Sometimes I do, and sometimes I do not. Cannot say I have noticed a
difference

Perhaps this year I will do half and half so I can stop dithering. Has
anyone else done that?

Not interested in opinions, thanks. If I want an opinion, I stick pi
into an onion.

Bill

In article <l82g8pFi7t4U1@mid.individual.net>,
Bill Davy <Bill@XchelSys.co.uk> wrote:
>Sometimes I do, and sometimes I do not. Cannot say I have noticed a
>difference
>
>Perhaps this year I will do half and half so I can stop dithering. Has
>anyone else done that?
>
>Not interested in opinions, thanks. If I want an opinion, I stick pi
>into an onion.

Well, stick pi into an onion, then - you're going to get one :-)

Yes, I have, and I put them on damp kitchen roll under cling film
before putting them in pots. It makes a significant difference,
increasing from a 10% emergence rate in the soil to about 95%.
For reasons I can't explain, this happens less with garden soil
in pots than in the ground, but putting them in unsoaked caused a
lot of failures even in pots.

My soil has something (or things) that attacks emerging seedlings,
especially legumes, and speeding up that process is key to success.
I tried various intermediate methods, but it was a hell of a long
time ago, and I find the full-blown pregermination one works best
and is least hassle overall.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 15 Apr 2024, at 09:36:23, Nick Maclaren wrote:

>In article <l82g8pFi7t4U1@mid.individual.net>,
>Bill Davy <Bill@XchelSys.co.uk> wrote:
>>Sometimes I do, and sometimes I do not. Cannot say I have noticed a
>>difference
>>
>>Perhaps this year I will do half and half so I can stop dithering. Has
>>anyone else done that?
>>
>>Not interested in opinions, thanks. If I want an opinion, I stick pi
>>into an onion.
>
>Well, stick pi into an onion, then - you're going to get one :-)
>
>Yes, I have, and I put them on damp kitchen roll under cling film
>before putting them in pots. It makes a significant difference,
>increasing from a 10% emergence rate in the soil to about 95%.
>For reasons I can't explain, this happens less with garden soil
>in pots than in the ground, but putting them in unsoaked caused a
>lot of failures even in pots.
>
>My soil has something (or things) that attacks emerging seedlings,
>especially legumes, and speeding up that process is key to success.
>I tried various intermediate methods, but it was a hell of a long
>time ago, and I find the full-blown pregermination one works best
>and is least hassle overall.
>
>
>Regards,
>Nick Maclaren.

I agree with everything that Nick has said. I always use seed that I've
saved from previous years.

I always presoak my beans and this year the germination has been very
quick - it seems to have taken half the time it usually does. And when I
put the germinated ones into pots they very quickly (i.e. after just a
day) sent up their first leaves.

I do this to all my seeds. Although the beans this year germinated very
quickly, the tomatoes were very slow indeed.

And last year I saved some courgette seeds from a single overgrown
fruit. This year I grabbed a handful of the seeds (about fifty, I
suppose) and put them on to damp kitchen paper. After only a couple of
days they had all (except one) germinated and, before I knew it, I had a
tangled mass of roots!

But last year my butternut squashes didn't ripen properly and they all
rotted away, so this year I had to resort to older seed. They germinated
pretty well but with nothing like the speed of the courgettes!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On 14/04/2024 17:58, Bill Davy wrote:
> Sometimes I do, and sometimes I do not. Cannot say I have noticed a
> difference
>
> Perhaps this year I will do half and half so I can stop dithering. Has
> anyone else done that?
>
> Not interested in opinions, thanks. If I want an opinion, I stick pi
> into an onion.
>
> Bill

Isn't the question more, to chit or not to chit?

--
Global sea level rise to 2100 from curve-fitted existing altimetry data
<http://diverse.4mg.com/slr.htm>

In article <uvm3vu$10kv4$1@dont-email.me>,
diverse@tcp.co.uk says...
> Isn't the question more, to chit or not to chit?

I chit potatoes, and my grandkids claim I also chit at
cards.

Janet