I have been doing this with all my indoor started seeds ( tomatoes, peppers eggplant, melons etc)for a couple of years now. I would suggest lifting the upper layer of the towel and placing the seeds under that so there is moisture on all sides of the seed. I actually believe I get a higher germination rate this way. Several years ago I had a pack of peppers that was a 5 maybe 6 years old and had just planted them in cells to start and had almost zero germination, I thought oh well and dumped the rest of the pack into a plastic tray w/ a lid on and some towels and the next thing I know I have nearly 40 pepper plants to deal with, well that worked pretty well so I've been doing it ever since. One warning - don't let them go too long, they will root into the paper towel and that's a mess to extricate them without breaking the roots. The only draw back for pre-sprouting (beans, peas, corn) is you can't use a mechanical planter... Great video.
This works great with those tiny carrot seeds! I use tweezers to move the sprouted seeds to cells of a wet cardboard egg carton with a hole poked through the bottom of each cell and filled with dirt. Then I place the cardboard egg carton onto the garden dirt, or into my big pot! Perfect spacing for each carrot!
My kindergarten class just started their runner beans, using a similar method. However, we used baggies - paper towel, a spritz of water and the bean, sealed in the baggie, then taped to the classroom window. With the baggies being see-through, we could easily see when the roots started - a great science project! Also, love the new camera results! It looks wonderful!
Thank you for reminding us of this tip! We will be getting a full journey of your sweetcorn? It would be great to see how you plant them out and your position for them
You always explain things so clearly, thank you & enjoy the nice weather, it's starting to feel like winter is truly on the way here in the Western Cape 🦋🌱
I used a cold frame to germinate mine this year and it worked! I always put my cells into a seed tray and then cover using those small clear plastic cloches to stop the mice. Last year mine grew a bit then went brown and died, I will remember this idea for the future.
This is something I've been doing for the last couple of years, I have these little 72 cells starting flats, they come with a little plastic dome, and a tray, they are pretty cheap and are reusable. I put about 1 1/2 inches of soil in the cells, and firm the soil, either by pressing another tray down over the filled cells or with your fingers place a corn seed in each cell and cover with more dirt until the cell is filled water, and put the plastic dome on the top and place on a heat mat in two days the corn plants will start to emerge, they will look white, at the end of the third day, all the corn should have sprouted, remove the dome and take them off the heat mat place the trays in the sun and wind so they can green up and harden off, I leave them like this for 3-4 days then plant them out in the garden waiting too long to plant out, the plants are bigger, but the tap root grows down through the drain holes in the cells the makes the transplanting process much slower I plant corn in a in blocks, each plant is about 8 inches from the next plant, and 5 or 6 plants in a row, and about 8 inches from the next row and usually, 15-20 rows per planting. I only do this only for the first planting, all other plantings are direct sown into the garden, but the seeds get soaked in water for a day before planting. The corn is ready 2-3 weeks earlier, I start harvesting the first week in June. Yes, I'm American.
I've always used this with my runner beans. It's one of the few things I remember from primary school, when I grew my first ever plant on cotton wool in a jar, but now I just use toilet paper in old ice cream boxes. I plant a lot of beans, 60 seeds go in and I pick the best 40 for planting, and using this method only about 0-4 seeds fail each year, the rest form strong plants. I'm tempted to trial it with parsnips next year as I've got nothing at all from direct sowing this year.
Grew a lovely set a couple of years ago. The fronds were dark and were almost ready to pick. Then over the next few days squirrels took the lot. Was fuming. Fortunately I'm pretty much surrounded by corn in my area of Nottinghamshire. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't miss a few.
good to have you back in full swing Katrina..love sweetcorn with butter, salt and pepper and just adore that beautiful english girl skin of yours..thank god for summer days
Hi1 I enjoy your videos. This is a great technique-my wife introduced me to this. I soak mine in a cup of water, and transfer to a saucer surrounded by damp paper. then when they have a shoot ,I transfer them to seed trays. As you say don't leave too long or you will get mold. keep the videos coming.
