seeds? bit of a silly question I guess.

wellused

As I have recently acquired an allotment and so far have only been able to enjoy the invigoration of hours of hard work clearing and digging and tidying up I now come to the time of year when I am looking at what to plant up next year and which seeds to buy, my question is and forgive my inexperience here but why do some packets of tomato seeds and other vegetables come to that have 60 or so seeds per packet when it is highly unlikely that a gardener would grow more than a few plants of any one variety? I know that seeds can be kept for subsequent years but for instance how many tomato seedlings should I be aiming to grow when I will only require five or six plants at the most?

forgotmyname

They are designed for people like me that assume because the packet has 60 seeds that you need to plant them ALL.

I get a mini amazon rain forest when we do actually get a summer.

Dont forget not all those seeds will germinate and some plants will be good and some not so good.

I stuck a ton of beetroot in last year and where is it? I came to the conclusion that beetroot loving aliens stole it all.

Next year i will be literally throwing the seeds into the wind and it gets planted where it lands.

This year was rubbish. No decent summer.

Linda32

Hi, I do know what you mean, you do sometimes get a lot of seeds. Cost is possibly one element, you get more if the seeds are easy to obtain

Some crops, such as salad type foods, you will sow a sucession of these. The idea being that you sow a few, these grow and you eat. Then a few weeks after the first sowing you sow some more and so on. This is usually the case for beetroot, raddish, spring onions etc.

As for the tomatoes and this isn't an exact science, it can't be. But if you want 6 plants. I would sow 12-15 seeds and see how many germinate after about two weeks. If you want more you can then sow some more.

Best of luck, its an exciting time. I'm itching to get back in the shed with my seeds.

splodger_seedswapper

if you have a load of seeds that you couldn't possible use - you could always swap some - that way you can try a few different varieties and have no excess seeds to worry about - there are a few great seedswapping sites on the web

RAS

Firstly, most seeds can be kept for several years; tomatoes can germinate after the best part of a decade.

So you do not need to buy new seed each year.

If you are just starting, do check out Lidl in the New Year; they do some perfectly decent packets at 29p. last year it was even 4 for £1 which was very good value. Some bizarre stuff and some really good stuff like Swiss chard Lucellus.

wellused

I received free from Wyevale garden center when buying a load of 50p packets of seeds which were on offer several packets of Tomato seeds Harbinger and free from the front of "Grow It" magazine Ailsa Craig tomato seeds, so so far it hasn't cost a lot.

twiglet98

RAS wrote: »

Firstly, most seeds can be kept for several years; tomatoes can germinate after the best part of a decade

That's brilliant, I had no idea seeds could be viable so long after the expiry date on the packet, but I guess it must depend on the conditions in which the packets have been stored? Is an opened packet, folded over and closed with a clothes peg, less likely to survive than an unopened packet? What about temperature - I forgot to bring my seeds indoors during the winter of 2010-11 when overnight temperatures were hitting -10C here, and all the runner, french and broad beans looked dull and slightly shrivelled when I went to sow them, and none germinated. I thought frost must have got to them, and bring my leftover seeds indoors for the winter now.

Sambucus_Nigra

They are better left in the cold, as long as it's dry.

This might help you - it's only Parsnip seeds that really need to be bought each year.

http://www.amateurgardening.com/plants/seed-viability/

Leif

Chillis go off, and the fresher the better as they germinate faster, but they'll keep a few years.

You can always sow more than you need, then give away seedlings to friends and family. I got some nice fresh asparagus and snow peas in return from one person. However, I gave my neighbour a courgette and a tomato, and the rotter had much better plants than me. (His garden is more sheltered and the tomato went into his greenhouse.)

Sally_A

With tomato seeds, I'd expect at least an 80% germination rate, extras can be given away.

Space is a premium when starting off seeds, 12 seeds will fit nicely into a mushroom carton, and to stop the roots entangling, squidge a toilet roll into a square shape, and stick 1 seed in each roll.