A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Catnip from seed wont sprout.......

I sprinkled about 2,000 catnip seeds in a pot on my deck and finally got about 20 seedlings to pop up. I was getting frustrated too, but so far they are doing great.

My mom has that stuff growing up on its own every year in a big pot. It reseeds itself. She gave me a pot of it the cat goes nuts for it! I just planted some in a pot outdoors with the leftover seeds just to see what happens, and give it to the kitty cat if it grows well.

We harvested some catnip flowers and seed that had been growing wild in the Great Lakes Region summer 2006. From the dried flowers come numerous small black seeds if rolled gently between the fingers. The seeds are collected and put in the garden soil in Southern Texas, lightly covered and kept damp, in December 2006. (There is no freezing weather at this latitude.) Only one catnip plant emerges a few weeks later. The plant begins to grow to about one half inch. Then, I showed my cat the plant a few days ago. MISTAKE. Today January 30, 2007 I notice the plant is chewed off. It will probably not grow back as only two sets of leaves had appeared beyond the cotyledons...and they are gone now.

Today I took some time to look up germination procedures and I am going to try again inside the house under controlled conditions.

Catnip does seem more difficult to germinate than other common small seed plants. Probably because I covered it with too much soil. So far from what I have read online, and in this forum, it is best not to cover the seeds too much if at all.

Be sure to post your results, we all would be interested. Once you set the plants outdoors, you might want to make a barricade or place wire around the plants until they get established well before removing the wire...Once established well it will not be a problem with the cat munching the leaves.

I grow it from seed, my cat cannot stand it...lol Bur my moms 5 cats love to get it...

If nothing else, I find comfort in numbers (I guess misery does love company after all!). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has had difficulty germinating catnip! I've been trying for 2 or 3 years to germinate the stuff in a pot but it has never sprouted. I've gone threw 3 different packets (by different manufacturers), several potting soil varieties, and still nothing. I finally ordered some from Valueseeds.com and sprinkled on top of the potting soil, placed on top of the fridge with a cover of plastic wrap and a rubberband to hold it on. Much to my amazement 2 days later there were 2 sprouts! I immediately uncovered and put on the kitchen table, where my cat promptly ate one of the sprouts! (bad cat! bad cat!) Now I keep it up on the fridge if the cat is in the house.

Do the seedlings (with those first set of leaves) need a grow light? Can they ever perform photosynthesis?

I find catnip really easy to grow from seed. I have always had luck. And I think I used Ferry Morse seed as well. I live in southern California and I just put it in regular old unfertilized soil and it grew and still continues to grow even though the temperature have dropped below freezing. The plant is really hardy too and impossible to kill unless you dont give it any water for a long long time. Like I did.