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Hazelky
Here is a picture of my germinated dwarf bean, cucumber and squash on day 6, now indoors as the temperature cools. They had four days on the hotbed when the weather was warm.
18/18 cupidon dwarf beans germinated, 5/6 Green Maraicher cucumber and 5/6 Hokkaido Red squash germinated.
Will transplant cucumber and squash to 8cm pots tomorrow.
Picture for you, Tris, of onions sown uncovered in pencil indents in modules…
Hazelky
I have just built a full compost heap after the first spring cutting of grass. With the warm dry weather I have been germinating dwarf beans, cucumber and squash on what is effectively a hotbed (internal temp 64C day three after building it). Seedlings are coming through on day 4 in case of cucumber and dwarf beans, no squash yet but roots have poked through the bottom of the modules so probably should appear soon.
If you are short of windowsill space, this is another alternative if you build a heap in the spring…..
Actually no Tris, they just stayed indoors uncovered for a week, then they have lived outside in shade now we have heat (29C today!) and have been watered again. I made the indents quite deep so the seeds are probably surrounded in moisture for longer.
Transplanted out my Kelsaes yesterday and they look really healthy. Five days of warm weather should mean good chance to settle in without stress. Also put out 120 Sturon sets after firing them in module trays. 10 rows of 12 each 10-12cm apart, 20cm between rows.
Tris
For future reference, you can make depressed indent in compost in module trays and germinate onion seeds really well. I sowed 24 modules Ailsa Craig, 24 modules Red Baron and all have clearly germinated well after 9 days. I will post picture here in a week or so when the seedlings are bigger to show you.
So covering onion seeds is not necessary for good germination.
Sandra
I have sown Sungold, Apero and Zenith up to the last week of April and had great crops growing in pots outdoors in NW London, so I would suspect you can still get a great crop in a greenhouse….
Amanda
God luck with seed saving. I have trying a few. Tomato, chilli, pepper, pea, broad bean, dwarf bean and French bean are dead easy. Onion worked OK but it is a two year cycle. This year I will try lettuce, winter radish.
Space is an issue if you have a small growing space. Pea and bean create good seeds n a pot, but I wonder if there eould be effects if you grew peas 5 years in a row not in the ground.
Just out of interest Ellegee, how many cubic metres of compost/manure did you need to set up initially?
Also what is the total area of your beds? Looks around 100sqm, maybe slightly less.
Fantastic garden though……
Good to hear you have some onions through Tris. I have hedged my bets with some Ailsa Craig and Red Baron seeds sown on Monday as my Sturon sets may have a dodgy infection which could be White Rot. As 120 of 156 have now fired, I guess I will bin the suspect sets and watch the others carefully before setting out in late April.
The aim was to avoid the allium leaf miner season but now my trust in sets is somewhat jaundiced……
Tris -out of interest did you sow in KD seed compost? I only ask as I sow all my maincrop onions, shallots and leeks in MPC as they seem to do better in that. I have never tried onions in my KD so I do not know if that is an issue…..
Salad onions do fine in KD seed compost……
Photo of Boltardy beetroot germination, seeds from Johnsons.
Several modules with more than four seedlings, some with six or seven.
So in this case, change supplier rather than sowing method.
Photo of second salad onion Ishikura sowing. I used a pencil to make an indent and put the seeds in without covering, as I knew from 2017 that soil blocks had worked well.
They seem to be germinating well. No heat used, just kept in my lean to outside for 10 days.
So salad onion may be worth germinating in a recessed indent without covering….
I am not an expert on these things but I have heard it said that many larger retailers source their seeds from the same suppliers, so if there were a duff batch then many retailers may have the same problem.
Being a nasty suspicious type, if you were a cartel global oligopolist seeking to wipe out smaller independents, one strand of your destructive wave would be to ensure they had quite a few batches of duff seed to put negative thoughts into customers’ minds. I always instilled ‘check the merchandise’ into my juniors when I was a cancer researcher at the bench: duff products costing £200 were as common then as duff seeds costing £2 are now!
As ‘garden centres’ seem to be selling less and less stuff for growing vegetables and more and more bird tables, sheds etc, it may well be that margins are barely justifying floor space occupied…
Does beg the question whether an equivalent to ‘Which’ could valuably batch test seeds for Uk domestic growers….