Growing Solanum Species From Seed

Solanum, the species rather than the hybrids can be best thought of as 'proto' tomatoes.  Thats not to say they will germinate as easily as tomatoes, they won't, but in essence they need very similar growing conditions.

Myth 1

They are tomatoes arent they, they will germinate rapidly and easily if I just sow them like tomatoes...

 

No they wont, they will sulk and languish in the soil and may not even sprout the first year if you just do this.  They need pre-treatment, a good soak, preferrably in Salt-Petre solution, but warm water if changed a few times is almost as good.

 

Myth 2

They are annuals, so they will crop the same year no matter what.

No they arent. They are perennials, they will crop the same year from an early sowing, but if sown later, then they should be overwintered frost free and will crop well in subsequent years.  Early sowings may need extra light, they certainly need extra warmth, but if you cannot do this, then sow them later and accept they may not produce fruit in the first season.  The chances are they will flower the first season, but any fruit set may or may not ripen before the shorter days put paid to that.

Pre-treatment

Soak the seeds in warm water, with or without salt-petre, but if it is just plain water, change it every few hours. 

Sowing

Sow on the surface of a good quality seed raising mix and lightly covered with the mix or with vermiculite.  Water once, then place somewhere warm, close and light.  Temperatures of around 24 - 28 Deg C work best, much cooler and they wont germinate, much warmer runs the risk of the soil drying out leading to a crop failure.  In ideal conditions they may take up to 6 weeks or more to come up - see they are not 'tomatoes' (even though by Genus they are).  The germination will be sporadic and uneven, which is a natural defence against a crop failure due to adverse natural conditions such as a drought...

Growing on

Grow on like tomatoes, you can grow them in pots till they are big enough to go in a grow bag or larger pot.  If in a growbag, you will need to transplant it to a pot for overwintering as the growbag will subject the roots to too much cold possibly killing your plant.

 

Feed with a tomato fertiliser  and when the fruit has set, double the amount.  Germination to first fruit can take up to 8 months, so be patient the first year.

Seed Growing Keys

When looking at growing seeds there are many keys to success.

In a lot of cases there are rules of thumb that will give you a degree of success providing you provide the basics.   

• Seed (must be viable) and prepared correctly
• Pre-treatment (where needed)
• Soil
• Light
• Warmth
• Water
  
• Time of year (Season)
  
• Germination Time
  

 

One of the most neglected basics is time of year.  Unless you can provide year round light, warmth and care, do not sow seeds out of season.  Another one is patience.  Seeds do work to a clock, just not yours.  If you dont allow sufficient time or you are impatient to get going, then you will not have a lot of luck with seed growing.

Season

Season, or more properly growing season, is taken to mean when the soil is warming and the days are lengthening towards the summer highs.  Indoors this means anytime after the winter solstice, as the days are lengthening nicely for the seedlings to subsequently grow away.  Outdoors it is when the soil is sufficiently warm for seeds to come up (rule of thumb, if you see weed seedlings coming up, its time to plant your seeds).  Yes some seeds can be 'tricked' by artificial heat or artificial light, but not all can often appearing to have inbuilt calenders and will only germinate at a certain time of year.

 

Timing

The time it takes seeds to germinate varies wildly. In some Cactus this can be a little as 18 hours, in some plants such as palms and hardwood shrubs in can be up to 18 months.   There are things you can do to speed things up, but where a minimum time is quoted, this is the minimum for treated seeds.  There is no point expecting anything before that point, or being disapointed if you have to wait till the maximum time.  Thats just nature, so work with it, not against it.  Rule of thumb - never give up unless you can see that the seeds have clearly failed - ie they have rotted.