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Baz[_4_] · 14-04-2012, 11:00 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

Farmer Giles wrote in news:
:

On 13/04/2012 13:51, David WE Roberts wrote:
Two things:

I set out looking for seed sowing compost at the sheds, and the best
they did was a JI No. 1 which seems to be for cuttings, or a very small
bag of compost for seeds but nothing in bulk.

So I took the pragmatic decision to use GroBag compost.

Most stuff so far seems to be germinating, but not the tomatoes.

So is it necessary to have a particularly fine compost for tomato seeds,
or am I just unlucky with my seeds - T&M Ildi and Mr. Fothergill's
Principe Borghese?

Is there anywhere (national chain) which sells seed compost?
Or is JI No. 1 adequate?

I can't remeber having these problems in the past, but it is a good few
years since I grew tomatoes from seed.

I just sow them into multi-purpose compost, and have done for over 30
years without problems. Put the compost in a tray, moisten it and gently
press the seeds in. Cover with about quarter of an inch the compost, put
a sheet of newspaper on top and place the whole lot in a plastic bag and
put it somewhere like the airing cupboard. Doing that, mine always
germinate very quickly.

Yes. But I put mine on a window cill, its the same really but at night on a
cill the temperature can go down dramaticaly. I think (probably wrong) it
helps to harden them off. ALL of my Gardeners Delight have shown. I know
that because I sow in cells, 2 per cell and plant half of them too early to
get a head start, if frost kills them I have more to plant, so what! Same
with runner beans.
I admit it can only be a couple of weeks before the younger ones catch up
but by that time we are eating tomatoes.

Baz