Topic: pre-chitting sweetcorn, pumpkin and winter squash

[cornykev]

Cheers Jeannine.  :-*    ;D ;D ;D

[Orfy]

Is it too late to start the chitting now?

[thespade08]

All this talk of pre-chitting,i am growing sweetcorn,pumpkins and squashes for the first time i never pre-chitted mine
and have had 100% germination i,m wondering whether its worth it,or it was begginers luck  ???

[jennym]

Haven't ever pre-chitted sweetcorn & squash I don't think, and they have usually germinated well. Think if the warmth & moisture is right for them they come up fine.

[Jeannine]

I never pre chit actually, other than parsnips. I find the corn and squash grow just fine without as long as they are not kept too wet. XX Jeannine

[GrannieAnnie]

I've been converted to pre-chitting many things after joining this site. It seems like less bending over, no thinning, plus things get started earlier and don't rot in the cold ground before they germinate.

[caroline7758]

Orfy, I pre-chitted corn, squash, and courgette earlier this week and sowed them yesterday. Had a problem I hadn't had before- the little shoots grew through the kitchen roll and I'm worried I may have damaged them as I separated them.

[Deb P]

I have tried pre-chitting parsnips, needed to last year as nothing sown direct came up, so all of my crop came from pre-chits. This year, had good germination from cloched seeds sown direct! I did a few pre-chitted seeds just in case, so used them to fill a gap.

I've never pre-chitted sweetcorn; the best advice I was ever given was to just push the seeds into the soil with the tops uncovered, I use root trainers for these. I had 100% germination within 2 days last week! ;D

[adeymoo]

On a note of transplanting sweetcorn beyond 3 weeks after being planted in pots causing problems: are the problems reduced by planting in fibre pots that are put in the ground and rot so sweetcorn never knows its moved house.

[daileg]

i planted my sweetcorn out in the ground some 3 weeks ago all doing fine south wales

[caroline7758]

I've always done mine in loo roll centres and never had any problems after transplanting (just leave the loo rolls on.)