I sometimes despair of the advice given in seed packets and on line: sow in early March, cover with a light dusting of compost, keep moist etc etc. Then you look around the garden and those tomatoes and cosmos that you have been carefully cosseting in the greenhouse are growing perfectly happily in the garden having been ‘escapees’ from last year’s growth. Did no one tell them they should have been sown in March, not November, kept at an even 18° C not -5° to 23° and so on?
This year the growing conditions were very odd. To begin with it was cool with so much moisture in the air, then it was warm to very warm but with a late frost and so, so dry. Obviously you can control the situation in the greenhouse but you’re not totally excluded from the elements beyond the glass wall.
My French bean germination rate was also poor though a second set, sown a couple of weeks later was rather better. The runner beans, well, ran away. I think the best philosophy is just to be slightly astonished that anything grows at all. I know I am. If things grow well one season then it is entirely attributable to my expertise. When things grow poorly then I blame the adverse weather, the poor compost, the seed supplier, nibbling mice, Monty Don.
So true, the advice on seed packets seems to be for 'early everything' like growing veg should be some kind of competition of who can grow the earliest crop!
I'm sure it leads to a lot of losses, particularly for those starting out.
Parsnips I put in a couple months after they say on most seed packets and I always have them sweet and ready for Christmas, decent size too. It was years later that I found out if going so early, they need cloches, rarely mentioned on the seed packet and really who's in a rush for a parsnip, they are so much better after a few good winter frostings.
I use this site in the link below for more sensible sowing times, once the location is put in, it adjusts all the sowing and planting out times to sensible advice. Even then I tend to go to the later end and not worry a lot if I'm a couple of weeks behind schedule on the whole.
I normally only plant a few seeds from a packet at first. If most/all germinate, then good to go for following the same method for the rest. If the success rate is poor, I try different locations/soil/compost to see if the rate can be improved by trial and error. Bit long-winded I know but it means that I haven't had an entire packet completely fail as yet. Getting germination is only half the problem though - it's the slugs and snails that are destroying all the good work!
I do exactly this. It's not long winded for me as I only have limited seed tray space and this method helps me naturally succession sow! First 2 sowings I had very poor germination rate with my french beans - 2 or 3 out of 20 - but every sowing after that has been 100%. I did change the seed compost and the later sowings also had less temperature variation between night and day.
Very early in the year with my hot peppers I had 2 trays completely fail (bar 1 seed) even though I fully coddled them whilst trying to germinate them in the airing cupboard. The 3rd try I did in a heated propagater and they all came up. Along side this 3rd try I put another tray into the airing cupboard, I was determined to see what the problem was and that time all the seeds that I had double sowed (doh) all came up! So in the end I was chucking away plently of pepper seedlings.
All my sowings have been from the same packets of seed.
I normally only plant a few seeds from a packet at first. If most/all germinate, then good to go for following the same method for the rest. If the success rate is poor, I try different locations/soil/compost to see if the rate can be improved by trial and error. Bit long-winded I know but it means that I haven't had an entire packet completely fail as yet. Getting germination is only half the problem though - it's the slugs and snails that are destroying all the good work!
That's some good advice. You could try a few seeds in different environments to save time I suppose - though many seeds you get far more than you might want, others a pack might only have 4-6 and every loss is a pain.
All I can say is I'm very glad we're NOT relying on our crops for food. I'm used to being reasonably green-fingered but for some reason not doing well with seeds.
We got all these seeds and turned part of our garden into an allotment as a "just in case" measure as coronavirus was kicking off - my wife wasn't working so we had the time and space and figured a load of fresh veg was never going to be something we regretted
I find French beans if sown too early in the season mostly all rot before they germinate.
I had almost no success with peas this season almost all failed to germinate, not so Oregon sugar snaps, germination very good.
Stopped growing parsnips, take too long to germinate, then grow too big and runty, get small tender ones in the supermarket, three for 29p when we need them!
Broad beans have always been very successful for me, both started in cells and direct. French beans too I always sow them later. But I'd never take it for granted because I've had hit and miss on pretty much everything else.
Many of the peas I sowed rotted off, the same with sweetcorn. I really backed off on the watering compared to the past. I half wondered if it was due to using different compost owing to the lockdown, or damper conditions. Could be a number of factors.
Hi - I too, am sick of poor germination. You would think that the heat and light we have down here, plenty of water and TLC, there would be a better success rate - but it is the same as you all. Then I sowed old tomato & pepper seeds this year - and they all came up! Opened a new packet of sprouting broccoli - nothing but the cauli and kale have emerged, so that'll do for winter. I've just taken some lavender and sage cuttings this morning - so here's hoping!
"One for the pigeon, one for the crow, one to rot, and one to grow." Not to mention mice and slugs. Or when your pop-up plastic greenhouse is demolished by a gale, and all those hours you spent making paper pots and filling them with compost and sowing seeds in them and covering them with more compost, lie wasted all over the floor.
