How long do celery and salsify take to germinate?

[Millymollymandy]

OK I now have sweetcorn (another packet), borlotti beans and melon Petit Gris de Rennes on damp kitchen paper in ice cream tubs so darkish. And celery seed on top of a seed tray in a nice steamy but turned off propagator.

Apart from melon (Charentais and very expensive) the others can't be bought here apart from some manky floppy bitter inedible celery occasionally. God I am soooooo tired of all this, every year it seems to get harder and harder, I don't mean the germination but the whole thing. I suppose it doesn't help that I've spent about 12 hours in the last 3 days watering my garden and my 'lawn' is now all blotchy brown and white and grey looking (bit like me!).

[Millymollymandy]

Ha ha yesterday a load more Borlotti beans decided to germinate, 6 more salsify appeared of the 2nd sowing and 5 more sweetcorn came up out of about 20 I jampacked into a seed tray. Must be the cooler weather after the hot spell!

...... and now the sweetcorn and borlottis in the ice cream tubs on kitchen towel are germinating.....

Well done Tony! So now what do I do, pot them up asap I presume?

[Odsox]

Well done Tony! So now what do I do, pot them up asap I presume?

Yes, verry carefully.
What I do is fill the pots with compost, make a hole in the centre with a pencil/dibber and drop the seedling (root first) in the hole and then give a real good drenching to make sure the compost closes around the rootlet, rather than leaving air pockets.
Then proceed as normal with heated propagator or greenhouse or whatever (as my granddaughter would say)

[Touchwood]

I'll definately be giving that a go next year, certainly saves taking up loads of room with pots and trays that never germinate. Cheers Tony

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Tony, just checked them and every single sweetcorn (12) have germinated! All these years of with the bloody seeds, why didn't you tell us your secret method years ago?

[Odsox]

why didn't you tell us your secret method years ago?

Cos you didn't ask me years ago.

[Millymollymandy]

Ooooh so you have just read all the the sweetcorn threads over the years and had a good chuckle whilst slurping and munching your corn on the cob?

[Odsox]

Have you ever tried typing with melted butter all over your fingers ?
By the time they were washed I'd forgotten what gem of info I was about to impart.

Another gem for you, this is also a good way to chit seed that is a few years old.
As I'm a mean old sod, I hate to throw away old seed and so if you're not sure about it just sow (say) 10 seeds on kitchen towel and see how many germinate. If 6 grow then you can expect a 60% germination rate. Simples.

[Green Aura]

I've got a packet of psb seeds that were best before 1996 - they're still producing every year and we've still not finished the bloody packet

[Millymollymandy]

Well I've just chucked orange cosmos good until 2012 and only just opened because absolutely sweet FA came up. Just trying again with a different manufacturer's packet. Lettuce isn't good after a few years which is a shame because it is absolutely impossible to use a whole packet of lettuce seed. And calendula doesn't last long either as I'm just trying again with a new packet of them too. Spent the entire morning sowing fresh seed, nearly a whole month wasted waiting for things to happen. Trouble is you don't know when that packet of seed is going to suddenly 'go off' so I wouldn't think to do a germination test.

There is no sign of anything happening with the celery seed on the surface by the way. That's a bit too small for damp kitchen paper though!

[Peggy Sue]

Hi guys,

Here's my experience, celery is not only very slow to germinate (about a month?) but even when it does it jus never seems to grow into anything big enough to eat- so I've given up on that.
Celeriac, I'm only slightly better at, it is big enough to eat, JUST

Salsify- this year was a last attempt ahving wasted shed loads of seed and hey- they are up. I think it took about 2 months to see them above ground, I do believe the parsips beat them up (I did sew them next to eachother) so success at last. Anyone know if they are the same family and likely to cross as I normally seed save parsnip? That way there is shed loads of seed and I sew it really thick - eveeryone thinks my germiantion rate is amazing but I think it's seed volume

I've had regular success with sweetcorn in bogrolls- much recommended, I can just about collect enough rolls over the winter. You've got to let it get to 18C before you sew them, but now I ahve my NEW GREENHOUSE (so much fun to play in) that's easier.

[Millymollymandy]

Yo stranger, I have some pretty red orach in my veg patch which is going in salads, tastes like shite (grass/hay) on its own but is lovely in a mixed leaf salad. Thanks mate!

Now celery. Does this come up as teeny weeny miniscule, pratically need a magnifying glass to see them seedlings? Suddenly I have a row of these teeny things and I have no weeds like that (I know all my weeds!). This is the celery in the ground not the stuff sown on top of a seed tray and it makes sense that the seedlings are tiny because the seed is so small. It's taken 3 weeks and 4 days to appear.

[Odsox]

Now celery. Does this come up as teeny weeny miniscule, pratically need a magnifying glass to see them seedlings?

Yep, that's it. Microscope more than a magnifying glass.
Plus it takes ages to get any bigger. I sowed mine at the beginning of March and the plants are now about 2" tall.

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks you two especially Susie - you're having a laugh aren't you, with my dry garden? I will water it a lot but I have a feeling it may not be enough, but I wanted to try growing it anyway. It's good to try new things.

[Odsox]

Here comes a "did you know" ...

Did you know that celery is a descended from a marginal swamp plant, so as Susie says, no good for dry sandy soil.