Seeds started on kitchen roll, which way is up??

twiglet98

I started sweetcorn and french bean seeds on damp kitchen roll, I guess they can go into loo roll tubes full of seed compost now, but I don't know which way round they should be planted! Help please

officeguru

Seed part goes in the soil... The shoot is the plant starting to grow..

Cheers

Linda32

There is a right way up, but I'm sure that if you put them into the loo rolls of soil they will sort themselves out.

twiglet98

Thank you, I wasn't sure if the sprouty bit is the beginning of the plant or the beginning of its roots. Should they be allowed to get any bigger in their tub of kitchen roll before I handle them?

gazza975526570

Just be carefull with them when potting them.

Why did you chit them first (particularly the beans) - just adds an extra task to do when sowing in my opinion unless they were old seeds

twiglet98

Yes, the beans are old, they were given out in the BBC DigIn campaign a couple of years ago I think.

I read somewhere that sweetcorn is hard to get started and using damp kitchen roll means you can see straight away which seeds have germinated, so it avoids wasting time waiting for them to grow when maybe they aren't going to grow anyway!

I read too much but know too little - as you can tell

gazza975526570

twiglet98 wrote: »

Yes, the beans are old, they were given out in the BBC DigIn campaign a couple of years ago I think.

I read somewhere that sweetcorn is hard to get started and using damp kitchen roll means you can see straight away which seeds have germinated, so it avoids wasting time waiting for them to grow when maybe they aren't going to grow anyway!

I read too much but know too little - as you can tell

not at all - reading up first is the best way (well apart from personal experience) and lots of people do chit sweetcorn seed. But as you can also see i think you have had 100% germination rate so seeds are by their very nature made to grow.

Good luck and enjoy those tasty sweet cobs (dont put them out over the next few days, much too cold)

gazza975526570

oh sorry - to answer your original question - add the growth at the top but seeds will always grow up, heading towards the sun they crave.

s_b

our sweetcorn are 4 inches tall in our kitchen now
we put a lot of sunflowers outside the other day because they were getting scraggy but the wind scattered the pots:(

Missy79

I believe that it's the root that appears first, that's why sometimes the seed husk sticks to the edge of the seed leaves, so technically you'd want that pointing down, but either way the seed will sort itself out.
(do a google image search for germination and you can see how the plant grows from the seed)

WLM21

When you plant sweetcorn outside, put them in blocks, not rows ad they are wind pollinated. If you don't, you will not get full cobs of corn.