I've had zero germination from the pumpkin seed I saved last year, and today I finally got as far as looking closely and comparing it with what I have left over from 2006. Last year's seed is all empty. Hopefully some of the old stuff will now germinate!
Absolutely none of my parsnip seeds which were bought fresh from Suttons have germinated. Has anyone else had problems with these or have I just been unlucky?
only 5 % of our snips have germinated,same for the carrots,going to sow some more of both.also onion seed was very bad,still,everything else was great.must concentrate on the successes rather than the failures!
Have you tried pregerminating them on kitchen roll on window sill? Much better germination.
I have had good Parsnip germination this year as this rexperimental tray shows.
(I sowed one seed on edge per cell)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/May%202009/P1090687.jpg)
I am so taken with the method I have sown another tray and it seem to be progressing in a similar manner.
What with the price of cucumber seed often a £1+ apiece I tried saving my own last year and this is the result;
(Front tray are saved seeds and the rear tray is commercial seed)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/April%202009/P1090581.jpg)
Why are cucumber seeds so expensive ?
Duke ???
I saved seeds from a pumpkin my son grew the year before last. Sowed them last year and they grew stronger than the bought ones which were sown at exactly the same time! They grew good pumpkins. Sowed some again this year and the same has happened.
You have to be careful to pollinate by hand before the female flower opens (i.e. tear it open) then put a bit of fleece or a bag over it so it doesn't cross with a courgette or anything. When saving the seeds from the pumpkin I just washed and dried them all on kitchen paper and saved the best (fattest) ones.
Try again Robert? :D
They are "super duper" F1 varieties for commercial growers... try old open pollinated varieties like White Wonder, Boothby's Blonde and Crystal Apple, loads more seeds in cheaper packets... OK they are white skinned and not as long... but taste good!! :-X
QuoteAbsolutely none of my parsnip seeds which were bought fresh from Suttons have germinated. Has anyone else had problems with these or have I just been unlucky?
i read in GYO Veg by Carol Klein that parsnip seed doesn't store well and its best to buy new each year.
The best parsnip seeds are the ones you collect yourself leave one plant to go to seed and they will be the best seeds ever or look on a unused plot
None of my patti pans and only two of my courgette seeds have germinated. Butternuts were very slow, so slow in fact I went and bought a couple of plants from a garden center. Two eventually did germinate.
I've had 100% success with saved Gem Squash though.
I've had real trouble getting the butternut and patty pans to germinate this year. I've got the old heated propagator out and there is still one that haven't moved :-\
Quote from: Plot69 on May 20, 2009, 16:56:48
None of my patti pans and only two of my courgette seeds have germinated. Butternuts were very slow, so slow in fact I went and bought a couple of plants from a garden center. Two eventually did germinate.
I've had 100% success with saved Gem Squash though.
My BNS is being a bit slower than the other cucurbits I started at the same time.... it's still in propagators the rest have moved out but as all the Hunters are up I'm not too fussed
Quote from: pippy on May 20, 2009, 16:18:13
Try again Robert? :D
I certainly will. The pumpkin won't form unless the flower is pollinated, but empty seed is well known; I've never come across a real explanation of it. Hopefully we'll have better weather this year!
About parsnips: I always buy new, having found out the hard way that you need fresh seed, I used Dobies for the first time this year and the germination was fine - I believe Dobies and Suttons are linked? My problem has been with Land Cress: empirically I think I have established that this seed doesn't keep more than a year either, what has anyone else experienced?
That may be... but once you have it you will never be rid of it... when you come and visit you can take away a small transplant which will promptly go to seed and there you have it... fresh seedlings everywhere... :-X
Its my worst year for germination, sweetcorn a blowout as with cucumbers, sqashes and sunflowers. Sowed springys and celeriac twice. I e-mailed fothergills about the sweetcorn and they sent me another packet. ??? ;D ;D ;D
Same here with both Sweetcorn plants and seed I was going for over a hundred Sweetcorn this year but at the minute I have about sixty plants, :)
Quote from: cornykev on May 20, 2009, 20:04:59
Its my worst year for germination, sweetcorn a blowout as with cucumbers, sqashes and sunflowers. Sowed springys and celeriac twice. I e-mailed fothergills about the sweetcorn and they sent me another packet. ??? ;D ;D ;D
With regard to sweetcorn germination corney, we always used to press the seed about half an inch into the compost, and got very poor germination. I can't remember where, but read that with sweetcorn, the best method is to surface sow, and lightly cover with compost. Since using this method we have had pretty much 100% germination rate.
Hope this helps.
valmarg
Have had zero results from Heritage Seeds - Rosemary/Good King Henry - and only a 10% germination rate from any of the other seeds I bought at the Potato Day in Hampshire.
On a lighter note, the sunflowers I grew last year have self seeded all over the garden and as quick as I pull em out there are new ones starting up! Have given up now and the garden should be an interesting sight!
I've had some problems with the pea seed I saved last year. It was in the wettest of the weather and I suspect I didn't dry some of it adequately, as some has rotted. I've got good germination of some varieties, others are going to produce just enough plants to do a better job of seed saving this year! Overall though, I've got plenty. The only one I've had to buy in has been Ne Plus Ultra.
We lost some of our saved peas for the first time ever.. :-\
What did you lose?
A few pots rotted off but we hadn't sown them all out and the newer sowings seem to have come through... both direct in the ground and in pots so we haven't "lost" any varieties... :)
On 23rd April I sowed a block of Endeavour along with Maro peas and a load of beans and there is an empty block where the Endeavour should be. :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ Everything else is through and healthy.
I've found an Irish site which does Magnum Bonum (and plenty of other interesting looking veg) and takes Paypal. So no problems.
http://brownenvelopeseeds.com/index.php/
have had simular results from sweetcorn ended with 58 from 100 have had no success with crown prince 4 weeks now no sign but saying that i planted marrow last year took two months for that to poke its head
I have had a good year so far, with 90% or so on everything I have sown, apart from Nantes carrots, I got 0% from them from an entire packet.