Yes, this works, I did just this, germinated in a few days in the kitchen, then just planted into little pots, will take the risk soon and plant out on plot!
Hi mate love your perenial potato patch this is epic your the first person ever for me to see this. They always try to make you think you have to get rid of old ones left and buy new seed potatoes... generalised brainwashing for sales/money. Love these vids man.
Just doing exactly this technique which I use for viability of seeds. If I buy things like peppers many are F1, and this procedure checks ability to germinate.
Glad this worked for you :) I've been doing Tupperware-pre-Germination for years for a range of seeds, originally using kitchen paper but I now only use loo-roll because it will fall to bits when you come to plant out, particularly if you are busy and its a day or two late when you have time to plant them and the roots have embedded in the paper by then. The high-speed varieties of Sweetcorn, like Swift, is a race been germination and rot (they sometimes come with a fungicide coating because of the problem). I use as little water as possible so they aren't too wet which encourages rot. Bigger seeds (like beans) need quite a lot of water, so will need topping up during the germination process (to avoid starting off too wet), whereas small seeds like Parsnip are unlikely to need any top-up. Parsnip and Carrot seed very fiddly to then plant out, once chitted, to avoid any root damage, but they will be germinated in a week whereas sowing Parsnips / Carrots outdoors early in the year can take ages, and by the time it is apparent that they haven't germinated its getting late to do replacements. Final benefit is that if the seed is duff then that will be apparent really quickly, and in enough time to buy some more and have another go, and you are only "planting" seed which has chitted and is viable, saving compost and pot-space on the greenhouse bench.
I have to laugh, I was literally sowing my second batch of sweet corn as I was watching your video AND I was using this method! I have done this method for years and I use it for all of my corn, peas, beans, sunflowers, sweet peas and anything with a hard kernel like seed. Since switching to this method I have had the best crops of all of those! 😊
I've been lucky I guess I don't have a rodent problem, or at least I haven't seen any signs of rodents, despite living not too far from a flowing tidal river. Slugs are few, but like rodents could become an issue just as quickly. Winter here now so watching the brassicas slowly grow. In the last 10 days we've had 2 mornings of minus 5 degrees frost and then Saturday we've had the warmest winter day in years (20 degrees C).
I use this method for my seeds requiring cold stratification. After putting in th plastic container (or ziploc baggie) I place in the fridge or freezer. Then after a bit of time pull them out and let them germinate, pot up and continue the process.
I live in the US. I watch your channel because, along with the joy it brings, I still find very helpful information that I can still use, like this tip. I have some old seed that I have been hesitant to bother with because they are a couple of years old and wasn't sure I wanted to bother putting all the effort in just to find that nothing happened because they were too old; I will definitely be giving this a try! Also I got a giggle out of you talking about corn season. Where I am at in the US corn season just ended. It will soon get so hot the the farmers markets near me will close until the week before Thanksgiving because during the summer months everything rots from the heat and the bugs are so out of control that nothing lasts overnight.
Thaanks for mentioning the peas sowing until July! I was just wondering that! None of my directly sown peas lived through weather and 🐌🐌, so will give it another go this week!😊
I used this method on my Moonlight Runner Beans. My Firelight and St George seeds sprouted as usual, but the Moonlight just rotted. Have some sweet corn going now. I fold the kitchen towel over, rather than using a lid. Toilet paper isn't as good, it falls apart too quickly. Use handkerchief tissue rather than toilet paper. 😊
I bought these, every seed sprouted. They r now about 7 inch in height but have stalled. As our temperatures r relatively low (16-18° im not too far from you btw) . I'm hoping that if I sow outdoors now they may not ripen off. So I will keep an eye on your updates if you can do some please.
