Shall we share our seed-sowing success (or failures!)?

Davesnave

Don't forget that 'failure' may be normal with some things, or rather that certain plants won't germinate inside a year, no matter how viable the seed.

Personally, I find these more interesting. For example, buy hellebore seed, sow them now and you won't see them till next spring, at the earliest. Even if you sow your own hellebore seed after July, it'll be unlikely to come up till the second winter.

Some shrub seeds are meant to go through the internals of a bird before they grow, so again, it might be a couple of years before you see those.

There's loads of free seed around just waiting for people to pick it up. I have shrubs and trees, all produced for NADA from plants scattered all over my city. They'd be expensive to buy, but of course they do take years to grow. Very MSE, however....

Sazbo

russetred wrote: »

How do you get parsley to germinate? My DH has successfully germinated all the other veg seeds but the "insert swearword" parsley as he refers to it just doesn't do a thing.

lol i'm a newbie to all this gardening lark, so maybe I'm not the best person to advise, but all I did was stick them in a tray, cover with compost, water them, put tray inside a plastic bag and stick them on the windowsill. Admittedly, they took their time coming up, and admittedly I did manage to drop the tray (see above) but they are still making a go of it.

Saz x

Lotus-eater

russetred wrote: »

How do you get parsley to germinate? My DH has successfully germinated all the other veg seeds but the "insert swearword" parsley as he refers to it just doesn't do a thing.

Put them where you want to germinate them, then pour boiling water over them.
Cover with compost/soil, voila!

russetred

Thanks lotus-eater he did try the boiling water eventually and he's still staring at a pot of compost.Is it the type of parsley,he's trying the flat leaf? I havn't got the heart to tell him I used to sow the curly stuff straight in the ground and it always came up!.Oh bless he's swearing at it again.

misskool

successes
tomatoes, 4 varieties, 30ish plants
brussels, 8 plants
brocolli, 10-12 plants
lettuces, too many to count
cut and come again salad, 2 tubs worth
mini pumpkins- 3 plants
courgettes-5 plants
cucumbers-4 plants
minipop sweetcorn-10 plants
aubergine, halftange violet and belleza nero, 4/5 each (I mixed them up!)
chillies, serrano and fresno, 4/5 plants each
perpetual spinach - a few too many
parsnips- lots
carrots- some seed leaves (or weeds, not decided yet)
purple sprouting brocolli, tray full (hand slipped when sprinkling seeds :rotfl:)
basil, thyme, dill, parsley
sweet pepper- 6/7 plants

EPIC FAIL
marjoram (I dropped the pot onto the carpet and scooped it all back up hoping for the best)
lemon thyme (cooked it by leaving in the heated propagator and leaving said propagator in the sunlight)
chives (never grew, wondering now if I put any seeds in :rolleyes:)

waiting for
mint cuttings and lavender cuttings but thinking they'll probably die as never done them before and didn't put any rooting hormone on them.
cylindrical beetroot planted straight into the ground
dwarf french beans
mangetout
pea (kelvedon wonder)
broad beans
potatoes

Davesnave

Parsley (any kind) can be a ****.

I don't do anything special to mine & it usually comes up, though. It may be the case that the seeds are DoA when you buy them. Some suppliers of some seeds have low germination rates, as shown by 'Which?' trials. Don't buy seeds from garden centres that store their packets in sunny situations, where they bake. (That's half of those round here! :rotfl:)

Misskool, lavender cuttings are not as easy as some would have you believe & hormone probably won't make much difference either way. I resorted to doing mine in the ground in a frame, rather than anywhere else. Slow but more success.

kjmtidea

Successes:

Tomatoes
Red pepper
Mint
Thyme
Origano
Strawberries
Sunflowers

Fail:
2 sunflowers died because I put them outside, brought the rest back in and they are doing okay now on the windowcill.

I didn't pay for any of them, my neighbour was sorting his shed out and gave us a load of seeds, we have never done this before, fingers crossed they will all survive!

Dex

Hi All,

My first year for growing from seed and so far have had only success (sure something will die or not come up though! :rolleyes:)

Successes:
Courgettes
Diascia
Lobellia
Runner Beans
Peas
Sweet Peas
Basil

Still Waiting:
Gaura
Potatoes: vivaldi and charlotte

Still to Plant (outside):
sugar snap peas
mange tout
rocket
lettuce
spinach

I used cheap proergators and individual pots with cling film on and put them on my bathroom window ledge.

Crossing my fingers that the rest all come up and that I have a better year with slugs than in previous years!:rolleyes:

dcurzon

first timer..

South facing kitchen windowsill, heated propagator
Sweet Pepper - Germinated in 2 weeks (7 out of 7 seeds)
Tomato, sweet millions - germinated in 2 weeks (18 out of 18 seeds)

Kitchen windowsill, unheated propagator
Chinese Aster - germinated in around 1 week
Petunia mixed - germinated in 6 days

FAILURE - sort of!
Got impatient with lobelia in windowsill after 2 weeks, no sign (assumed they werent going to work as cheap seeds and out of date), so mixed the soil up and sowed snapdragons on top. Lobelia started popping up a few days later! D'oh!

Outside (south facing patio)
Lettuce mini gems into a trough - germinated in around 10 days. Will do a 2nd trough at the weekend.
Potatos - in a potato barrel. Nothing yet, but only been 1 week.
Random flowers that i cant remember what they were, were sprinkled amongst the flower tubs, and they're all growing.

things i've learnt:
1. Did way too many lettuce in the trough, will have to thin out when they are thicker.
2. Dont be too impatient with the seeds
3. Dont mix them either!
4. Start seeds in cells instead of lots in a tub - have around 300 petunia, 100 chinese aster and probably 500 lobelia (and snapdragons) that somehow need to be seperated down and potted!

misskool

Davesnave wrote: »

Misskool, lavender cuttings are not as easy as some would have you believe & hormone probably won't make much difference either way. I resorted to doing mine in the ground in a frame, rather than anywhere else. Slow but more success.

Do you just stick the cuttings in the ground with a cover around them? At the moment they are in a small plant pot with 50/50 compost/grit and covered with the top half of a large squash bottle.