I've made my mind up. No more John Innes seed compost for me.

[RaptorUK]

I sowed 40 cells of Mixed Lettuce in JI seed compost on Friday . . . one was showing yesterday, most of the rest are showing today

[Kristen]

Ironically, of the Delphiniums i planted some weeks ago, two have popped through the surface.

Germination of Delphiniums is likely to be improved by stratification (a period of chilling). If your seeds have had variable temperature since sowing that may have influenced the time that they germinated. Or they may have reacted to "Spring" - particularly if on a windowsill/similar and got nicely warmed up on sunny days. I think that fresh seed is also important for Delphs.

I found the seedlings to be very, very spindly and it took forever to acclimatise them to a different soil type.
Even using John Innes no. 1 and then no. 2 used to cause them to suffer from nutrient burn really badly but putting them into a cheap bag of regular MPC, which was my first introduction to B&Q's Verve brand, seemed to be just right for them.

Interesting points that I haven't considered before. Personally I would prefer to feed everything from the get-go and not have any nutrients at all in the MPC - then I can control exactly what's what

I have some "gentle" fertilisers ideal for young plant raising (the sort of things that Cannabis growers use for internal growing I have found to be excellent for raising plants indoors - their high value crops mean that they have done a lot of research, collectively )

[Chomerly]

Germination of Delphiniums is likely to be improved by stratification (a period of chilling). If your seeds have had variable temperature since sowing that may have influenced the time that they germinated. Or they may have reacted to "Spring" - particularly if on a windowsill/similar and got nicely warmed up on sunny days. I think that fresh seed is also important for Delphs.



Interesting points that I haven't considered before. Personally I would prefer to feed everything from the get-go and not have any nutrients at all in the MPC - then I can control exactly what's what

I have some "gentle" fertilisers ideal for young plant raising (the sort of things that Cannabis growers use for internal growing I have found to be excellent for raising plants indoors - their high value crops mean that they have done a lot of research, collectively )

Wouldn't gentle fertilisers effectively be seeding composts?
I mean, they would have a lower nutrient content in order for them to grow without suffering the effects of being sown in a stronger compost wouldn't they?