Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Germination Problems

 Nowadays I leave many veggies to run right to flower and seed to help the bees.  They just love these Purple Sprouting Broccoli flowers.  It is going to be a regular part of my growing plan now to leave a few of each batch to flower like this.
 In a few weeks' time my Winter Leeks will burst into wonderful purple flower spikes and give the bees another reason to visit my garden and to pollinate my other veggies when they come into flower.
 Elsewhere in the greenhouse I have had awful germination problems this Spring.  Only two out of fifteen sweet corn germinated, and nearly all my curcurbits, squash, pumpkins and courgettes have also failed despite 3 or 4 different sowings. Hmmmm
 Then isn't it hilarious that all the squash seeds in my kitchen compost are coming up all over my allotment like weeds!!   .... now I've been having a think...
 I'm pretty sure that I have not bought any squash or pumpkin from a supermarket at all.  I am pretty sure in this case that all these volunteers must be from my Queensland Blue pumpkins.  In which case I am pleased.   Nature knows best!
Finally from seed sown a few days ago, I have a couple of courgettes germinating. Left is Defender, (my favourite) and right... looking a bit weedy... is Black Beauty.  They should do fine.

posted by Matron @ 6:21 PM

5 Comments:

At 7:42 AM, Blogger Celia Hart said...

And I was thinking it was just me - I'm still trying to get courgettes and cucumbers to germinate. Waited unil after our holiday in May and now waiting for 2nd sowing to grow.

Someone advised buying in plants which I'm loathe to do but may resort to.

 
At 9:56 AM, Blogger Sue Garrett said...

For some reason we had a germination failures for squash last year!

 
At 6:15 PM, Blogger Mark Willis said...

My germination results this year have been a bit of a mixed bag. I had to re-sow several of my early sowings. I am so glad that I have now got a Growlight House!

 
At 7:45 PM, Blogger Matron said...

Celia - what I love about blogging is that very often we are all having the same issues in our separate allotments and we can now know WE ARE NOT ALONE!

 
At 9:27 AM, Blogger Tigger's Mum said...

And there was me blaming the poor germination on seeds from a seed merchant I'd never used before. I'll take it all back. Interesting about your compost heap. My mother never bought pumpkin seed. She never used our compost on the garden either, but that's another story. The compost heap was a HUGE mound, which came up pumpkins every year, got grazed by any sheep that were wandering about the yard, and usually provided us with a magnificent harvest of a mixed bunch of pumpkins that looked like the mongrels they were but all tasted good, kept well (stored in a sunny shed window), and usually lasted us through the winter. Their seeds produced next year's mongrels! You might have guessed we had oodles of space. My urban great-grandfather however grew his pumpkins up a trellis on a wooden fence, and built a small shelf to support each pumpkin that developed. Worked for him.

Regards
Tigger's Mum

 

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