pop up after weeks or even months!
I get surprise babies every season..

If my starting mix is warm, 80F, will begin to add some supplemental seeds around day 6 or so. Very impatient.