[Bluedave]

whats the expected success rate with starting off sweetcorn - i'm chitting 24 seeds in damp kitchen roll and only 2 have sprouted after 4 days. Is this normal? Should I leave them a bit longer or get some more started?

[BarrowBoy]

I started 36 off and after a week i had 30 that were ready to be planted, keep the faith more will come through.

[Spana]

Bluedave is it old seed .  I chitted some that was from 06 and it took about 5 days to show any signs but the new seed only took 2 days to have big shoots

[Bluedave]

It's new seed bought this year.

[Spana]

Oh I'd pot up the ones that have chitted and leave the rest a bit longer.  Perhaps some varieties take longer.  What sort are they?

[prakash_mib]

silly question though! Have you put them in airing cupboard? If you haven't you havent done any good to them.
I would put them in paper pots now as I would assume that seeds will go mouldy if left damp for too long.

[JayG]

Took this picture this morning (kitchen windowsill) which shows both my usual way of starting sweetcorn and the results of a bit of an experiment.

The paper pots are in rows of 4: the 5 rows on the left were fresh seed (Swift) and all 20 were up in six days.

The 2 rows of 4 on the right were last year's leftover seed (Swift) which were planted two-to-a-pot in case the germination was poor. Today is the 8th day since sowing and you can see they are much slower than the others and one of them seems to have failed altogether.

Conclusions:
1) sowing fresh F1 sweetcorn seed will give you near-100% germination without chitting (why introduce complications for no good reason?).
2) F1 sweetcorn seed viability is markedly worse after the first year.

In case you were wondering I have always sown sweetcorn like this (used to be cardboard toilet tubes until Richy provided enlightenment!  ) and have always got similar results irrespective of brand and variety.

[madcat]

Not having read about chitting sweetcorn until too late, I planted my kernels in pots.     After 5 days about half were showing.     But the last two took 3 weeks.    I now have 28 out of 30 growing away happily.  So don't despair yet awhile .... 

[Spana]

This is my experiment

All Extra Tender & Sweet.
Ones in pots with vermiculite sown 26th April, 2just showing today. Seed bought last year but packet wasn't opened.
Ones at the back in black seed trays were old seed in opened packets, some 06, put in airing cupboard on wet kitchen roll on27thApril and potted up on 1st May.
I've never chitted sweetcorn before and think it was worth it with the old seed.

[mumofstig]

I think the 'chitting in a warm place routine' just gives them a nudge to get on with it, and it's only a couple of days to see which ones will grow and which ones won't

I know the same ones would still grow without chitting but they seem to take much longer, and i've no patience 

[JayG]

I know the same ones would still grow without chitting but they seem to take much longer, and i've no patience 

100% germination in 5/6 days (no chitting!)

Just how impatient are you Mum?!!     

[mumofstig]

 very obviously. It was last years seed and I wanted to know if I had to buy another packet or not, and I found out by the next morning

That's my excuse anyway 

[JayG]

OK Mum I take your point about "old" seed viability as that seems to have been borne out by my little experiment, but otherwise it's just a load of faff (especially for an impatient person!) 

[Bluedave]

hmmm.....the variety is F1 sundance. I was just going to pot them up in peat pots until I read about chitting on here!

Do you think I should just chuck them in some peat pots this afternoon and leave them on the windowsill? Will they be alright in the greenhouse?

[JayG]

If the seed is fresh I think you will be able to guess my recommendation! 

They need warmth to germinate and the forecast is for some cold weather in the next few days so I would say indoor windowsill rather than greenhouse.