Compo, have a look at my entry under broad beans, which way up, which gives my soution to your problemof the mice after the bean cotyledons. I don't want to repeat it here.

It would not be natural for seeds to fall on the ground on end, on the side would predominate, but rootrainers are not natural. There is much in vegetable growing that is not natural.

unfortunately tomatoes , cucumbers, squashes etc. are classed as a vegetable and rhubarb is a vegetable masquerading as a fruit in usage.
Allan

Josie, it was a discussion, not an argument.I think rootrainers could be a special case because of restricted space. It can't do any harm to follow JB's idea and plant them scar down as JB puts it, if you then see any coming out upside down then take remedial action. I feel that what applies to boad...

Chris, you are largely correct, my trial shows that the beans will usually sort themselves out but it is possible to plant too shallowly so that the plant pushes itself out of the soil. I have had that happen occasionally, easily sorted in the greenhouse by a bit of fingerwork. If you put them in at...

JOhnboy, it would have helped if you had explained what you meant by "the scar".Failing an explanation I took it that you were talking about the place where the root comes out, and where the tiny hole is. I did a Google for images of the germinating bean and the best that I could find give...

There is a lot of theorising about this so I did a trial of 15 pots of each of the possible ways, apart from the obvious upside down way based on examination of the edge of the bean.No set had more than one that failed to grow all right but I personally favour putting them on their flat side as long...

How about telling the forum who sells Nandor?
I did a quick search, Unwins for sure, also Marshalls and Nicky's.
Allan

Johnboy, I do agree. My experienxce is that if you go down to single isolated canes you get much the same total crop but better quality and far easier to see them and to pick.
Allan

Re the double spoon for tea making, how about this one m There is lots more if you look around the web, such as this piece of a conversation. > Because my desk is often cluttered, and time is usually short, I rely on good tea bags, and the hot water from the coffee machine in the break room, and lot...

Susan To get a worthwhile flow of air from a fan would mean a hugely expensive solar panel. I bought a solar powered fan, it hardly does anything at all even in the brightest of sunshine. A solar panel to give you about 1 amp at 12 volts would cost about £100, even that would hardly make any any eff...

The Tropf Blumat system which Two Wests stock is an answer to the on-demand watering system.
Alternatively a capilliary fed bench system works quite well.

This link might help

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/s ... ood/605107

It doesn't cost a fortune to stock up with a Bag for Life,or several, you never need to pay for replacements. The real trick is to make sure you always take them with you when going shopping. for most of my shopping it comes pre-wrapped so I pop it into my shoulder bag, no need for any more than tha...

I don't think there is much risk from a flowing stream per se, it's a matter of where the stream comes from which may include drainage of stagnant water which is where the snails can breed and release the fluke into the water.. There is some treatment with ultra violet light carried out in some plac...