Sturon Germination.

[Stringfellow]

I made my first sowings on 12th February, and these included onions from seed: Red Baron from OGC and Sturon from Stormy Hall. They were placed on gentle heat and the Red Baron have leaped out of the module compost. Not so for the Sturon, with literally only two or three appearing.

Could they still materialise or would it be safer to purchase new seed and sow again asap?

I noticed on the March 2012 archive that you suffered the same trouble Charles – how do you make future decisions on seed purchases? I really want to support SH as I like the fact they are localish, to me, and farm Biodynamically. I also sowed their Boltardy beetroot seed and that has done really well. However, non-germination is really rather frustrating!

Suppose everything can’t go according to plan

[charles]

 Thanks for posting this Stringfellow, I had exactly the same experience (see March 2014 under This Month, seed sown Jan 29th) and I sent Stromy Hall the photo of their seed not emerging, alongside seeds which have come up well, in the same tray. They replied that the supplier had done a germination test in Dec. 2013 and found "a germination rate well above the EU standards". Yet I had 5% germination and uneven growth of what emerged, a classic sign of old seed.

 I can only conclude that such germination tests are done in perfect, laboratory conditions that have no meaning for normal, garden sowing. I find it deeply worrying because lots of gardeners like yourself must be experiencing seeds not coming up – and probably blame themselves. Meanwhile they have lost time, compost, greenhouse or bed space and sometimes have lost the chance of having a crop.

I should be interested if anyone else has problems, especially if there is something to measure against such as when you sow two different batches of seed at the same time in the same conditions.

[Stringfellow]

It is reassuring to hear that experienced growers can also have this issue; having just posted the incident, the timing was good, as I read your March post the next morning!

Other allium seeds were sown on the same day in the same compost and placed on the same heat: Red Baron onion, Ramrod spring onion, Figaro shallot (seed from last year here). All have germinated well, compared with the dismal performance of the Sturon.

I’ll still purchase from SH but not onion seed. Real Seeds do a monster pack of Sturon onion seed so may go with them next year. I’ll get new seed asap and re-sow.

Thanks.

[bluebell]

Having been very slow to germinate Red Baron have come up well but Red pearl is very poor with something well under 50% germination.
Both have been next to each other on the window sill but I did wonder if the Red Pearl were less tolerant of drying out as with the amount of sun we have had over the last couple of weeks I did find the seed trays had dried more than I expected before germination.

Also found very patchy germination with chilli plants 100% from Apache F1 about 60% from Nigel’s outdoor – which I thought would have been tougher!

[Stringfellow]

Hi Bluebell, sorry to hear about your patchy germination too. I resowed following buying some T&M Befordshire Champ’ from a local garden centre – excellent germination this time!

I was lucky, with both Nigels and Albertos chillis from Real Seeds coming up well and I’m going to follow your tips on pruning to keep a couple of plants growing (and hopefully cropping) over this coming winter.

Hope your Red Baron give you a great crop with few, if any, bolters!

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