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Separation
Separated out the Roma tomatoes and potted up the sweet peas in the jar, some of which had developed 2-inch shoots and needed to be buried pretty deep as a result -- the ones that were less over-developed will very probably fare better. I got an 80% germination rate by the jar method, as opposed to about 30% by planting the seeds directly into compost, although the pre-soaking may have had more to do with it than the damp newspaper...
I now havethree four nasturtiums showing, and at least one seedling in each of the calendula seed-compartments -- I clearly planted a lot more than six! And the corn-flowers that I sowed from the worryingly tiny packet of seed I managed to save last summer, are coming up, to my relief.
The 'official' coriander is finally germinating, in addition to all the seeds that apparently found their way into the compost ;-)
We now have a lot of chillies, since *all* the various batches of seed seem to be coming up! Although many of the 'new' sowing seem to be stuck, as in earlier years, at the stump-with-a-seed-on stage, rather than opening their seed-leaves; I wonder if the reasons for burying seeds at sufficient depth is not so much to stop them drying out/shield them from light, as I had always vaguely assumed, but simply so that the friction of the shoot against the surrounding earth is sufficient to strip off the seed-case as it pushes upwards? That would explain why some seed-packets advise you to 'firm up the soil' over the seeds after planting...
I remember that I was originally advised to take up growing seeds as a means of therapy -- a form of creative activity, I suppose, and a way of paying heed to something outside one's own needs. And I definitely find annuals more interesting than having a low-maintenance house plant just sitting in the corner Keeping Me In Touch With Nature, as advised for hospitals and corporate buildings. But it occurs to me that, characteristically, far from being calmed and soothed by my plants I simply adopt them as another sort of constant worry :-(
I note that we seem to have lost the once-ubiquitous corn-camomile from the seed-bank altogether; I haven't noticed any seedlings coming up amongst the 'weeds' this year, and I don't have any surviving adult plants, unless the distinctively invasive ferny thing in the wildflower trough turns out to put out white daisy-flowers after all. But I don't remember the corn-camomile sending out runners like that, so I think it is probably another exotic American 'native plant'. I'm not all that worried, as corn-camomile was probably my least favourite of the various 'cornfield mix' species, being just the aforementioned rather boring white daisies -- if the feverfew ever actually flowers (neither of the two plants I retained last year ever did, although ironically the ones I gave away went on to flower profusely -- possibly the plants need bigger pots!) it will have very similar white and yellow blooms, as do many other species...
I now have
The 'official' coriander is finally germinating, in addition to all the seeds that apparently found their way into the compost ;-)
We now have a lot of chillies, since *all* the various batches of seed seem to be coming up! Although many of the 'new' sowing seem to be stuck, as in earlier years, at the stump-with-a-seed-on stage, rather than opening their seed-leaves; I wonder if the reasons for burying seeds at sufficient depth is not so much to stop them drying out/shield them from light, as I had always vaguely assumed, but simply so that the friction of the shoot against the surrounding earth is sufficient to strip off the seed-case as it pushes upwards? That would explain why some seed-packets advise you to 'firm up the soil' over the seeds after planting...
I remember that I was originally advised to take up growing seeds as a means of therapy -- a form of creative activity, I suppose, and a way of paying heed to something outside one's own needs. And I definitely find annuals more interesting than having a low-maintenance house plant just sitting in the corner Keeping Me In Touch With Nature, as advised for hospitals and corporate buildings. But it occurs to me that, characteristically, far from being calmed and soothed by my plants I simply adopt them as another sort of constant worry :-(
I note that we seem to have lost the once-ubiquitous corn-camomile from the seed-bank altogether; I haven't noticed any seedlings coming up amongst the 'weeds' this year, and I don't have any surviving adult plants, unless the distinctively invasive ferny thing in the wildflower trough turns out to put out white daisy-flowers after all. But I don't remember the corn-camomile sending out runners like that, so I think it is probably another exotic American 'native plant'. I'm not all that worried, as corn-camomile was probably my least favourite of the various 'cornfield mix' species, being just the aforementioned rather boring white daisies -- if the feverfew ever actually flowers (neither of the two plants I retained last year ever did, although ironically the ones I gave away went on to flower profusely -- possibly the plants need bigger pots!) it will have very similar white and yellow blooms, as do many other species...