I've used this method of germination for years especially for parsnips as they are notorious for poor germination when straight soil sowen , the only thing you have to be careful of is not waiting to long once germinated soon as you see any indication of there white root appear from the seed you plant in your prepared bed never allow the root to become long or any greenery to show otherwise you will not get straight roots to harvest ,plant the moment indication of germination has appeared then you know they have started instead of rotting in soil in the old sowing method
I failed to germinate 4 batches of sweetcorn this year (1 inside, 1 in greenhouse, 1 in propagator and 1 in a conservatory). I had a few come up but then they got eaten by mice! I had to buy some plants online. I had no issues last year but I will try this next year!
I've seen the method used years ago...and have tried it...works well but I still go back to the old method ....here in Canada it seems that every year is different....thus year cold and wet....
seedstarting has always been a blend of art & science > particularly direct into soil ; too many factors playing about . best you go with what you've got there , after all seeds dont need light to germinate , just consistency
Hi again. Yeah my first and second sowings of sweetcorn both rotted away, did the same as you, from the same store and ended up with the same variety too Swift F1 you'll be telling me next you got them from the exact same store, in Swansea, South Wales 😂. Wouldnt that be summin eh? Anyway, my 3rd batch were germinated like this and put into Pot Noodle pots (I had 15 germinated seeds 100% success rate and had nothing to plant them in so had to compromise and I've used drilled pot noodle pots for ages so had plenty of those around). I grew them on in my shed under an old fish tank light I had. I planted the surviving 14 young plants out just last weekend. I'm yet to make a gardening video this year... not that I have much to show.. 53 pots (10L up to 75L dustbins) of different potatoes, a 6 x 4 split raised bed of garlic and onions and various other 'efforts' 😂. This is a great video for many that thought iys too late although.... Be sure not leave the sweetcorn in too long cause they just grow and grow as I found out the first time I tried this. Didnt check on them for first 4 days and they were pushing up the zip lock bag they were in.. incredible. 🏴❤🌱
I’m on my third sowing. Swift variety is always my first choice but I lost these in previous sowings so just had to grab what I could find in the shops. I’m convinced it’s the peat free compost. I’m doing everything the same as every year, it has just been the most tremendous struggle. A local nursery told me the the government has now put back the use of peat free compost to 2030 for commercial growers because the growers have complained about the poor germination rates and the cold spring resulting in poor productivity. Apparently there are still some peat composts available which I have managed to source. I’m afraid I will have to try to find some other way to help beat climate change! PS just checked in the greenhouse and nearly all the seeds have germinated in three days using peat based compost.
From memory, I believe you have a white Ikea propogating cabinet. Can you point me in the right direction re model name and so forth? It's probably not intended as a purpose propogator, but a great idea.
Trial and error / Learning by doing is part of my gardening philosophy.
Happy Gardening everybody!🌱👩🌾🌷🥀🌻🍓😋
Your husband is a very lucky man. Bless ya. 💚🍀🇮🇪
I have been doing this with all my indoor started seeds ( tomatoes, peppers eggplant, melons etc)for a couple of years now. I would suggest lifting the upper layer of the towel and placing the seeds under that so there is moisture on all sides of the seed. I actually believe I get a higher germination rate this way. Several years ago I had a pack of peppers that was a 5 maybe 6 years old and had just planted them in cells to start and had almost zero germination, I thought oh well and dumped the rest of the pack into a plastic tray w/ a lid on and some towels and the next thing I know I have nearly 40 pepper plants to deal with, well that worked pretty well so I've been doing it ever since. One warning - don't let them go too long, they will root into the paper towel and that's a mess to extricate them without breaking the roots. The only draw back for pre-sprouting (beans, peas, corn) is you can't use a mechanical planter... Great video.
Sorry to see that HARRY didn't find you.
The UK and the World would LOVE you.
This works great with those tiny carrot seeds! I use tweezers to move the sprouted seeds to cells of a wet cardboard egg carton with a hole poked through the bottom of each cell and filled with dirt. Then I place the cardboard egg carton onto the garden dirt, or into my big pot! Perfect spacing for each carrot!
