Germinating courgette and squash

I sowed about 30 seeds of assorted courgette and squash last Monday and not a single one has shown up. I have known them appear within days in the past so I think I should be seeing some sign by now.

They've been in the house, in the shade, in a heated propagator that has been on at night but switched off in the day as it has been so warm.

The seed was all from last year or even before.

Any idea what might have gone wrong? Too warm? Seed too old? Am I too impatient?

 

Possibly seed too old, or not properly ripe when taken last year?

 

I'd give it a bit longer Madahhlia. I recently sowed some two year old courgette seeds I had left over in much the same way as you (in a heated propagator indoors, in the shade) and I'd just about given up on them when a few began to emerge three or four days ago.

I've just checked the sowing date on the labels, they were sown on 3rd May so I make that about 11/12 days from sowing.

I'd wait until next weekend before you give up on them.

 

Rip one of those seeds out and look at it. Then rip it open and see what is going on inside. That is the best way to find out if something is still alive.

 

Erm, well, I have dug one or two up to check it out. If they squish when you squeeze then it's curtains, for sure. These are not quite at that stage but don't have a feel of life about them somehow!

 

Commercial squash seeds very often seem tiny and poor quality (+broken bits).

Don't "rip", carefully tease your way down using a seed label. If you see the slightest sign of a root emerging immediately cover it back up again. The longest old squash seeds should take to germinate is 3 weeks, and even then some will have increased occurrences of distorted leaf shoots rendering them unusable.

I've just successfully germinated some 8 year old marrow seeds (saved in 2006), but it took 3 seeds per pot, heated propagators, several weeks of carefully maintaining moisture levels, and carefully teasing seed casings off the sprouting seeds.

 

Ah well, panic over, some have germinated while I've been away.

They're all leggy now. No pleasing some folk.

Interesting remarks, Scrungee, it hadn't occurred to me that you might get a less good plant from an old seed, as long as I got them germinated I thought that was the main hurdle to get past. I quite often have to pick off seed cases no matter what sort of seeds I'm using, it hadn't occurred to me that was related to freshness.

 

I always 'chit' my courgette and ridge cucumber seed. Damp kitchen paper in a sealed box, as soon as the small root appears I pot them up. This method allows me to be sure that the seed is viable and I only pot up growing plants.

 

I've never known them germinate and not have an least a couple of inches of "stalk" ... I don't chit them on damp kitchen paper any more, I use a small seed tray (and thus shallow) and prick out immediately they germinate. Chitting them doesn't allow planting deep, to bury the stem up to seed leaves, which germinating "conventionally" does

 

I sowed some marrow seeds saved in 2006 a few weeks ago. About 1/4 grew OK (actually less because I sowed 3 per pot) but took a long time to germinate,1/4 germinated then died, 1/4 rotted (all 3 seeds in the pot) and the others that germinated grew distorted/do strange things like wanting to grow down into the seed compost/only had one leaf and no growing point/etc.

More light, less heat.

 

i would have said wait a bit. I sowed peppers and green beans about 6 weeks ago, nothing came of them, so I added more seeds in each seed pot....... now I have tonnes as they all came up bahaha!

 

Had a rootle around and found these examples from those 8 year old seeds, a seedling with 2 leaves but no stem or growing point and another like that but with only one leaf



EDIT: Found another mutant seedling

 

Hmm. I suppose you did well to get anything out of 8 year old seed. Worth observing what other types of seed of varying ages do.

I know. I left them indoors whilst away, in a shady corner otherwise they would have been dried or fried by the sun coming through the patio doors. But then they germinated and tried to get to the patio door. The moral of this is 'don't go on holiday in May'!