Posts Tagged ‘buying seeds’

Sweetcorn is a popular vegetable to grow in every allotment, garden in the UK.  The supersweet and sugar enhanced F1 varieties are the most popular for their really sweet taste and ease of growing them even for a beginner. The cobs are much tastier than the supermarket ones, as the sugar turns to starch rather quickly after picking.

Sowing the sweetcorn seeds:

The best time is to start sowing the sweetcorn is middle of April.  Sow the seeds inside in small, about 7cm pots or in those larger seed cells 2cm deep, 1 or 2 seeds per pot. Using ordinary compost is fine. Sweetcorn seeds ideally need a temperature of 15 Celsius and above to germinate successfully.

The seeds can be sown directly outside from middle of May, but be prepared to loose some plants this way as mice and birds can find the seeds easily in the soil. Raising the sweetcorn inside is much recommended and it’s really worth the extra work.

Transplanting:

Before transplanting the seedlings outside make sure that you acclimatize them to the outdoor conditions. This is easily done by leaving the plants outside for the day and putting them back inside for the night. Do this for 3-5 days before planting out in middle of May.

Sweetcorn needs a well dug, rich soil. Dig in plenty of home made compost or well rotted manure a month before planting out.  Grow the plants in blocks, leaving 40-50 cm between the plants. This will help with the pollination, it is done by the wind in the sweetcorn’s case, and the plants protect each other from the wind too.  If you have only limited space you can grow smaller veggies between the plants, like dwarf beans, lettuce.  Water the plants in dry spells, especially when flowering.

Harvesting:

Test the kernels before picking your sweetcorn, if the juice is sort of creamy and the kernels are soft then the cob is ready to be picked. Normally they ready when the silk is turned brown and just starting to shrivel.

Cook your cobs as soon as possible to avoid the sugar turning starch. Hmm… best on a hot barbeque straight on the plot!

Sowing the leek seeds:

The seeds can be sown inside in the winter if you want crops in the autumn, however it is most common to sow in early spring indoors or later on directly outside. Sow the seed in a seed tray or in seed cells about 1cm deep in fine seed compost, it will help to separate the seedlings later on without damaging the fine roots. Outdoor sowings can be done in a well prepared seedbed if you wish to transplant the plants or directly to their permanent position. If you sow the seeds directly it will take the hassle out of transplanting the fragile seedlings later on, which is preferred by many gardeners. Germination can take 2-3 weeks. After the seedlings appear start thinning them out, leaving about 5cm between the plants. Later on, if sown in a permanent bed, thin the plants to 20-25cm apart.

Transplanting:

A more traditional way is to transplant the seedlings from an earlier indoor sowing, into a well prepared bed. This is normally done in June, when the seedlings 17-23 cm tall. Make 12-15 cm deep holes, slightly trim the leaves (this is to compensate for any root damage during transplanting) and place the seedlings gently into the whole, setting each plant so that its leaves lie along the row not across it. That way you will be able to hoe between the rows more easily without damaging the leaves. Do not fill the holes with soil, just gently water the plants in regularly. Water the seedlings well in the first few days and when there is a dry spell.

Lobelia seeds are very tiny, rather dust-like, but do not be scared, it is easy to sow and grow them. Actually one of the easiest annual flower and the rewards of the shiny flowers are really worth the try to grow these beauties in your garden. If you have hanging baskets around your house or shed, then in those you can grow the trailing varieties, like our cascade mix. The bush varieties mostly used in borders, smaller garden tubs or why not try your favourite biscuit’s tin to grow lobelia in.

Sowing:

Sprinkle the lobelia seeds on the surface of a good seed compost and do not cover the seeds with anything, the lobelia seeds need light to germinate. Gently firm the compost down after you sprinkled the seeds. Keep the seed trays, pots at a temperature of 18-24 Celsius. The germination can take 14-20 days. Sow the seeds from February onwards, generally about 7 weeks before you want to transplant the seedlings. Placing the seeds into a polythene bag can aid germination by keeping the seeds warm and moist. Water the lobelia seeds always from the bottom, so the water will not disturb the tiny seeds.

Transplanting:

When the seedling are large enough to handle transplant them into medium sized pots, tubs, baskets  in bunches of 5-10, it is really not an easy task to transplant all the little plants individually and there is no need to do that. Many gardeners just sow the seeds into the tubs they want to grow the flowers in and later just thin the seedlings as it is necessary. Gradually acclimatize the plants to outdoor conditions before planting them outside after all the risk of frost has passed in your area. Be careful not to brake the plants, but do not worry too much as you will have more than enough as we offer a large number of seeds at low price. Lobelias like a moist, rich soil, and a shady location.

