Sowing seeds

[steveg1966]

Is anybody else struggling with seeds this year I have been having very poor germination with pretty much everything such as 3 weeks ago I planted 40 corn seeds in my greenhouse and only one has germinated same with cucumbers 6 femspot seeds planted nothing the greenhouse is heated as well so its not the cold any ideas?

[steveg1966]

[caroline7758]

A lot of mine (mostly in a cold greenhouse or kitchen windowsill) have been slow, but the sunshine has got them going this week. Just the sunflowers and some pumpkin seeds chitting on kitchen roll that are refusing to do anything now.

[brown thumb]

Have any one else noticed that while the tops are slow in growing and when you decided the size is right to pot on( true leafs showing )they've a mass of roots under neath more than normal this year.

[tricia]

I chit all my seeds on damp kitchen roll sealed in plastic bags on top of cabinet in warm bathroom. So far have had 100% germination on cucs, courgettes, Cobra beans and squashes - all within last 4 days! Have just finished potting them up. Tomatoes, chillies, marigolds and celeriac all had good germination too and are now sturdy plants in my cold GH. Still waiting for some squash varieties and Moonlight beans to sprout then only have sweet corn to chit towards the end of the month and I'm done! Raised beds are covered with membrane to warm the soil up a bit before planting out end of May.

Tricia

[brown thumb]

Do you do all your seeds this way or just the larger one like sweetcorn , beans ,peas squash etc

[caroline7758]

I've done this method with parsnips too as they can be unreliable.

[chriscross1966]

Mines been going well with this technique... almost fill a module with New Horizon peat-free, gently press it down, sow seeds on top of it adn then cover seeds with thin layer of John Innes Seed compost... only bad germination has been from very old seed. I will probably use this technique a gain... I have to admit that most of the seeds start in one of my propagators before moving via a hot-bed in the greenhouse to greenhouse staging adn then outside.... but my greenhouse (and the hotbed) is big enough to cope with the weather going bad on us...

[kt.]

I've never chitted seeds before, always sown them in pots.  My first batch of calabrese was lost and only 2 of 15 parsnips germinated from new seeds.  Probably rotted sitting in the cold damp compost for so long.   My Cucino cucumber all germinated but only 1/2 the marketmore did.  The red chille peppers I am trying this year have failed 100%.  These mishaps are from sowings the past 4-8 weeks but everything I sowed this past 10-14 days has germinated and has been mostly potted on.

[tricia]

brown thumb - I chit all my seeds. It saves wasting pots or modules full of compost if they don't germinate; saves space too.

Tricia

[strawberry1]

yes they have mostly been very slow this year, I am using a propagator when appropriate and courgettes, squashes and pumpkin are in there at the moment. They seem to have had a struggle to emerge at all and I wonder if the poor conditions last year are ingrained in the seeds. I am waiting for the last courgettes to come up and I see lumps developing so there is a sign of something happening but not a single pumpkin so far but only 7 days and I think they need 10. Propagator has been on 24 recently when 22 was not working and it is giving them a shove. I am looking daily and they come out into the sun as soon as I see them appear. Tlc for a while after that as they need all the help they can ge,t this year

I am sitting on my hands re parsnip,  having covered the bed to retain some warmth, maybe this week