Fickle Borlotti Beans

[Greenleaves]

I sowed 24 Borlotti beans from fresh seed purchased this year and not one germinated, VC sent me some that had a sow by date of 2012 and 24 sown and 24 germinated.

Apart from parsnips i am not going to worry about dates anymore

[Chippy Minton]

I can sympathise, sowed 23 from last years packet and have 1 so far, the rest of the packet are soaked and on kitchen roll to see if I can kick start them. Otherwise the 20 or so Cosse Violette with 90% germination will be promoted to extra poles

[vixylix]

Interesting... I had some from the VSP and only 3 have germinated. They're funny old things these seeds - bet if I'd just chucked them on the floor outside they'd all have germinated!

[Florence Fennel]

Snap on the non germination, most annoying with fresh seed