Dumping off is a common disease of the lobelia seedlings. It is a fungal disease and it rots the stems by the soil surface. To avoid this problem you can improve the circulation in the greenhouse, make sure you water the plants from the bottom, do not wet the foliage and avoid temperature fluctuation as much as possible.

This week’s breaking news in the gardening world is that some retailers sell carrot plug plants at really high price. The highest price was 1.09, but after the famous Which? approached the company, it has stopped selling the plugs. Wow, well done Which?. Other retailers offer the carrots from 44p a piece, and it is still a poor value for money.

OK, so some gardeners do want to grow veggies from plug plants, and it is understandable that you can buy tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers as plugs, in the end you will have more then 1 fruit from one plant. One carrot plant will produce only one carrot though and, well for 44p or 109p it is not exactly a grow your own and save money project, is it?! And it is really easy and popular to grow carrots from seed, and most of the seed retailers offer great value carrot seeds.

We believe that with some practice everyone can grow their own vegetables from seeds at low prices. Money saving is one of the major factors when people turn to grow their own vegetables and there are companies out there, who sell quality and cheap vegetable seeds. So watch out if you want to save money on your gardening!

Most fruits and vegetables grown around the world by farmers are hybrids, especially the ones ending up in the shops. These varieties created from interbreeding two or more separate strains. Over generations of selective breeding and cross fertilizing, hybrid plants and therefore the fruits can be tailored to have any specific characteristics. They may have larger fruits, longer shelf life, sweeter fruits, faster growth or greater resistance to pests and diseases.

Simply put if two open pollinated varieties are crossed the first generatin, know as F1 hybrids, has the dominant qualities of its parents. As a result F1 varieties can produce more abundant crops than either of their parent varieties. In the real world it is much complicated than that, plant breeders work hard to develop new hybrids, carefully selecting the desired qualities over many generations by cross pollinating only the best performing strains.

Many of these hybrids are developed for their long shelf life, often having the taste only as a second most important factor. The hybrid veg seeds sold by seed companies are developed mostly for their incredible taste, like the sungold tomato, for their diseases resistance and vigour like the carmen cucumber.

The genetic principles of creating hybrid varieties was discovered by an Austrian monk called Mendel. He even published his results, based on experimenting with garden peas, in 1866.

It is time to sow the pepper seeds now, actually we are sure that some of you keen gardeners has done so already as early as January. With chillies is all about the temperature, as they are originally from a very warm part of the world such as India or South America. The most popular variety is still the Jalapeno and the Habanero type peppers.

Sowing: The chilli seeds really need some attention, so make sure you use a fine seed compost. Some gardeners prefer to use vermiculite and compost mix, you can buy them in any garden centre.  Sow the seeds about an inch deep and cover with perlite if you prefer, however it is not necessary. The temperature should be between 20 and 25 Celsius, so it is only possible to germinate the peppers inside your house. Aid the germination by sealing the seed tray or the pots, whichever used for sowing, into a plastic bag, surely you have one somewhere in your home. The bag will keep the moisture in as well, but be careful here and do not overwater. A warm windowsill, if there is such a thing, or for best results you can try the top of your telly, is the best place to germinate the chillies. Keep the temperature as even as possible during the process, well we know it is hard so again if you seal the sown seeds into a plastic bag will help a lot. Germination can be slow and eradicated with some chilli peppers, with the world hottest chilli everyone is struggling.

Growing: Once you have success with the germination, just transplant the seedlings into individual pots and keep the seedlings and the plants above 20 Celsius during the entire growing season, conservatory or a greenhouse are the best places for your pepper plants.  Again it is a hard job even if you have an unheated greenhouse the temperature will drop quite dramatically during the cold english nights, but do not worry you will have some good results if the sun starts to shine every now and then.  The habanero peppers need a warmer and longer growing season then the smaller bush varieties like tepin or the Bulgarian carrot. And yes, you do get better results if you feed the plants. Tomato fertilizer tend to be the choice of many gardener, but you can experiment and use any general veggie feed too.

These are just our recommendations, individual growing conditions affect the germination of the seeds and the growth of the plants.