Well, that didn't happen this year. But I'm giving up on all that faff with the paper pots. A few of them survived long enough to plant out, with parsnip, leek and beetroot seedlings in them. I sowed some seed direct alongside them at the same time. A couple of the paper pots were plucked out of the ground by birds. Then the direct-sown seeds started to germinate, and now they have overtaken the ones that had all that coddling.
I always sprout peas and beans in jars on the kitchen windowsill before I sow them, so I know I'm not sowing non-viable seed. Then they go into paper pots in the greenhouse, and eventually into the ground. After all that, the runner beans grow and crop well, the broad beans middling, the French beans and peas I'm lucky if I harvest a handful. Next year I shall just sprout them then sow them direct. And if they don't appear in a fortnight, I'll do some more, and just keep going until I've got some hopeful-looking plants.
"One for the pigeon, one for the crow, one to rot, and one to grow." Not to mention mice and slugs. Or when your pop-up plastic greenhouse is demolished by a gale, and all those hours you spent making paper pots and filling them with compost and sowing seeds in them and covering them with more compost, lie wasted all over the floor.
Well, that didn't happen this year. But I'm giving up on all that faff with the paper pots. A few of them survived long enough to plant out, with parsnip, leek and beetroot seedlings in them. I sowed some seed direct alongside them at the same time. A couple of the paper pots were plucked out of the ground by birds. Then the direct-sown seeds started to germinate, and now they have overtaken the ones that had all that coddling.
I always sprout peas and beans in jars on the kitchen windowsill before I sow them, so I know I'm not sowing non-viable seed. Then they go into paper pots in the greenhouse, and eventually into the ground. After all that, the runner beans grow and crop well, the broad beans middling, the French beans and peas I'm lucky if I harvest a handful. Next year I shall just sprout them then sow them direct. And if they don't appear in a fortnight, I'll do some more, and just keep going until I've got some hopeful-looking plants.
Have you tried peas and beans in lengths of guttering? I find direct sow next to hopeless and don't want the faff with lots of pea plants, so fill a length of guttering with MPC, put in the seeds, put in heated propagator. Germination is generally very good, easy to plant, dig trench, slide the lot in from the gutter.
Said it before and I'll say it again, get some Haxnix root trainers... The cover acts as a propagator over the frame, flip it upside down into a handy tray when germinated, get 30 or 40 plants in about a 30x60cm space, no need to prick out or repot, and no root disturbance when you move them into their final positions. I have a 80%+ success rate using them with my own compost mix.
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So true, the advice on seed packets seems to be for 'early everything' like growing veg should be some kind of competition of who can grow the earliest crop!
I'm sure it leads to a lot of losses, particularly for those starting out.
Parsnips I put in a couple months after they say on most seed packets and I always have them sweet and ready for Christmas, decent size too. It was years later that I found out if going so early, they need cloches, rarely mentioned on the seed packet and really who's in a rush for a parsnip, they are so much better after a few good winter frostings.
I use this site in the link below for more sensible sowing times, once the location is put in, it adjusts all the sowing and planting out times to sensible advice. Even then I tend to go to the later end and not worry a lot if I'm a couple of weeks behind schedule on the whole.
https://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/adjust-dates-england-alphabet.php
Once location is added, list on left hand side reveals adjusted local timings of sowing and planting out of various fruit and veg.
Very early in the year with my hot peppers I had 2 trays completely fail (bar 1 seed) even though I fully coddled them whilst trying to germinate them in the airing cupboard. The 3rd try I did in a heated propagater and they all came up. Along side this 3rd try I put another tray into the airing cupboard, I was determined to see what the problem was and that time all the seeds that I had double sowed (doh) all came up! So in the end I was chucking away plently of pepper seedlings.
All my sowings have been from the same packets of seed.
mattpope5 said:
All I can say is I'm very glad we're NOT relying on our crops for food. I'm used to being reasonably green-fingered but for some reason not doing well with seeds.
We got all these seeds and turned part of our garden into an allotment as a "just in case" measure as coronavirus was kicking off - my wife wasn't working so we had the time and space and figured a load of fresh veg was never going to be something we regretted
Many of the peas I sowed rotted off, the same with sweetcorn. I really backed off on the watering compared to the past. I half wondered if it was due to using different compost owing to the lockdown, or damper conditions. Could be a number of factors.
You are not alone!!
Well, that didn't happen this year. But I'm giving up on all that faff with the paper pots. A few of them survived long enough to plant out, with parsnip, leek and beetroot seedlings in them. I sowed some seed direct alongside them at the same time. A couple of the paper pots were plucked out of the ground by birds. Then the direct-sown seeds started to germinate, and now they have overtaken the ones that had all that coddling.
I always sprout peas and beans in jars on the kitchen windowsill before I sow them, so I know I'm not sowing non-viable seed. Then they go into paper pots in the greenhouse, and eventually into the ground. After all that, the runner beans grow and crop well, the broad beans middling, the French beans and peas I'm lucky if I harvest a handful. Next year I shall just sprout them then sow them direct. And if they don't appear in a fortnight, I'll do some more, and just keep going until I've got some hopeful-looking plants.