Ladies and gentlemen, we have germination. There are at least 4 bean sprouts in every "hill" - bowl, really - and there are at least 2 delicata squash sprouts. And to top it all off, the zucchini has a few flowers.
There, before you, in addition to various weeds and bits of debris, are five - count 'em, FIVE - bean seedlings. Of the 25 seeds I planted, I have at least 22 seedlings. While I have no idea what happened to the first 25 seeds I planted, this last planting has resulted in plants.
Thank you to those of you who suggested pre-germination. I did soak 20 bean seeds and 3 squash seeds for a couple of days on wet paper towels. Many of the beans had sprouted when I planted them. I miscounted and forgot I needed 25 beans, so I went ahead and planted 5 unsprouted seeds when I planted the sprouted ones. All 5 of the unsprouted ones are up, and 2 of the 3 unsprouted squash seeds are up. I don't know if it was the pre-sprouting or the warmer weather or more rain or what. I don't care, either. All that matters is that I have baby bean and squash plants.
Happy day!
Look at them grow! I didn't presoak my bean seeds this year so they took a bit longer to germinate.
Posted by: Racquel | May 31, 2009 at 02:07 PM
Hi Kim - What great news! I'm so glad it worked on the second go-round. I just sprouted my beans too and hope to get them into the ground tomorrow, this weekend was just too busy. Maybe even the ones that didn't sprout were helped along by the moisture? I don't know, same thing happened with my snap peas - I put in the ones that didn't pre-sprout just for kicks and they came up too. I've never had 100% germination before so I think it's a good thing to keep trying. Or next year, if you really wanted to get tricky, you could pre-sprout some and not others and plant them in the same spot and see if it makes a difference.
Posted by: Karen | May 31, 2009 at 10:36 PM
We found out the hard way that lots of critters like beans and their seeds!
Posted by: Rurality | June 01, 2009 at 11:19 AM