How to Germinate Datura

Datura is a beautiful and fragrant annual vine with trumpet-shaped flowers. It is not widely available as a bedding plant so if you want to grow it you have to start it from seed. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to germinate datura seeds.

Emery board or sandpaper 2-inch seed starting pots Vermiculite Large shallow container, such as an old cake pan Heated seed starting pad Fluorescent grow lights

Instructions

- 1
  Chill the seeds. Put them in a small jar and put it in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. This simulates cold winter weather and, when you remove them from the refrigerator, the seeds think it is spring.
- 2
  Nick the seed. Rub each seed against an emery board type of nail file or a piece of medium grade sandpaper until it makes a mark on the seed. This small nick or "wound" in the seed helps speed germination.
- 3
  Fill 2-inch starter pots with a seed-starting medium such as vermiculite. Sow the nicked datura seeds one to a pot, about 1/8 inch deep. Gently firm the soil over the seeds.
- 4
  Place the starter pots into a larger shallow container. Add water to the larger container so that the water comes about an inch up the sides of the starter pots. Allow them to sit in the water until the surface of the vermiculite looks damp. Remove the starter pots from the water and allow them to drain.
- 5
  Provide bottom heat to improve germination rates. Place the starter pots on a heated seed-starting pad set to 80 degrees. Datura germinate much more reliably when they are kept at a warm temperature.
- 6
  Move the plants under fluorescent grow lights as soon as they germinate. Set the lights about 2 inches above the tops of the seedlings and raise the level of the lights as the seedlings grow.
- 7
  Harden off seedlings for two weeks prior to planting out. Plant out after the average date of your last spring frost.

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