Growing Machine Cleaned Seed...

Machine cleaned mimulus seed is full of chaff, because part or all of the plant was ground up with the seed. It may be difficult to even see the actual seed in such a mixture. Commercially produced bush mimulus seed is usually machine cleaned in this way because it would be very costly to do otherwise. The advantage is quantity, as bush mimulus seed of this type may be purchased *by the pound*. The quality of machine cleaned seed may vary from one producer to another, but a reputable producer should be able to tell you technical specifics about the seed, such as the amount of germination to expect and the percentage of actual seed in the mix. If you want to grow common wild bush mimulus varieties, and want a lot of plants, this may be the cheapest way to do it.

Because of all the chaff in the seed mix, the seedling tray method described in the section on growing hand cleaned seed won't work very well. Instead, I suggest using a group of small pots, peat pot strip, or other convenient method. Fill the tray with potting mix (Supersoil is highly recommended). Place a 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of seed/chaff mixture on top of each compartment. water well with a fine mist. Leave the tray outside, in a waterproof dish, and water it daily from the bottom. You can even leave some water in the bottom dish all the time if you want. You should be aware that seed grown in this way may be spread around by the wind, and you could find varieties getting mixed up or seedlings coming up in odd places.

Seed grown in this way will be much slower to germinate, because the chaff acts like a mulch. Do not use bottom heat, cover the tray or place in a green house, as high humidity will invite mold. Expect seedlings to appear in about 2 to 4 weeks by this method. If the seed is of good grade you will probably wind up with dozens of closely spaced seedlings in each compartment, like grass. Just grow them on for a while, and then cut or break each compartment into quarters for transplanting. You can always thin out the seedlings later on if necessary.

If you purchased a large quantity of machine cleaned seed, the actual seed may have settled out to the bottom of your package. In that case you might obtain better results by using seed mixture from the bottom of your package than from the top.

[updated 7/15/2000]