Forgot to mention, started soaking 121 Datura seeds in a weak tea solution after nicking the side of the seeds Feb. 24, 2011. 11 differant varieties. Some are showing signs of sprouting.
Jerry

WOWZZZA!!! You have been Bizzy!! It is sooooo very cool once they poke their little heads out... GREAT JOB!! I only have a hand full of seedlings this yr.. BUT I am really looking forward to Spring and all of the Wonder it brings!!

Kylie

Sounds like you are off to a good start. I haven't found brug seedlings to be terribly susceptible to damping off or any of the other problems that can affect seedlings. I've never heard of using green tea but I have heard of using chamomile tea as a fungicide. Thanks for the info. That will save me from having to buy more chamomile as I have green tea. I wonder if any tea would work?

I was kind of surprised that I had such a high germination rate from my EF seeds. They are so small compared to most brug seeds

Hey Karen,
Didn't know if brug seeds would be susceptible to damping off or any other seedling problems so I used the weak green tea mixture because I didn't want to take any chances. Use the tea mixture on all my seeds. For me it greatly improves my germination success IMO. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Any tea will work as long as it isn't instant. I've used black, green and chamomile. I have read that meat tenderizer will break down seed coats also and not harm the seed inside. Never tried this though.
Your EF seeds have not germinated yet. Just said they all had seeds inside the coats. They are very small seeds and hard to peel off the coverings. Had to use a large stationary lighted magnifying device to peel off the cover. Hope they do sprout. Thanks,
Jerry

They were a pain to peel but I didn't have to use a magnifying glass. lol I just peel as much of the cork as I can easily remove. I think I started the EF x DD seeds about 4-5 weeks ago and put another batch from a different pod in a couple weeks later. I had some sprout in about 10 days and others staggered over the next several weeks. I still have seeds coming up from what I think is the second batch. I just planted them to test germination and don't know if I'll grow any of these out yet. I'll plant more towards the end of Apr when I have more space and will be home to care for them.

Great job Jerry - you will soon have a brugmansia wood!
A have a few on a windows place too!

Looks like you are going to have a lot of nice brug seedlings.
I planted some seeds that I got from Brenda last summer. I
overwintered them in my sunroom. Unfortunately I won't know
which one is which, because my niece was babysitting and the
kids took the labels out. Maybe Brenda will know the difference,
I'm expecting flowers this year.

I have spider mites on all my brugs. Some are taking it better than
others. A few have crusty looking stems.

I soaked mine on Jan. 20 and planted them on 21st. When they hadn't sprouted in a couple of weeks I did some research and reading. I didn't know you had to peel them first, so dug them up on Feb. 10, peeled them then replanted them. Finally saw sprouts by Feb. 28th. Almost all have sprouted now.
Clare

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I didn't know you had to peel the seeds. That must be why I have had such poor germination. Thanks, I'll do that from now on. My wife has a sprouter. I think I am going to make some little screen boxes to keep them separated and try that. It sprouts her seeds really well, why not mine?
Bill