Sowing Petunia seeds

Last year I had bought Petunia seedlings from a nursery. Those seedlings had grown into the most beautiful Petunias. I completely fell in love with them. So I decided to save some of the seeds and try to grow them myself this year.
After the Petunia flower shrivels and dries up one can pull it off easily. That exposes the small, dried, brown seed pods which are full of tiny black seeds. One can pry the pod open easily and shake out the tiny dot like seeds. I managed to save seeds from all the different colored Petunias.

For the sowing medium, I used Soilrite, which is a commercially available multipurpose soilless compost and soil conditioner. I put some of the Soilrite in a bucket and then added water to soak it.

I filled the seed tray and a couple of shallow plastic containers with the moist Soilrite and evened out the surface using my fingers.I sprinkled the Petunis seeds on the surface of the Soilrite and patted the seeds into place with a gentle to and fro motion. Petunia seeds are surface sown as they are very tiny and not able to push through a heavy layer of soil. Finally, I covered the seed tray and containers with a clear plastic film which helps trap the moisture.
The Petunia seeds have begun to sprout in the picture below.

I also sowed Marigold and Pansy seeds in the tray. Once some seedlings began sprouting I propped up the plastic film using toothpicks so that the seedlings did not touch the plastic. And when most of them had sprouted I removed the film completely.