My kindergarten class just started their runner beans, using a similar method. However, we used baggies - paper towel, a spritz of water and the bean, sealed in the baggie, then taped to the classroom window. With the baggies being see-through, we could easily see when the roots started - a great science project!
Also, love the new camera results! It looks wonderful!
This is exactly how i start my sweetcorn each year, they are doing well at about 18ins high now the slugs did get a few though.
Thank you for reminding us of this tip! We will be getting a full journey of your sweetcorn? It would be great to see how you plant them out and your position for them
If you all want to see it then yes! 🌽
You always explain things so clearly, thank you & enjoy the nice weather, it's starting to feel like winter is truly on the way here in the Western Cape 🦋🌱
I used a cold frame to germinate mine this year and it worked! I always put my cells into a seed tray and then cover using those small clear plastic cloches to stop the mice. Last year mine grew a bit then went brown and died, I will remember this idea for the future.
Thanks for the tip. Excellent stuff.
I used this technique for my parsnips earlier this year! Unfortunately though the slugs had them all a few weeks after I planted them out 😂
This is something I've been doing for the last couple of years,
I have these little 72 cells starting flats, they come with a little plastic dome, and a tray, they are pretty cheap and are reusable.
I put about 1 1/2 inches of soil in the cells, and firm the soil, either by pressing another tray down over the filled cells or with your fingers
place a corn seed in each cell and cover with more dirt until the cell is filled
water, and put the plastic dome on the top and place on a heat mat
in two days the corn plants will start to emerge, they will look white, at the end of the third day, all the corn should have sprouted, remove the dome and take them off the heat mat
place the trays in the sun and wind so they can green up and harden off, I leave them like this for 3-4 days then plant them out in the garden
waiting too long to plant out, the plants are bigger, but the tap root grows down through the drain holes in the cells the makes the transplanting process much slower
I plant corn in a in blocks, each plant is about 8 inches from the next plant, and 5 or 6 plants in a row, and about 8 inches from the next row and usually, 15-20 rows per planting.
I only do this only for the first planting, all other plantings are direct sown into the garden, but the seeds get soaked in water for a day before planting.
The corn is ready 2-3 weeks earlier, I start harvesting the first week in June. Yes, I'm American.
I've always used this with my runner beans. It's one of the few things I remember from primary school, when I grew my first ever plant on cotton wool in a jar, but now I just use toilet paper in old ice cream boxes. I plant a lot of beans, 60 seeds go in and I pick the best 40 for planting, and using this method only about 0-4 seeds fail each year, the rest form strong plants. I'm tempted to trial it with parsnips next year as I've got nothing at all from direct sowing this year.
Grew a lovely set a couple of years ago. The fronds were dark and were almost ready to pick. Then over the next few days squirrels took the lot. Was fuming. Fortunately I'm pretty much surrounded by corn in my area of Nottinghamshire. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't miss a few.
We have a badger that visits our allotments, nobody does sweetcorn as he gets I everytime
good to have you back in full swing Katrina..love sweetcorn with butter, salt and pepper and just adore that beautiful english girl skin of yours..thank god for summer days
Hi1 I enjoy your videos. This is a great technique-my wife introduced me to this. I soak mine in a cup of water, and transfer to a saucer surrounded by damp paper. then when they have a shoot ,I transfer them to seed trays. As you say don't leave too long or you will get mold. keep the videos coming.
Yes, this works, I did just this, germinated in a few days in the kitchen, then just planted into little pots, will take the risk soon and plant out on plot!
I used this method to grow my sweet peas this year, worked really well, thank you for sharing 😀🌼
I have used the same method to germinate seeds with great success
I've used this method many times and love it. I hope you get lots of delicious corn!
Hi mate love your perenial potato patch this is epic your the first person ever for me to see this. They always try to make you think you have to get rid of old ones left and buy new seed potatoes... generalised brainwashing for sales/money. Love these vids man.
Just doing exactly this technique which I use for viability of seeds. If I buy things like peppers many are F1, and this procedure checks ability to germinate.
