Short life seeds

[Primrose]

I know parsnip seeds have a relatively short life but I seem to be very unlucky with beans too. I always find that only about 50% of my beans normally germinate. I'm never sure whether it,s my sowing technique that is poor (compost too wet or too dry) or whether dried beans just don't have a long storage life. I look at some of the strips of beans being sold in garden centres and they often seem to suffer a similar problem with gaps missing.

Any thoughts?

[Monika]

Primrose, my beans don't always all germinate, but I find soaking them before sowing between some sheets of damp kitchen paper between two dinner plates on the boiler sorts out the dud ones before they are sown. I then only sow those which have swelled and are just showing a suspicion of germ.
Also, as I always sow all beans (broad, runner and dwarf) in roottrainers, at least there are no gaps and therefore wasted spaces in the beds.

[Geoff]

Primrose : I know you save a lot of seeds, are you talking about saved beans? I only use purchased beans and usually get over 90% germination even in the second or third year. I lost a lot of Runner Beans in rootrainers one year that got waterlogged under the staging, I now always put the lids on while they are germinating. I fill the cells with compost and water well and let them drain for several hours or overnight, push the beans in scar down and fill in behind with dryish compost. I usually leave them covered and not watered until they germinate, if it has been sunny might damp the top a bit.

[Primrose]

My sowings this spring have been a mixture of saved seed from last year and a packet of commercial seed and I've had similar failures with both types. I think in future I'm going to go the route of soaking them briefly between wet kitchen tissue as suggested. At least that way one gets to see more quickly which beans are not going to germinate which can be a time saver.

I think I've been guilty this spring of over moistening the compost because of it's tendency to dry out too quickly on the surface It's surprising how quickly the beans can turn to mush and rot in such conditions.

[retropants]

I think I may have about 8 parsnips seedlings that have emerged from the 12ft row that I showed back in April. I showed about 3 seeds to each station too, very low success rate.

[Monika]

My carrot germination has been terrible this year. I put the earlier failures down to the cold weather but even the rows sown more recently are really patchy. Just in case the slugs were eating the very small seedlings, I scattered slug pellets and lately also used Nemaslug.
I am going to give it one more try, with free seeds.

[Geoff]

There was me thinking I was the only person sowing Carrots three times with nothing to show for it. We are eating the earliest sowing in the greenhouse but nothing outside.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've been doing a little experiment with pelleted carrot and parsnip seed.
This is their third year. Almost all the carrots have germinated and are growing well and there are so far over 20 parsnips germinated in a separate, small raised bed. It has been rather dry and a few more have come up since I weeded and watered them. I've still got quite a few left, so will carry on with them next year and see if any germinate in year 4.

They are from Moles seeds. I've also got a packet of Hurst's Greenshaft peas bought at the same time and they are also excellent for germination and growth.

Regarding the beans, I get the best results by sowing them in deep cell trays, similar to root trainers and usually put two or three spares in. They need to be moist but not soggy, and do better if you don't let them get too cold - when they are more likely to go rotten.

Saying that, I have planted a row of climbing French beans that someone gave me about five years ago, directly in the garden. I was surprised to find them all just coming yesterday. I think they have survived because it has been so dry - no chance of them going rotten.

I try to keep saved seed in a cool dark place in an airtight plastic tub to stop them deteriorating.

[Westi]

As usual I have had an issue with parsnips even though I tried the wet towel method, but oddly I also had a problem with French beans sown at home but I direct sowed some & they were fine & very unusually the turnips haven't germinated.

I think the turnips may have been nibbled off when really tiny rather than a seed failure though. I think I'll try the pelleted seed for the parsnips next year, but still a small window of opportunity to just throw a row in among some other things in different spots on the plot to see if I have any luck.

Westi

[clairelv1]

we need learn how to keep seeds .it is very important

[retropants]

so, Westi, do you think it is not too late to sow more parsnip seeds?

[Westi]

No Retropants - never too late for anything I say. If they germinate they should still make a reasonable size. I have loads of this years seeds left so will use them up and sow them among some other things in different beds & keep my fingers crossed.

Westi

[retropants]

great, thankyou! I'll just use up what I have also

[Primrose]

Westi - I find that surplus parsnips can always be mixed in with potatoes to make a potato and parsnip mash and sometimes the smaller ones are useful because the early sown ones develop into monsters which can take two or three days to eat your way through if you're only a small household !

My problem is too many seeds and not enough growing space! . I would happily share my surplus around if I grew too much.

We still have various winter squahes from last autumn stored in our garage that we're trying to eat our way through. At least they store well!

[Elaine]

My Runners are last years seed and I sow them in 3" pots. I sowed ten seeds to get eight plants and only one didn't germinate. They were planted out last week.