seeds

[Salina]

I was wondering can you use your own seeds/pips? like the ones you get out of peppers/apples/oranges/lemons etc? like, if you were to dry them out and plant them would anything grow? I know my nan has planted lemon and apple seeds and things have grown but not sure if fruit ever grew on them.

[SarzWix]

The ones from peppers can be saved and sown, although if they've been grown somewhere very hot, the variety might not be happy in our dodgy climate... Apples/pears/ etc will grow, but you have no idea what size of tree they will grow into (usually massive) and they will take years and years to bear fruit. Probably not worth it unless you have a huge field to plant them into. You can get cheap fruit trees in places like Lidl and Aldi sometimes, be worth keeping an eye out for them, or saving up to buy from a nursery in the autumn which is a good time to plant fruit trees.

[Salina]

Thanks for the info! they aren't a bad price here really....about €25 for a apple tree about 4'-5' tall. just thought it was be fun to start a few little trees from seed.....
Lidl have done strawberry plants twice now, and both times I've missed getting a few!

[Alice]

Salina, as Sarzwix says, you can grow peppers from store bought, but you don't know what the variety will be or suitable it will be for our climate. Squash from store bought seems to do OK. But if this is what interests you, don't forget you can save your seeds from your own flowers, vegetables,herbs, shrubs and trees.

[witch-1]

As we were eating tomatoes a few months ago, I scaped some of the seeds onto kitchen paper and dried it in the window... I now have 3 plants of 'our own' seeds amongst the shop brought ones.

Won't know if they will bear fruit yet... or what they will be like, but it was fun watching them grow - more so than those out of a packet!

I am just going to try the same with sweet pepper too. Not sure if its abit late in the day to do seeds, but will keep it indoors if necessary! Nice southfacing window?!

Good luck
Jan

[Flummery]

I often get seedlings of toms in the greenhouse soil - from the odd dropped one I missed! I let one grow a couple of years ago. It produced tiny fruits which were bland to the point of tastelessness. If your original tom (and often you don't know the name of a supermarket variety) is an F1 hybrid you won't get the same tom you started with. It's an interesting experiment but I would only try it if I had the space to do so. Hardly enough space this year for the guaranteed good stuff!

[Madasafish]

I have tomato plants seeding all over vegetable patch - self seeded form seeds in the compost: last year I had 2 self seeded tomato plants in hanging baskets: the tomatoes were small but very tasty...

(my compost has dead tomato plants plus discarded green/over-ripe slug eaten tomatoes:-)

[Salina]

Right, I've put a load of pepper seeds on the window sill on a piece of kitchen roll.
does anyone know what they will look like when they are ready to plant? and how long it will take for the seedlings to appear? and if they will have more peppers growing on them eventually? sorry for all the questions lol, never tried growing stuff like peppers before if you couldn't tell lol.

[Salina]

planted the seeds today in a tray with individual ''pots'' and watered them well, they are now living on the window sill. so anyone have any idea when the seedlings will appear? (if they grow of course lol)

[Flummery]

My tom seedlings all came up within the week - and that was in March when the ambient temperature was much lower. Stand well back or they'll be up your trouser leg!

[witch-1]

If you've planted your seeds this time of year, then I shall do the same

Race you to the first sweet pepper lol

Jan

[nosferato]

re the seeds i have planted water melon, orange,apple,sunflower,and anything else i could get my hands on in small "klix"cups i think all the rain has made me look for an out in the house being as i couldn't get into the garden. well the melon in doing wonderful re the others i'll keep you informed

[chrissie the chippy]

oooh, I've got half an orange pepper sat in the fridge going soft. I might have a go and plant them too

I had some tomatoes self set from a tomatoe that got left on the floor, and there are a lot of them too! Seem to have started off a lot better than most of the seeds I bought. Probably wont get much of them if anything, but it will be interesting to see! I will have to clear a few, but I am going to save one or two of them

Not sure if the peppers will come to anything! I live in the South so fingers crossed that will help! It will be fun watching anyway

[JazzDuke]

The problem with seeds saved from shop bought produce is that the variety is liable to an F1 Hybrid. I am told that seeds of these do not always grow 'true'.

[Sue]

Hi
Having read that you shouldn't plant supermarket garlic but buy "proper" garlic, I asked a fellow allotment holder if they would like some of my garlic, Solent Wight. It's very small this year, I said, but it tastes very good. Oh I swop you she said, we planted some bulbs from the supermarket. It was three times the size of mine, haven't tasted it yet though
Sue