Germination and soil temperature

This is 201 today. Looks okay, doesn’t it? Himself’s bean frame looks very perky, I think.

I’ve just popped up to the plot in my lunch break and been deeply disappointed. I wasn’t expecting any parsnip seed to have germinated, nor any carrots or beetroot (well, maybe I was a bit hopeful on the carrot and beetroot front) but I was genuinely pretty confident that the radishes would be on their way. They are not. All these seeds are going into raised beds, which have been covered by glass for a week or ten days before planting, to get the soil warmed up a bit. And maybe six days is too soon for even radish, but I shall be really peeved if the first of them isn’t up by the end of the weekend!

By and large, it’s said to be better to sow a little bit late than a little bit early because if the soil temperature is too low for the seeds you’re sowing it will rot before it germinates.

For the first time I can remember, I’ve had seeds rot in the greenhouse, and it seems I am not alone, Gill at My Tiny Plot has had exactly the same problem. So fingers crossed that my outdoor sowings will work better than my greenhouse ones.

Labels: allotment-germination, allotment-greenhouse, allotment-seeds

Pea seeds – to soak or not to soak …

Do you or don’t you soak your pea seeds before germination? Old wives’ tales say that you should (it speeds up and increases germination) or that you shouldn’t (it breaks through the embryonic seed case and allows disease in) or that you should soak them in paraffin (to prevent mice eating the seeds).

So we decided on a bit of an experiment – and one packet of smooth peas (hardy growers but not as sweet as the later wrinkled peas), a whole bunch of toilet roll inners and some compost later … a test!

Fifty-one seeds were soaked overnight in cold water. Fifty-one weren’t. Each seed was planted in a toilet roll inner and put in an unheated greenhouse. The soaked seeds had a blue wavy line drawn around their toilet roll inner for instant identification. That was nine days ago.

Today – two pea seedlings!

But both, rather worryingly, have appeared in the unsoaked tray. Perhaps there will be a better germination rate from the soaked seeds by the end of the experiment, but right now, it looks to me as if soaking pea seeds might be a waste of time. In the spirit of allotment innovation, I’ll keep you posted as the germination progresses (hopefully) and we’ll see what the final outcome is when we get to plant the seedlings out.

Labels: allotment-germination, allotment-overwintering-crops, allotment-peas