I started mine in my hydroponics kit. Was amazed it germinated over night🤯
Glad this worked for you :) I've been doing Tupperware-pre-Germination for years for a range of seeds, originally using kitchen paper but I now only use loo-roll because it will fall to bits when you come to plant out, particularly if you are busy and its a day or two late when you have time to plant them and the roots have embedded in the paper by then.
The high-speed varieties of Sweetcorn, like Swift, is a race been germination and rot (they sometimes come with a fungicide coating because of the problem). I use as little water as possible so they aren't too wet which encourages rot. Bigger seeds (like beans) need quite a lot of water, so will need topping up during the germination process (to avoid starting off too wet), whereas small seeds like Parsnip are unlikely to need any top-up. Parsnip and Carrot seed very fiddly to then plant out, once chitted, to avoid any root damage, but they will be germinated in a week whereas sowing Parsnips / Carrots outdoors early in the year can take ages, and by the time it is apparent that they haven't germinated its getting late to do replacements.
Final benefit is that if the seed is duff then that will be apparent really quickly, and in enough time to buy some more and have another go, and you are only "planting" seed which has chitted and is viable, saving compost and pot-space on the greenhouse bench.
I have to laugh, I was literally sowing my second batch of sweet corn as I was watching your video AND I was using this method! I have done this method for years and I use it for all of my corn, peas, beans, sunflowers, sweet peas and anything with a hard kernel like seed. Since switching to this method I have had the best crops of all of those! 😊
I've been lucky I guess I don't have a rodent problem, or at least I haven't seen any signs of rodents, despite living not too far from a flowing tidal river. Slugs are few, but like rodents could become an issue just as quickly.
Winter here now so watching the brassicas slowly grow. In the last 10 days we've had 2 mornings of minus 5 degrees frost and then Saturday we've had the warmest winter day in years (20 degrees C).
Ive planted just a few corn this season for first time, in an area that gets shade and 5pm
I use this method for my seeds requiring cold stratification. After putting in th plastic container (or ziploc baggie) I place in the fridge or freezer. Then after a bit of time pull them out and let them germinate, pot up and continue the process.
I live in the US. I watch your channel because, along with the joy it brings, I still find very helpful information that I can still use, like this tip. I have some old seed that I have been hesitant to bother with because they are a couple of years old and wasn't sure I wanted to bother putting all the effort in just to find that nothing happened because they were too old; I will definitely be giving this a try!
Also I got a giggle out of you talking about corn season. Where I am at in the US corn season just ended. It will soon get so hot the the farmers markets near me will close until the week before Thanksgiving because during the summer months everything rots from the heat and the bugs are so out of control that nothing lasts overnight.
Where in US?
This method always works for me. Did the same this year and they're doing great.
try the same thing with sweet peas it seems to work the same although smaller seeds.
Very clear and concise explanation of this method.
most enjoyable
Thaanks for mentioning the peas sowing until July! I was just wondering that! None of my directly sown peas lived through weather and 🐌🐌, so will give it another go this week!😊
You’re welcome. Good luck! 🌱
Hi Katrina just like to Thankyou for the great tip on sweetcorn,I have been struggling to get them to germinate this worked straight away.
I used this method on my Moonlight Runner Beans. My Firelight and St George seeds sprouted as usual, but the Moonlight just rotted. Have some sweet corn going now. I fold the kitchen towel over, rather than using a lid. Toilet paper isn't as good, it falls apart too quickly. Use handkerchief tissue rather than toilet paper. 😊
Many of my bush and runner bean seeds rotted this year, I'll try resowing them using this method, thanks!
thanks Cat another great vid so simple and easy to follow.
Coucou
Formidable vidéo bravo
A bientôt
I bought these, every seed sprouted. They r now about 7 inch in height but have stalled. As our temperatures r relatively low (16-18° im not too far from you btw) . I'm hoping that if I sow outdoors now they may not ripen off. So I will keep an eye on your updates if you can do some please.
