Back in August, I sowed some Verbena bonariensis seeds. I got the seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds and followed their guidelines and tips (as best I could) for sowing. To break dormancy, Johnny’s website says they need 2-4 weeks with 86° days and cool 60° nights. I had no way to mimic this, so I put the seeds in my grow room (house temperature around a consistent 72-74°).
I have grow lights, but I didn’t turn them on. I used Jiffy Seed Starting Mix with a little extra perlite mixed in and did not do my usual sprinkle of vermiculite on top to keep them moist. Johnny’s site said to keep them on the dry side until emergence. So I gave them just a little water and forgot about them for a few days. I did not use a humidity dome, and my home probably had around 45-50% humidity levels around this time.
I honestly wasn’t expecting much, especially after doing a Google search prior to starting the seeds and seeing so many others having no luck with germinating them.
To my surprise, they started germinating just 4 days after I sowed them, so I turned on my grow light! It’s set to be on around 8 hours a day.
I had sowed 3 seeds per cell, so a total of 36. I potted up 20 seedlings on 9/4/24, just 2 1/2 weeks after sowing them.
And I started hardening them off on a table outside.
They went outside permanently Sunday a week ago (Sept 22nd) and got a light dose of fertilizer. I used about 1/8 tsp of Dyna Gro Foliage Pro in a quart of water, and this is what they look like now!
I will give them another dose of the Dyna Gro Foliage Pro fertilizer again this weekend.