This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Seed packet grumbles
Outdoor girl
Posts: 286
Why do seed packets contain so little information? I purchased some seeds from Sara Raven but regret it constantly. There is just not enough info on how to grow the seeds! For example - Morning Glory... they need more than just popping into seed compost! Other seed need different treatments too - but I have had to research on the internet to find out why they wont grow! It would help if packets said 'need a night temp of more than 10 degrees' or 'soak in warm water before sowing', or even avoid over watering.... Grumph!
0
Posts
Hi Outdoor girl. I buy seed from places that give you no info at all and I've found this site very useful.
http://theseedsite.co.uk/
In the sticks near Peterborough
Seed packets would normally have all the information on them although it is often in shorthand speak, Specialists like Sarah probably think you know enough and would be insulted if they offered advice.
I have never soaked seeds or chitted them (sweet peas) there is more guff written about those than anything else, I pop the seeds into deep pots water and leave and that is in spring not midwinter. Once planted out I sow seed between each plant and they follow on no problem.
Seeds do need differing temperatures and take different times to mature though when I do on occasion buy special seed I read it up first in the RHS Encyclopedias, better safe than sorry.
Seed sold in this country has a lot of different weather patterns to cope with so times and temperatures are often nominal, they cannot win them all.
Frank.
For far this year i've sown :
Beetroot, lettuce, parsnips, raddish, leeks, tomatos, peppers, chillies, cucumber, melons
Cornflowers two types, callendular, ammi, nigella, meconopsis, valarian, hardy geraniums, sunflowers, sweet peas, many grasses, foxgloves, malope, achillea, aquilegia, cosmos.
All of the above with no problems.. but not Verbena, i've tried bonariensis, hastata, rigida, I just can't get that to germinate. I've followed the seed packet info (very little) and trawled the internet. I even tried the cold spell by sowing it in january and leaving it in my unheated green house then bringing it inside.. nothing happened lol. I think i'll just buy 1 plant of each that i want this year and propergate from cuttings, cause they just hate me!
Glad I am not the only one... verbena did eventually germinate but it tooks about 8 weeks! Amazingly I had not ditched the pot. Thanks for that website nutcutlet.
..I've got one packet of seed from Sarah Raven's collection which I've sown and all the seedlings have come up. I would say the instructions on the packet are brief but adequate... suppose it depends what you feel comfortable with...
Yeah outdoor girl i'm going to ditch the verbinas and just put them back in my greenhouse now, if they come they come if not i'll get a plant and hack it up for next year. I just can't spare the space in the propergator any longer lol!
Outdoor girl. It depends what you're used to. Some of my germinations take months. 8 weeks is quick.
Andy, they'll come when they're ready in or out of the propagator
In the sticks near Peterborough
I must have been lucky with verbena bonariensis then. I have twice grown that. I really wish I had not so vigorously weeded them out when they self sowed all over the patio & in every pot. I now want more & am afraid they won't germinate! Not sure how you'd do cuttings from them.
I've tried several times with Verbena Rigida, or Verbena Venosa which is what Thompson & Morgan seed packet calls them, when I ordered Rigida, & they say it is the same plant.
The instructions say to give half the amount of water you give to other seeds. So we probably all rot them with kindness!
I've grown verb bonariensis several times without any trouble. The ones I've sown this year have taken about a month in pots with a lid on kitchen window sill. Started coming through a few days ago. I did some a couple of years ago in early summer in conservatory which were quite quick, then stuck them outside to grow on.
Rabbits ate them when I planted them out though!
I think cuttings are quite easy- I'm sure I did some a few years ago just in gritty compost in a pot in late summer
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...