An experiment to germinate seeds

[nilly71]

This might of been done before but i wanted to start some leeks off anyway :)

I thought i would have an experiment to see what germinated the best, so i have used two methods for leeks and thought i would try a pea while i was at it.



Both were placed on dampened kitchen towel


One lot was placed inside a sealable plastic bag(i had to use a spatular to handle it as it kept getting stuck on the plastic and folding up) and the other was placed inside a plastic carton(left over from my dinner earlier) and put inside a sandwich bag.



The pea was done the same way but put in a small sealable bag.

All have been put in the boiler cupboard and i will have a look in a day or two to check how they are getting on.

Neil

[nilly71]

[davyw1]

the way you have done your leeks is a good method for setting away tomato,s

[manicscousers]

that's the way we do parsnips  ;D

[nilly71]

what way do you do toms and parsnips, in a sealable bag or the covered food tray?

Neil

[manicscousers]

either, depends whether I have any spare food trays. I use them under pots so, if they're all in use, I just put the kitchen towel, damp, in a plastic bag in the warm, wait 'til they develop 'tails' and plant them straight into the soil, got a fantastic crop this, sorry, last, year  ;D

[Maidenheadtaff]

Stupid question maybe but what happens when they germinate.They have to be planted out somewhere even in a heated greenhouse,or are you growing them in the airing cupboard ?

[tricia]

My aubergines are already 2 cm high after chitting them in damp paper towels and planting them into 3" pots when they showed 'tails' after 4 days.

Tricia

[nilly71]

Stupid question maybe but what happens when they germinate.They have to be planted out somewhere even in a heated greenhouse,or are you growing them in the airing cupboard ?

I haven't thought that far ahead  ;D

Hopefully my greenhouse will be done by the time the seeds are ready, if not i will pot them up and put hem infront of the window in the shed.

If they die from the cold, then i still have about 1000 leek seeds so no great lose.

Neil

[Tee Gee]

Each year this one comes up which is not surprising knowing how fickle parsnips are to germinate so last year I tried three variations on what has been dicussed above.

The moving from the kitchen towel into compost was always an issue so this is how I got over that..........I didn't use kitchen towel I used damp compost.

Here are a few pictures showing what I did; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Parsnip/Parsnips%20prop/parsnips%20prop.html

[ManicComposter]

Couldn't you just transplant the seed to the soil with the paper towel? I mean cant you cut around the chitted seed with a knife or scissors and then place into the soil?

[redimp]

How did you transfer to final growing position Tee Gee?

[Tee Gee]

How did you transfer to final growing position Tee Gee?

Ah!!

Well firstly! timing is of the essence!!

As you all know Parsnip is a root crop and is basically a 'tap root' for want of a better description. Meaning that you have to get it out of the container before the tap root touches the bottom of the container or else you will end up with boomerang shaped parsnips.

So sowing time has to work in with your planting out time.

As opposed to pricking them out in to larger containers (a last resort) you have to transplant them dirctly ito their final quarters straight away, unlike 'chitting' where you put them into larger containers assuming you can't plant them out into their final quarters.

Back to the question;

The plug plants were the easiest to handle, plus the fact as they were individual plants the roots did not crowd each other, and the tap root of the faster growers often came out the drainage hole.

Those that I chitted/surface sowed were treated as if I was sowing seed  i.e. I made my 'Vee' shaped trench filled with fine compost and pricked the seedlings directly into the row.

And thats basically it!!

[nilly71]

I thought i would have a look at the seeds and am very pleased ;D

Pea in a plastic bag (not pee  :D )

no the 10p didn't grow aswell ;D

5 out of 16 and 2 starting to poke-out, these were in the sealable bag.

I have taken them off the paper so you can see them.

No germination of the seeds in the covered food tray.


I have also put just a pea in a small sealable bag with nothing but 2 drops of water, to see if the kitchen towel makes any difference.

All seeds grown in the same place, i will give it a couple of more days to see if there are any more.

Neil