Seeds sown for 2013

Have you guys been pleased with how your seeds have germinated/grown on this year? I stuck with really easy seeds, thunbergia & nasturtiums mostly & a few pansies. Germination very slow even using a propagator, think the lack of light is somewhat to blame, over half of nasturtiums still haven't germinated and the ones that did are very spindly same story with the thunbergia. I did manage to germinate some double impatiens and they are about my only success story. I saw some nasturtium/thunbergia plants about 4 times the size of mine selling at just £2.99 in our small local garden centre. I think in future I shall be very happy to leave it to the ones who have the growing equipment, I feel my seed sowing days are coming to an end too much effort for such little rewards!!

Val

 

I've mostly grown vegetables from seed this year, and they seem pretty successful using my little blow away green house. I have also grown some oriental poppies, they've come on a treat - up to now, but the sunny days recently definitely helped!

 

It's been a bit hit and miss to be honest and I understand exactly what you mean when you say there's too much effort for little reward. In saying that though I haven't got a greenhouse or much experience so maybe I have to factor that in.

I had an initial disaster with my marigolds and one whole packet of nasturtium seeds have either germinated and grown about 2 inches tall then died or not germinated at all - I've pretty much written them off. I have more nasturtiums of a different variety and they are doing much better.

My snapdragons have germinated but they are still very small but the borage seedlings are doing nicely. Hopefully the bees will like them.

I have a few different types of wildflower seeds which haven't done anything. I'm not sure if I was meant to go about germinating them in a different way and not put them in a heated propagator. Perhaps I should have chucked them onto the soil in a likely spot in the garden and hoped for the best!

 

Bit of a mixed bag this year. French Marigolds, dahlia red skin and figaro, salvia blaze of fire all doing ok. 2 kinds of Coleus still really smalland not many.
My first batch of cannas (40) none starter bar 1. Second lot nearly 100% (different seed though). Toms not doing to bad either considering!
Oh the little un sunflowers are about a foot tall already!
So next year he doing all the sowing and looking after lol
I know that you can buy plants but to me it's the enjoyment of trying to grow your own.

 

I have always agreed with this, but now I am having to try too damn hard,

Val

 

Been a lot more hassle this spring, temperatures & light being so up and down. Resorted to germinating some seeds next to the computer cooling fan, at least that's a constant temperature.

 

All my seeds have been slow to germinate this year with a number of failures, they've also been slow to put on growth but have now got under way with the sun and warmth of last week.

Fern,
Antirrhinums (Snapdragons) are slow to germinate and put on growth so I usually start them off earlier than most other seeds.

 

My early efforts this year were a disaster, I couldn't even get broad beans and sweet peas to germinate, they are usually easy.

Over the past month I've sown millions of stuff including
basil x 6 types
parsley
dill
salvia x 4
ratibida
cosmos x 2
nicotiana
echium x 2
setaria
millet
kailaan
celery
spinach
chard
didiscus
seseli gummifera
ornamental clover
mirabilis jalapa
ricinus
marigolds x 3
consolida
spring onion
sweet peas x 4

And they have mainly germinated just fine. Oh dear.
Now I have so many children I don't know what to do.

 

Lupins and Shansta Daisey have done well. Virtually 100% germination. They were started in the conservatory, but I am limited for space in there this year as we turned it into a play room. I have sown some Echinacea, Gardillia and Achillea and put them in the cold frame and they are just showing signs of germination. I have sown 4 types of Sweetpea and all doing well. I have sown some Calendula and Cosmos yesterday ( may be a little late). Tonight I have sown Corgettes and Cucumber. I bought tomato plants as I only need 4 and I am going to swop some Lupins for Chilli and Pepper plants with one of the lads at work. All the rest of the Veg will be direct sown this year.

Rusty

 

Not really had a problem with germination this year. Even my Dahlias are showing today after moaning about them on another thread . My Wave petunia seeds were pathetic as usual ( why do I bother !) But all other seeds have done well , the old green-shed is now stuffed to bursting with plants and my Chillies are fruiting on the windowsills . Waiting for the weather to improve a bit to start hardening the plants off.

 

I've been lucky really...no real problems with germination but being over enthusiastic and sowing early it's been the 'keeping them all happy' that's been the difficult bit.....i'm sure it's put years on me

 

Thanks Sheal....I'll remember that in future.

 

I have a number of philosophies on that point:

1. Unusual varieties won't be found in the local garden centre, so worth trying to grow those

2. For humdrum things I can either buy at garden centre, or attempt seeds and use fallback of garden centre.

I stopped growing Cucumbers last year as the seed is more than £1 each, I usually lose half of them to rot, and the plants in the garden centre were cheap and huge, by comparison. This year they have some fancy mini-fruit variety (which will do, but isn't what I want) and Cucumber seedlings that are half dead already ... clearly they have had same problem we have had. So I am stuffed - no decent plants, and I didn't sow any seeds myself.

Might it be your seed sowing compost?

Lots of people on here talk about / complain about how "fit", or not!, their Multi Purpose Compost is for seed sowing. I only use Seed Sowing Compost which is a nice sandy soil-based John Innes recipe. I microwave and reuse it (well, not if anything was diseased), as the seeds don't need fertiliser, so I only have to use one small bag a year (to top up etc.)

I have a significant number of seeds that have failed this year. They are poncy, or unusual, things and maybe that is par for the course. But some, such as Delphiniums, are in a seed tray marked off in sections with other varieties of Delphiniums (from other suppliers) which all germinated, so clearly the seed was not viable - rather than it being my failure. I've been meaning to start a new thread on that to get opinions on how common it is for seed suppliers to ship unviable seed.

 

My Next-Year's-Resolutions include:

Pot-up things that I normally do in the Spring in the Autumn instead, to save Spring-time. Cannas, Dahlias and the like - rather than "storing" them in latticve-trays or loose. Also pot-on anything that is needing a larger pot - I typically have loads of cuttings etc. in 9cm, or maybe even 1L, pots in the Autumn that are crying out for potting on in the Spring - but time never allows, and they are abandoned until June-ish when time then allows - and I waste growing time as a result.

The rationale for not potting on in the Autumn has been so that they don't sit with, potentially, too much water at their roots due to have large compost volume and not enough heat & light to grow. But as they are under cover I think I just need to be careful not to water much / at all over winter. I rarely water over winter anyway ...

(I plan to use the "soil" out of my greenhouse for the Autumn potting-up Dahlias etc [and conventional MPC for potting-on]. This is replaced annually anyway, and what goes into the greenhouse is 50:50 rotted manure / compost-heap. Its reasonably dry at the end of the season when it is removed. I'm keeping empty MPC bags this year to "bag" the "soil" that comes out of the greenhouse to make it easy to re-use as "potting-up compost")

I do that every year :( and it annoys me a lot!

I really ought to build some large cold-frames to avoid the lugging about.

There are Blue Slug Pellets all over my seedlings and small potted-on plants ...