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Saturday 26 February 2011

Continued problems with germination

I seem to be struggling with germination on certain things this year I have made some early sowings which are in the propagator some with good results and some not so good it is the Celery that is giving me problems at the moment.  I have now sown 3 lots of 2 varieties Evening star and Red star 20 modules of each variety in each sowing. So far all that has germinated are 6 Evening star all from 1 row of the tray which is also a bit strange.


 I thought I may have sown these a bit deep so the second batch were sown on the top of the compost with some fine Vermiculite on top of the seeds this was over a week ago and nothing has shown through yet hence the third sowing today which is not going in the propagator just in case this is the problem.
I have also sown some more Vento which have had the Green stuff removed purely to see if this makes a difference as it could help next year to know how to get better results from the seed.
some of my Vento that have germinated don't seem to be doing that well either. on a more positive note the onions and leeks are doing well






 the soil testing kit arrived from Lancrop and I will be taking a sample this coming week to send off for analysing more on this when I do it .
oh and I turned 50 yesterday.

7 comments:

  1. i seem to be in the same boat as you paul my celery been in a week and nothing yet

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  2. You're not alone with the problems,I'm am having trouble with my exhibition onions. They looked unwell after I potted them up, so I watered the pots, now they look just as unwell and I feel I have been too hasty to water

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  3. I'm really dubious about Soil testing companies.
    I did it before I grew my big 'uns and they told me I had excessive Potash and Potassium and a depleted Nitrogen count.
    Considering that I'd just added a tonne of pretty fresh horse shit I found the old Nitrogen depletion a bit baffling.
    So after spending whatever it was for the test,about £38 if I remember I totally ignored it and added a crap load of fertilizer which went against everything they said and got the biggest onions I've ever grown both the large ones and the dressed ones in 2009.
    Let's face it,they say take a few samples from your soil at different points,but unless you take some from 18",12",6" and 2" deep where the roots get to you'll never get a true reading,and if you hit a hotspot of unused fert then it'll be untrue for the whole bed.
    And what gets me is that they tell you what your soil needs ??
    How do they know ? are they some kind of professional veg growers who know what it takes to grow certain varieties to perfection?
    I'd say don't waste your money and just go by gut instinct as there's no magical formula as far as I'm concerned.
    Add as much horse shit as you can and hope you don't get thrips !
    Dan.

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  4. Dan thanks for your comments I must say that I am also a bit dubious .I have 2 beds in the tunnel with near identical ingredients I was intending to have one tested and do what you suggest with the other and compare the results come harvest.The cost of 1 test is less than £20 so i will probably go ahead and test the theory cheers anyway Paul.

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  5. I'm beginning to wonder whether the merits of Medwyn's seeds are all they're cracked up to be.

    For me, so far, it's Vento - cr*p in all respects, Red Baron - near 100% germination and growing strongly, Sweet Candle - waiting in the wings.

    Last year, I sowed T&M's Sweet Candle and got half decent results.

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  6. Paul.W (Wlodarczak)28 February 2011 at 12:41

    Hello Paul, we met at Endmoor stump carrot talk. I was wondering if you got the fine vermiculite that you were thinking of ordering and would it be possible for me to buy a 100 litres from you. i believe you are going to Endmoor long carrot talk on the 8th March; I'm intending on going and perhaps I could collect the vermiculite on the night. Cheers paul.w

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  7. Richard I have had good results in the past with Medwyns seeds so don,t know what the problem is
    Paul it should have arrived by then I will bring a bag with me

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