Chives are hardy bulbous perennial herbs related to lilies and onions. They are a beautiful addition to your garden. You can grow chives by simply buying healthy plants from a nursery or garden center and transplanting them into your garden, or by sowing seeds. If you are trying to grow chives from seeds, you might run into a problem of them not germinating. In this post, we will discuss why chive seeds are not germinating, how to germinate chive seeds successfully and how to sow and care for chives seeds.
The main reasons for chive seeds not germinating include using the wrong soil mix, old seeds, under or overwatering, too much light. Other causes of chive seeds not germinating might be pests eating the seeds, covering seeds with too much soil, sowing, and keeping chive seeds in cold conditions.
How to germinate chive seeds?
When to sow chive seeds?
To grow chives from seed, always use fresh seeds from the previous harvest. Or even better – using this year’s crop. Old seeds that are not fresh might fail to germinate. You can sow chive seeds all year round, but they are best planted in early spring. Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) often germinate from seed more easily than garden chives (Allium schoenoprasum).
They are considered a cool-season plant, so avoid sowing in summer. If you sow in summer, they are likely to go dormant due to harsh temperatures and not grow until cool weather comes again. It is best to sow them indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost. Sowing chive seeds at around end of March is often ideal.
Where and how to sow chive seeds
Chives grow very well in most growing zones, planted both indoors and outdoors. Sowing seeds indoors gives you the best chance of successful germination, as you can control all the environmental factors required for new seedlings.
You have several options if you want to sow chive seeds. For example, you can sow the seeds in small peat pots made of compressed peat moss like this. You will also need a tray to carry peat pots. When they are ready to go into a larger space, you can plant the pot into the garden with the actual pot, because they are biodegradable. The fact that you don’t need to transplant seedlings later is a big advantage too, as you will avoid shocking your seedlings.
Along with this, you can use cell flats with a tray like this, which have many small pot-like cells to sow 1-2 seeds in each. Those cell flats have a drainage tray on the bottom. Most have a dome, for creating humidity. You can also place a seedling mat under this cell flat & tray system if required to promote germination. What is more, you can reuse them again and again.
Other chive sowing requirements:
- Chives prefer direct sun and partial shade (at least 6 hours) and need moist, rich, well-draining soil. You should add organic compost to the soil at the time of planting to promote robust growth throughout the season.
- If you are planting in the garden, the soil temperature should be between 60º and 68ºF (15º and 20ºC) to ensure the best germination and growth of chive seeds.
- Chives prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 (can test with pH meter), but there’s no need to think too much about it unless you are an experienced grower. You can just get balanced mixes.
How to sow chive seeds? Step by step guide
Fill your planting trays or pots with soil and gently tap them to settle the soil. The soil should settle between 6-13mm, depending on the depth of the pots. Gently water the soil to make it moist and stick to the pots. Scatter chive seeds on the surface of the soil. Sow about 2-4 seeds per inch of soil.
Press the seeds slightly, so they touch the soil. Avoid covering seeds with soil, or they might fail to germinate without any light. You can also use a plastic cover or similar. This will create humid conditions inside the tray cells for seeds to germinate.
Then use a spray bottle to gently sprinkle water. Then cover them with a dome (if using cell flats and a dome) to retain moisture during germination. Place the planter or pot in a warm place (but away from the sun) with a temperature of about 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius) and wait for germination. Keep the soil moist.
Remove the plastic cover or a dome when seeds have germinated. This can usually take about 14-30 days (but can take even up to a few months!). Then place the trays or pots in a sunny location.
When they are 4-6 weeks old or around 2″ (5 cm) tall, plant them outdoors at the beginning of warm spring days. You can also continue to grow them indoors, ensuring 6 hours of sunlight or supplementary light per day. (6–8″/15-20 cm) pots are optimal for small 2″ seedlings.
If you decide to grow your chives outdoors after seeds germinate and seedlings are above 2″ tall, make sure to harden them off first. This is the process of preparing young tender seedlings for environmental fluctuations. For hardening off, take your seedling outside and leave out for a full day, and take them back in for the night. Place them in a shaded area. There should be no wind (if there is, move them to a different spot or place them in a box or similar). Do this for around a week before transplanting outdoors, if that’s your plan.
In summer, keep your plants out of direct sunlight. Make sure to keep the soil moist all the time. You can grow them successfully in pots, indoors. Chives produce leaves from spring to late autumn. Keep the pots on south-facing windows and provide around 6 hours of sunlight per day. You can also use a full-spectrum grow light like this for around 8-10 hours per day.
How long do chive seeds take to germinate?
It takes about 20-30 days, but up to 3 months for chive seeds to germinate. If conditions are favorable, your chive seeds will germinate much faster, in as little as 2 weeks.
Growing chives from seed can prove more difficult than growing them from ready-bought plants. You need to be patient while growing chives from seeds, as it can take up to a few months for it to form a clump that you can harvest and divide. However, once your chive plant is bigger, it is hard to kill the plant.
You will have to divide the clump every 3-4 years, so you can have a continuous harvest (they are perennial too). Like many perennials, chives will be lazy the first year, but then will pick up the growth.
Do chive seeds need light to germinate?
No, chive seeds don’t need any light to germinate. Leave them in an area without any direct light, but once you have seedlings, they will need light to grow.
Why are my chive seeds not germinating?
If your chive seeds are not germinating, then there may be a number of factors for this. Let’s discuss the possible factors why chive seeds are not germinating below.
