Why do all the first & best ones grow through the concrete path??
God knows, just planted a bleedin trayfull and guess how many have germinated??? One !!!!
well, hopefully it's not the same for parsnips... as a few of my seeds blew down from my hand into the narrow gap between two paving slabs... they had to stay put... ::)
LOL my brother was planting his tomatoes and they blew away also, expensive pack too!!!
My chives are doing well. I planted them in toilet paper rolls and they're indoors in a mini greenhouse.
did you think we wouldn't notice this was your first post :P
welcome to you.
my chives are in still in the living room looking very tiny.
Just a tip for some who may be new to this game-split your chives late Autumn and plant a few in pots-put them in the greenhouse and get an early crop when not much else is around.
My chives and parsley have seeded into the gravel of the greenhouse path! I also had a few parsnip seeds catch the wind....goodness knows where they ended up, but you can bet your life, the proper row will fail to germinate, and those odds will sprout and be the longest, strongest, show stopping snips, in amongst my.....strawberries! :D
That means welcome STHLMGreen. May your veg grow well!!!
I have chives popping up about 3' away from were I sowed them, none have shown at all where they were meant too.
I havn't sown mine yet! Must do it soon, happy sowing and growing everyone! ;D
Is there any special trick to chives? I've never had major germination problems with other seed types, be they flower or veg, but chives have me stumped! I followed the planting instructions as given on the pack, but of the 10 planted, only 3 germinated. Not healthy looking specimens either, I might add, even taking into account that they would be spindly to start with. Of the 3 that germinated, 1 has bitten the bullet. Half tempted to beg some established plants from my mum!
So any ideas?
Niamh
Why do you need to sow chives?? I have a clump that I dug up in our move 4 years ago and transplanted here. I thin out every couple of years and I have loads and loads. Never need to sow them every year or am I doing something wrong ???
Hi Mimi,
this is my first time growing them, I have none in my garden. My mother's established chives have been going strong for 10 years or more. If I can get the little devils to grow from seed, then I hope never have to try to grow them from seed again!
The other reason I am growing them from seed and not a clump nicked from my mum is that she lives over 150 miles away!
Sigh. I love chives and all, might just have to accept failure and buy ready grown ones!
Niamh
I've never tried to grow them as the chap who owned the house before us must've had several spare packets of seed that he spread over the garden before he left. Every year our garden is so full of chives growing out of every nook and cranny that it smells really strong of onion and i can't smell anything else. I swear half the grass is made up of chives :o
You can bet if i did try them i'd have no joy....... ;D ;D
P.
Doh !!!!! stupid woman me.. Sorry Niamh, never thought of that :-\ Hopefully after this year you will never never have to try again. Love the little flowers on chives too.
Hi All!
I too am growing chives for the first time. I sowed them about a week ago and they are just pushing through the surface ;D! How long will it be before I can use them?
I'm also growing coriander, purple and green sage, basil and marjoram :o!
Susie x
for some reason the prev. owners of this house edged an entire flower bed with chives which are 6" and going strong and look like a bright green manic extension to the lawn ...
And i don't even like chives!!! ::)
Can I transplant them now? And if so, would anyone like them if their seeds don't work out?
sl
I have got buds on some I planted last year. As it is the first time I have grown them I don't know if this unusual or not.
Rosemary
My chives live in an old galvanised bucket and come up faithfully every year. If it gets a bit too weedy in there I "clean" it out at the end of the summer and thin them out, but haven't had to do that in ages.
Just got some garlic chives seed, and am about to sow into a similar sort of container. Fingers crossed, didn't have any trouble when I sowed the original lot.
I'm confused about this chives thing too.
IMHO The easiest way to grow chives is go to morrissons buy a pot for 65p split it in two and plant it. In the autumn when they have doubled or trebled in size split again etc etc etc. And no problem eating the chives while they are growing. If you want more (and who doesn't) buy two pots - they might even be buy 1 get 1 free.
Quote from: glow777 on April 06, 2006, 08:52:48
I'm confused about this chives thing too.
IMHO The easiest way to grow chives is go to morrissons buy a pot for 65p split it in two and plant it. In the autumn when they have doubled or trebled in size split again etc etc etc. And no problem eating the chives while they are growing. If you want more (and who doesn't) buy two pots - they might even be buy 1 get 1 free.
Everytime I try to grow a supermarket herb on, it dies. I swear they irradiate them or something.
I can grow basil from seed, but can't keep a supermarket bought plant alive for a month... weird.
Possibly the pots they come in are only big enough to keep the plant alive long enough for the owner to use to cook with. Anything bigger would rquire more compost packaging and a bigger pot. There goes the profit!
with chives being an allium, surely the ornery-ness of allium germination applies to them too? Last year I cheated, bought two pots, stuck them in, though the winter killed them off and yet their back and doubled in size last week resulting in a diamter of 150mm x height of 250mm already!
Susie,
as far as I know, it would be best to wait until the new chive plant is well established before regular use, so I'd wait until the end of this growing season, maybe even next year, before chopping off chunks!
Rosemary, the little buds you mention are probably the flower heads! As Mimi says, they are very pretty! Probably can collect seed from them too.
sallylockhart, if you wanted to transplant them, the sooner the better. Well established chive plants are generally very hardy and so moving them now should be ok.
I am, of course, pretty sure I'll be corrected on some of this as the day goes on! As for myself, I will probably try sowing more seed or keeping an eye out for a chive plant in one of the supermarkets. I bought a bay from a supermarket, planted it up and it seems to be doing well!
Niamh
Thanks for the welcome MrsKP and Maggie! I'm new to growing things and decided to start lots of things by seed and see what works. It's all container gardening as I have no allotment and live in an apartment.
The chives were planted Mar 16 and half of them are taller than their pots. The tallest ones are starting to bend over a bit as the sun has been hiding for days now.
Chives, anyone??
PS And if you plant supermarket Parsley.................!
Very jealous of lovely pics of chives, Tim! And that parsley - is it a tree, is it a bush? Just joking, but looks enormous! By the way, was the location of the chives close to the roses accidental or by design? They do say the chives/garlic may ward off aphids, have you found this actually works in this case?
Niamh