This trial was to see how much difference bottom heat makes to germination speed and rate. That it makes a difference wasn’t really in doubt but I am interested to see how much.

In the heated group, two varieties are germinated, pricked out and growing on happily as per the last update. 

Zephyranthes and aquilegia greenapples

The third variety on the heated team, Anthemis, is doing nothing at all. My various RHS guides say it should be sown in spring at 15 degrees. On that basis the unheated one might be expected to germinate first. The seeds might be duds of course.

In the unheated corner, the Aquilegia are germinated nicely. I must admit I haven’t checked them for a while, too much going on, but let’s call it the 19th for 5 germinations. 

The Zephyranthes, on the left, also have 2 or 3 germinated, hard to see in the photo, but not 5 so we won’t count those yet.  Nothing doing for the Anthemis here either. 

Remembering they were sown on the same day, here is a comparison between heated and unheated.

Aquilegia greenapples. Heated on the right, unheated on the left.

For the Aquilegia the heat has accelerated germination by 2 weeks, roughly, 3 weeks vs 5 weeks. I’ll leave the unheated team to it for a couple of weeks before judging germination rate.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with an update.