God I love growing our own

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One of the places I bought from claims that soaking the seeds in weak room-temperature tea will help with germination.

China or India?

I'm sure it's recommended that sweet pea seeds be soaked in water before sowing.

That's because the shell of the seed is so hard, it's just to give them a head start with the natural process. Serioud sweet pea buffs say you should chip each seed with a knife

 

[RJC]

I'm just getting around to sowing pepper seeds for this year. One of the places I bought from claims that soaking the seeds in weak room-temperature tea will help with germination. I'd never heard that before, but searching online suggests it's a commonly repeated suggestion. Except for the only scientific paper I can find on the matter, in which the researchers came to the conclusion that it made no difference whatsoever

I'm sure it's recommended that sweet pea seeds be soaked in water before sowing. I'm wondering now if that might just be a commonly-repeated myth, too.

James

I never soak sweet pea seeds before sowing...and I've just germinated my chilli seeds (without the aid of tea) in a pot on top of a radiator.

 

[JamezF]

China or India?

Chamomile or English Breakfast seem to be the options mentioned when anyone has expressed a preference.

James

 

[JamezF]

Serioud sweet pea buffs say you should chip each seed with a knife

I reckon they might need to get out more.

James

 

[enrico]

Pepper, sweet peppers, chilli, wasabi rocket, pease, broad beans, all showing under the grow light. Potatoes chitting well, tomatoes not up yet. Just ordered different cucumber seeds from Yorkshire Seed. Half the precise of DT Brown with twice as much seed. No fancy packaging but hey! Who needs that.

 

[JamezF]

The one time-consuming thing I haven't done so far this Winter is spread compost on the veggie beds. Sadly work has eaten too much of my time. As a way of life, I'm not sure I can really recommend it

James

 

[judy12]

I've read this re sweet peas and broad beans - suppose any seed wd benefit from softening the skin before sowing,. Thought I'd try soaking half my sweetpeas and half not to see whether there is a difference.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

another 'trick' I was told as a youngster was when sowing parsley (notorious for not germinating around here) was to pour boiling water onto the drill after putting the seeds in.

 

[Penninetrader]

I've read this re sweet peas and broad beans - suppose any seed wd benefit from softening the skin before sowing,. Thought I'd try soaking half my sweetpeas and half not to see whether there is a difference.

Real.life test, what can't speak