[Kristen]

Blimey, so he does. Never noticed that little bit at the top of Seed Facts.

He also says to keep at a minimum of 65F (18C) until germinated - could that be folks' problem?

[Kristen]

... and Joy Larkcom says "... organic growers Michael and Joy Michaund ... have disproved the long-established recommendation to sow seeds on their edge. In experiments with cucumbers, courgettes and winter squash they found that seed germinated equally well sown flat or on its side"

[yummy]

I've been very frustrated with mine.

Butternut squash - 4 sown at home, 2 came up, didn't grow much and then shrivelled up.
6 more sown at allotment in plastic propagator - none came up.

Cucumber crystal lemon - 4 sown at home 0 germinated. 6 sown at allotment and 2 germinated.

yellow courgette 4 sown at home 0 germinated.

Green courgette 4 sown at home, 2 came up grew a bit, stopped and then died.

[bluealf]

Now that is odd, after all my problems getting any seedlings to grow and not wilt and die.

I have 100% corgettes after putting 8 in little peat pots on the window sill and watered them nightly with a spray gun, covering them with cling film untill they had popped up.

Same with cucumbers aswell.

But can i get leeks to grow 

Oh i used Sutton's seeds btw.

[sclarke624]

I sowed 6 squash. Didn't come up.

Sowed 6 more didn't come up.

Sowed further 6.



Now I've got 16.

That happens to me with peppers LOL.  At OH work he gave bloke some self blanching celery seeds,  same happened to him didn't come up sowed more and more and now has 50 of them.

[andreadon]

... and Joy Larkcom says "... organic growers Michael and Joy Michaund ... have disproved the long-established recommendation to sow seeds on their edge. In experiments with cucumbers, courgettes and winter squash they found that seed germinated equally well sown flat or on its side"

hhmmmm.
interesting......

[smilydog]

Hi Chaps

Planted courgette, cucumber & squash seeds direct last Sunday. All Courgettes up, half the Cukes and a couple of Squash are starting to break through. No special techniqe used, just water if the ground looks a bit dry and protect from slugs & Flying rats.

Best of Luck

Smilydog

[Mitsy]

Well I've got 2 lovely plants out of 6 seeds. luckily 1 of each variety I sowed. While I was repotting those I noticed it looks like the others started to germinate then stopped 

[Casey76]

I've also have weird things happen with germination this year.

I sowed a whole caboodle of courgettes/peppers/toms in April.  Absolutely nothing happened with the  courgettes and peppers.  The toms came up really lowly then seemed to stop.

After buying half the stock of the garden centre to make up for desultory results I planted another lot of seeds 2 weeks ago and surprise, surprise everything is starting to come up now... good thing I have plenty of friends to divide them between lol

[mumofstig]

I just think most of us were just to keen to get going and started too early............been some funny weather (as ever!) this year.....i mean it's quite cool here today....only 17 in the house where i'm sitting right now! no idea how low it's gone outside though
Brrr

[diggerjoe]

I've done well with courgettes and squash and pumkin this year - at least I sowed the seeds ( unlike beans - OH is never going to let me forget that) but its been the last week that they have really come on - before they seemed a bit lazy - puting mine up the plot in is still a couple of weeks away as I've areas to sort first

[scabs]

My first germination success...


6 courgettes - all germinated and going strong

3 butternut squash - ditto

3 pumpkins (from seeds saved from my father's pumpkins in France) - all germinated but one came up root first, got a bit tangled and I removed it!


All seeds were planted edge on.

[mashauk]

I've been sowing all my courgette and squash seeds standing on their sides as I was told to, and most of them have come up!