How not to screw up when choosing seedlings: personal experience, expert advice

Should I trust the internet, signs of good seedlings, proper storage of seeds

The beds are hidden by snowdrifts, frosts crackle, but sowing is not far off - in early February we will begin to renew our park of seeds and seedlings, buy new varieties and hybrids, and plan planting. In this article, we'll talk about what to look for when choosing seeds, what life hacks exist and how to determine a bona fide supplier, based on the experience of FORUMHOUSE users.

Content:

• How to choose planting material on the Internet
• Signs of good seedlings
• How to tell good seeds

How to choose seeds and seedlings online

We now shop online more often than in brick-and-mortar stores, including buying seedlings, bulbs and seeds. This is convenient, because it is not always possible to find the right varieties in local gardening shops, especially in small towns.

Many members of our portal believe that you should not buy planting material (PM) without special need, especially seedlings - it is always best to talk to the seller and carefully examine the goods in the store, garden center or, better yet, in nursery.

But when there is "nowhere to go", it remains to rely on your instinct, the recommendations of people you trust, and verified reviews. FORUMHOUSE has a section where users share their impressions about planting material obtained from specific suppliers. We recommend that you study it before placing an order - you can always find an alternative.

Alexander Shulekin

FORUMHOUSE member

Personally, I was lucky so far, I have not come across a direct deception.

In rare cases, the seller of seeds and seedlings is also the manufacturer of their products. As a rule, these are small nurseries that value their reputation and are ready to be responsible for compliance with the variety, compliance with storage conditions, shelf life and survival of the seedling. Ideally, you should buy PM from them, this guarantees product quality. Reviews about nurseries you will also find it at FORUMHOUSE.

Sodmaster

FORUMHOUSE participant, agronomist

They have their own nurseries, which is how they live. All of them are candidates of sciences with work experience of under thirty years. They don't know how to lie by nature, any advice is better than in a textbook!

And the criteria for the good work of most ordinary online stores for the gardeners of our portal are speed and accuracy of order fulfillment, kind and understanding attitude to the client, readiness to quickly replace low-quality products etc. And as a rule, in such stores, sellers place an order as the goods arrive from the supplier.

So, the participant of FORUMHOUSE Irina_D received a large order of seedlings, perfectly packed and delivered in just three days.

Irina_D

One big "but": clematis must have been packed already dried, some roses are also half-dead, honeysuckle died a long time ago.

In this case, the clematis most likely died while they were waiting for the roses to arrive.

Therefore, it is recommended to order seedlings in online stores in small batches, that is, 10 orders for one seedling are better than one for ten.

Member of our portal Missiya ordered in one of the shops the lilac "Beauty of Moscow", tempted by a beautiful picture in the catalog.

Missiya

And then a lilac came to me - a stick 2 cm. If anything, this lilac costs 600 rubles per seedling.

Such cases are not uncommon, therefore, another life hack - when dealing with a little-known online store, it is better to choose cash on delivery. Let it be a little more expensive, but the nerves are calmer, and the money is safer.

Experienced gardeners are also advised to develop a healthy skepticism about exotic rarities. Make sure that the plant that you buy in the obscure corner of the Internet exists in nature.

Sandra71

Participant FORUMHOUSE

Do you think my acquaintances believed me when I said that there are no climbing strawberries and lily trees? No! They believed the breeders and said: "I will take it anyway and try, I will not be impoverished from this thousand."

Many gardeners order seeds and seedlings from nurseries in other regions. This is not very correct.

Relikwi

Participant FORUMHOUSE

We need to buy seedlings grown in our climate, zoned varieties. What is good for Stavropol may not survive in the suburbs.

This is also true for foreign seed producers.

Sergey Olshin

FORUMHOUSE member

I ordered some of the seeds at an online auction, from different sellers. Came from everyone. From Canada, UK, USA, India, China.

Andrei Vasiliev, a consultant for the "Fruit Garden" section of FORUMHOUSE, believes that only ornamental plants can be bought in other countries and regions with a completely different climate than yours.

Andrey Vasiliev

If fruit, then it is better to order local. And not only in the varieties, but also in the rootstocks, and in the growing conditions in the nursery (too much stress on the growing strip in Stavropol in the first year, then moving to Tver and the subsequent wintering of the "fattening" in ideal conditions for an apple tree Stavropol.

With all the precautions taken, buying seeds online can be a good way to diversify your variety collection.

Still, almost all reputable gardeners of our portal make such purchases every year.

Signs of good seedlings

Growers usually have more complaints about the quality of the seedlings they buy than the bulbs or seeds.

It is always best to choose an annual seedling - the younger it is, the sooner and better it will adapt to your conditions, and it is better to buy it in the fall than in the spring - it will be the same seedling, just in the fall you will buy it directly from nursery. Make sure that the shoots of the autumn seedling are lignified - that is, ripe. The average height of a fruit seedling should be 60-100 cm. Requirements for the aboveground part of annual seedlings of fruit crops in accordance with the regions are given in state standards for planting material of fruit cropsprovided at FORUMHOUSE by Andrey Vasiliev.

In an article on FORUMHOUSE, we talked in detail about how to correctly determine the quality of a seedling.

How to pick good seeds

The seeds have varietal and sowing qualities. Varietal qualities tell us how the seeds correspond to the crop and variety, how many percent of "purebred" seeds are contained in the batch you purchased.

Sowing quality determines the readiness of seeds for sowing. The main sowing qualities: purity (absence of impurities of other crops and weeds), germination, moisture, uniformity in weight, size and smell, absence of diseases.

At FORUMHOUSE, we told you in detail how to check sowing quality of seeds and what germination rate the seeds of the main crops should have in accordance with GOST.

The sowing quality of seeds of many plants is influenced by the time of their collection and storage conditions.

Ludamila

Participant FORUMHOUSE

When buying seeds often, I have a rough idea of ​​when these seeds were packaged. Many of our seed packing companies DO NOT produce them by themselves, but pack them overseas. And the year of packaging may differ from the year of collection of these seeds (naturally, for the worse).

Having carefully studied the topic, Ludamila came to the conclusion that in many cases four can be safely subtracted from the expiration date of the seeds - this is how we find out the date of seed collection.

Shelf life of seeds of major crops without loss of germination

On a typical sachet of a Russian company, only the year and month of validity are indicated.

At the same time, many foreign firms indicate the year of packaging or the year of harvest.

No less than the shelf life (it is different for different crops, some seeds only get better over the years until a certain point), storage conditions are important.

In the photo, we see how eggplant seeds of the same variety and one manufacturer with one shelf life have sprung up.

There are only two shoots in the far left row - the seeds were bought a week before sowing, the right rows were grown from seeds bought a year before sowing and stored in a cool place, under a cabinet on the floor. The storage conditions of the first bag were apparently not so good.

Takeaway: Always try to buy the freshest seeds possible and keep them in good storage conditions.

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