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seeds Douglah germination rates

I got Douglah seeds from 4 different sources this season (1 commercial, 3 from the forums), and germination rates have been horrible. Out of 30 seeds tried so far, 9 have germinated. I use the tried and true moist paper towel in baggy at 80 F. My average rate for the 24 varieties I'm growing this season is somewhere between 80-90%, I don't think I've ever had a variety be under 50% (certainly not when obtained from that many different sources). Have I just been very unlucky, or are other people experiencing similar results? I figured that maybe since it's one of the rarer and more sought after varieties, there's a lot more junk seed going around.
 
They are eratic, I have had some pop up in 5-7 days and others from the same batch of seed take anything up top a month. Hang in there.
 
Damn I've gotta get me some Douglah's. Everything I germinated took around 3-6 weeks.
I also had a 100% fail on 1 variety but I let Neil know that I tried 3 different methods and none germinated and he sent me another lot of seeds.
I've decided to keep them for next year though and I'll try them again with some other varieties.
 
I planted 6 douglah seeds (that's all I had) and had 0% germination. Gonna try to get some more and give it another shot though. Did the same thing as I do with all other seeds and usually have 80 to 90% germination rates but not with the Douglah. Just keep trying is all we can do!

Charles
 
Of four I did using the paper towel method, one popped in about a week, another in about 2 weeks, and the others about 4 weeks.
 
I'm at 0% germination on these after about 7 days. For some reason the bhut jolokia seeds I saved from last year are easily doing the best out of about 20 varieties that I started (all chinenses except for 2 baccatums varieties). I had nearly 100% germination on them after 7 days (12 seeds) and I'm at 100% now after almost 2 weeks. I really hope I get a few Douglahs, it's one of the ones I've been looking forward to the most.

Out of the first 72-cell tray I planted naga morich is the only one that's still at 0% germination (almost 2 weeks). I won't be too upset if none of them come up though, the seeds were freebies and I have bhut jolokia, bih jolokia, assam bhut, and dorset naga seedlings anyway. Not much difference among all of these it seems.
 
I have had poor germination rates w/ my douglah seeds as well. I had only one of ten sprout after about 2 weeks. I wonder if there is more to saving seeds than just letting them dry before storing?
 
This is my first year growing these peppers. I received seeds from a member of this forum (Much thanks TCH!!!). They were planted the beginning of January, most sprouted after 1.5wks and as of today germination count is 7 out of 9. Maybe it is the way the seeds are kept. I did nothing special with regards to germination. Seeds went straight from the package into the dirt.
 
I've found that Douglah pods need to really ripen for seeds to be fully mature. Its easy to think pods are ripe at the first sign of color change, but leaving these pods longer seems to help flavor as well as seed development/maturity
 
+1 Potawie, really for any seed from a fruit when we want to ensure germination. I think of it much like a woman who is 8 months pregnant - she probably looks like she's ready to give birth, but she's still got a bit of time yet before the baby's really ready. So color change is like the 8-month mark, but we need to leave the pods alone a bit longer for optimal seed development.
 
Yes of course any pods should be fully ripe for seed harvesting but my main point was that the Douglahs specifically can appear to be ripe way before seeds are fully mature and developed, and my guess is that picking pods early is one reason why so many people may be having germination problems with douglahs and not with other types
 
I've harvested my Douglahs when they were rusty red and haven't had any germination problems thus far running a few germination tests, but they do get stored in the fridge for quite a while b4 planting.
 
I felt obligated to do some germ testing since I distributed seeds earlier in the year. I chose my runtiest seeds to see if they were any good. These seeds were placed into a towel on 1/18. I used no bottom heat. They were placed into a drawer in a room at 65-70 F. I checked on them every few days. By the third day, I got tiny hooks. 1/31 marks the end of my test since many have shed their seed coats.

As of 1/31, 17 out of 20.
germ01.jpg


I introduced mold as you can see in the pic. This is the main reason I don't use the towel method often. But I was pleasantly surprised to see dark seeds germinate well. The towel method also works on helping seedlings shed those hard hats. The seedlings only have a simple taproot at this point, so it's easy to pull them gently out of the potting mix and into a moist towel for a couple days. Once the seedlings are free, replant them.

Good luck with those seeds.
 
I purchased mine from Cappy.
Germination rate of 100% in both coir and pro mix bx. They germinated faster and are growing faster than all other seeds I've started.
 
I started mine pretty early August and they were very erratic with the last ones taking up to 8-10 weeks to germinate. I didnt have much in the way of propergation equipment then and the ambient temps were a fair bit colder. So I am putting it down to that. I havent had any douglah seed to try in this warm weather but most of my other seeds are germinating well now so I presume the douglahs would too. Out of all of the many varieties I have Douglahs and Naga Jolokias so seem to be the slowest to establish and start real vegetative growth.
 
got mine from pepper lover and out of 5 that I planted 4 sprouted but they were all doing it at tier own rate, some 1 week and others as long as 6 weeks!
 
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