I've used this method of germination for years especially for parsnips as they are notorious for poor germination when straight soil sowen , the only thing you have to be careful of is not waiting to long once germinated soon as you see any indication of there white root appear from the seed you plant in your prepared bed never allow the root to become long or any greenery to show otherwise you will not get straight roots to harvest ,plant the moment indication of germination has appeared then you know they have started instead of rotting in soil in the old sowing method
Thanks Katrina, great tip !
I failed to germinate 4 batches of sweetcorn this year (1 inside, 1 in greenhouse, 1 in propagator and 1 in a conservatory). I had a few come up but then they got eaten by mice! I had to buy some plants online. I had no issues last year but I will try this next year!
I've seen the method used years ago...and have tried it...works well but I still go back to the old method ....here in Canada it seems that every year is different....thus year cold and wet....
Brilliant idea thanks
May it all work out for you!
Job well done 👍
seedstarting has always been a blend of art & science > particularly direct into soil ; too many factors playing about . best you go with what you've got there , after all seeds dont need light to germinate , just consistency
Hi again. Yeah my first and second sowings of sweetcorn both rotted away, did the same as you, from the same store and ended up with the same variety too Swift F1 you'll be telling me next you got them from the exact same store, in Swansea, South Wales 😂. Wouldnt that be summin eh?
Anyway, my 3rd batch were germinated like this and put into Pot Noodle pots (I had 15 germinated seeds 100% success rate and had nothing to plant them in so had to compromise and I've used drilled pot noodle pots for ages so had plenty of those around). I grew them on in my shed under an old fish tank light I had. I planted the surviving 14 young plants out just last weekend. I'm yet to make a gardening video this year... not that I have much to show.. 53 pots (10L up to 75L dustbins) of different potatoes, a 6 x 4 split raised bed of garlic and onions and various other 'efforts' 😂. This is a great video for many that thought iys too late although.... Be sure not leave the sweetcorn in too long cause they just grow and grow as I found out the first time I tried this. Didnt check on them for first 4 days and they were pushing up the zip lock bag they were in.. incredible. 🏴❤🌱
Fantastisch Good work Katrina you the best te moostiun te zaailing te maïs te Treebak thans te video good weekend grootjes ✔️☕🧤⛅🌺🌱🌽🐝🏵️
Fantastisch Good work katriena you te best te moostuin te planting te zaailing mais thans te video Top weekend grootjes 🫶☕️🌤🌿🌱🪴🌽🌺🏵
I’m on my third sowing. Swift variety is always my first choice but I lost these in previous sowings so just had to grab what I could find in the shops. I’m convinced it’s the peat free compost. I’m doing everything the same as every year, it has just been the most tremendous struggle. A local nursery told me the the government has now put back the use of peat free compost to 2030 for commercial growers because the growers have complained about the poor germination rates and the cold spring resulting in poor productivity. Apparently there are still some peat composts available which I have managed to source. I’m afraid I will have to try to find some other way to help beat climate change! PS just checked in the greenhouse and nearly all the seeds have germinated in three days using peat based compost.
🌱🌻 Thankyou 🙏 sunflower seed success 🌻🌱
I've got a random packet of sweetcorn seed I got because it was 3 for 2 and I panicked. Perhaps I'll actually give this a try...
10th yay! Only here for the thumbnail! 😉
The Acer behind you is stunning !! Is it BiHoo ?? Sankakhi ?? or "none of the above" ?? Wish mine looked that good.
purple corn
When are you harvesting your potatoes you planted 3 mths ago .????
2:20 Impressive bokeh.
Thank you! Loving my new gear 🎥
@@homegrowngarden Almost toneh😀👍
From memory, I believe you have a white Ikea propogating cabinet. Can you point me in the right direction re model name and so forth? It's probably not intended as a purpose propogator, but a great idea.
The IKEA ‘MILSBO’ 👍🏻
@@homegrowngarden Thanks
Hello mam
Marijuana seeds are sprouted the same way .