Good Seed

Nobody told me lettuce germinates in 2 days as well as Swiss chard and one pepper seedling. More to worry about. I spoke with Swallowtail seeds today about trouble with the Maverick geranium seeds. I've never in the past called a seed company when I had problems with seeds, but this year I called 2 companies. The first about poor development of the Nir paper whites. No, I'm not an expert on seed starting or bulb forcing but I try to follow directions when starting seeds,  and use sterile seed starting medium, fresh seed trays, light if this is a requirement for the particular seed and a heat mat to speed up germination. I haven't even washed old containers this year yet but bought new ones. 

Swallowtail talked to me about watering and that spritzing the seeds from the top is better than bottom watering of geraniums/pelargoniums as it may cause the seed to rot. I felt that tornado geraniums which germinated well and are starting to develop their true leaves would also have done poorly but they didn't and were also watered from the bottom. I do appreciate this information and will spritz from the top next time until germinated as they recommended. The customer service agent was pleasant and I was offered a credit or more seeds. Of course more seeds was my choice. Let's see how these do when they are sowed.

A garden journal would be helpful. I have so many pieces of paper where I took notes instead of putting information in one place. Especially for vegetables as growing food is new for me. There's nothing like going in your yard and picking what you're going to eat hopefully chemical and pesticide free if the insects and critters allow. If my yard received more sun, vegetable beds would be possible but where the containers currently are is where most of the sun is. Then the soil would need to be tested first. Last fall I finally stopped cats from doing their business in my beds by putting chicken wire were they entered the yard. Although I've seen one cat occasionally passing through, there has been no evidence left behind since the chicken wire. I have a problem eating food where animals have deposited their waste.

The vinca seeds sowed 2 days ago have also germinated.

Romaine Freckles. You've seen my little vegetable growing sections. What am I going to do with this many lettuces if it survives? I only shook this many seeds into the container because I didn't know if all would germinate. Must be the advantage to fresh seed. I bought these in the fall packaged for 2016. This is their anniversary year and all seeds are $1.99 the whole year. So when I have time, I think I'll order some other seeds. The lettuce will have to be separated. Should have used small peat pots.

I believe you can keep pepper seeds for a few years and they may still be viable. These are from 2013 and have started to germinate also.

These are 2015 seeds. I love my broccoli but don't know if these are even appropriate for my region. I think reading that it tolerates heat is why I picked these as it may not bolt as fast in the heat.