Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: Kristl Walek on February 24, 2011, 04:14:19 PM
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I am sure many of you know this already, but am posting for the other primula lovers who might not.
Generally speaking, a very high percentage of primula species are easy, warm germinators.
In fact, very, very few require cold.
While germination can happen quite quickly with a few species (in the first 2 weeks, or less), the majority seem to sprout around the 3-5 week mark, with 4 weeks being the norm.
If you are in a hurry, or need/want to speed up the germination time and have the added benefit of higher rates (more consistency in germination), treat with GA-3 at sowing. Doing this generally produces very even across-the-board germination in the 10 day frame.
I have just recently sown about 75+ species and this morning (at about the 10-12 day mark) 90% are a sea of green.
When dealing with small seed like primula, I prefer to mix up a spray bottles' worth of GA-3 with water, surface sow the seed, and just spritz over the sowing.
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Good to know! Especially for 'snow birds' wanting to escape winter here in Ontario, Canada for a few weeks and head to 25C weather in Florida.
I'll wait until April to sow a few packs of Primula using GA-3....purchased in 2003 (GN) and still potent!
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Hi Sharon,
A warm welcome to the Forum---I hope you will enjoy it here as much as I have as part of this large, international group of extremely warm, knowledgeable gardeners. Representative Canadian members are still few and far between, so I love watching the numbers grow.
Kristl