Reason 1: Wrong temperatures
In general, chive seeds will require a certain temperature range to germinate. Outside of this range, they might fail to germinate. Chive seeds, for example, require soil temperatures of between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15-21 degrees Celsius) in order to germinate. Much hotter or colder, and they will either stay dormant or die.
So if you live in a colder area, use a heat mat to provide your seeds with the warmth they need. What is more, it is important to keep the seed cells/pots away from direct sunlight! Until chive seeds germinate, keep them in a warm place, but away from direct light.
If you leave your planters or pots completely open, they will absorb more heat and allow water to evaporate faster. This will in turn, cause the soil to dry out and result in poor or no germination. To prevent this, use clear plastic bags to wrap planters/pots or get cell planters with a tray and a dome like this. This will help retain the moisture needed for germination. Be sure to remove the plastic wrap or dome and spray water twice a day, especially when it is hot. Keep the soil moist, but not wet.
Reason 2: Using the wrong type of soil
When germinating chive seeds, make sure to use specifically designed soil for germination. That’s because seeds need specifically formulated soil to help them sprout. This seed-starter mix soil is often high in organic matter (such as peat, vermiculite etc.) to help with moisture retention. The seed-starter mix should not be rich in nutrients, but rather provide suitable conditions for chive seeds to germinate and grow.
If you use general potting soil, your chive seeds might not germinate. That’s because chive seeds and other seeds need fine-textured soil to germinate successfully. So, if you are not having luck germinating chive seeds, you might look into using special soil, like this one.
Reason 3: Too little or too much water
Constant moisture is required for chives seeds to germinate. In order to germinate successfully, the seeds must absorb a lot of water. Only when they have absorbed sufficient water, cellular metabolic processes and growth can take place. When seeds absorb water, hydrolytic enzymes begin the process of converting stored food resources into chemicals necessary for the processes involved in germination.
So if you notice poor germination or no germination, it is more likely that you have not provided enough water for the seeds to germinate. You must always keep the soil with chive seeds moist, but not wet. Too little water will have a significant impact on seed germination. If the soil in your planting trays or pots is too dry, you should be able to tell easily. It is best to cover the trays with a plastic cover with holes or a dome, until the seeds germinate to retain enough moisture.
However, not only low water, but also overwatering will result in poor or no germination of chive seeds. If they are waterlogged, the seeds can easily die. So if you overwater them, let the seed growing medium dry out. However, if the seeds have died out due to overwatering, it may be too late to save them and you may have to start over again.
If you plant your chive seeds too deep, plus overwater the soil, then the seeds may just rot. That’s especially true if you sow and keep them in cold conditions. You can check for chive seed rot by digging up some seeds and squeezing them. If they are soft or partially rotted, this is the cause.
Reason 4: Too much light
Some seeds need light to germinate, while some other seeds are hindered by light. Chive seeds don’t need light to be germinating; in fact, they need warm but low-lit conditions for germination. If you sow seeds outdoors at a time when they receive too much light during their germination period, they are more likely not to germinate.
The ideal times to sow chive seeds indoors are late winter or the beginning of spring. Let them germinate for 2-3 weeks. After this time, expose the seedlings to bright light and let them grow.
Reason 5: Using old seeds
Your chive seeds are only viable for a certain period of time, after which they have a poor germination rate. If you use seeds that are too old for sowing, you are more likely to get poor or no germination. So make sure you use seeds from this year’s crop, or at least, the last year’s crop. Older the seeds = fewer chances of successful germination.
Seeds sometimes can be stored poorly, causing them to lose viability too quickly. Make sure you store any unused chive seeds in a dry, airtight container in a cool place. Excessive heat will kill the seeds. Humidity (even high humidity) can cause seeds to mold or otherwise lose their viability.
What is more, mice, voles, birds, and wireworms can all steal and eat your chive seeds. Make sure the seeds are still in the ground and not eaten by birds or squirrels.
Reason 6: Planting seeds too deep into the soil
As mentioned earlier, you must not cover your chive seeds with soil. That’s because they need light to germinate. Covering them might mean that they will either take much longer to germinate, or won’t germinate at all. Being covered with soil might also mean that your chive seeds can start rotting and fail to germinate.
Reason 7: Diseases due to overwatering or lack of air exchange
Damping-off disease can affect chive seeds before they germinate. Damping-off occurs when pathogens that thrive in overly moist conditions start growing and killing the seeds before they can germinate. So, avoid overwatering when sowing seeds for germination.
Use a disease-free, clean soil with a high organic matter content to avoid disease infestation. Make sure there are holes in a plastic cover or a dome to allow proper air exchange to take place.
Conclusion
Chives are one of the herbs worth growing in the garden. It is probably one of the easiest perennial herbs to grow either in pots or outdoors. Chives take up very little space, and the whole plant can be eaten from top to bottom. Growing chives from seed is almost as easy. Sow the seeds indoors in early spring, and then either move them outdoors, or keep growing indoors.
Be sure to keep the compost moist. The seeds will germinate if provided optimal conditions. Chives need certain conditions to germinate and grow, such as optimal temperatures, rich, moist, fertile soil, and viable seeds. Make sure you plant seeds at the right depth. Seeds have a limited life expectancy – over time the viability of all seeds decreases. If you take these measures seriously, you will get lots of success germinating chive seeds.
If your chive seeds are not germinating, start eliminating possible causes one by one. You will possibly need to change your techniques supplies, but you will learn along the way. And be patient – chive seeds can sometimes take a longer time to germinate.