Tocsin wrote:I had a good crop of garlic last year and still have bulbs from last year's crop which have been kept in a cupboard. I used two bulbs yesterday. split them into cloves and planted them out, don't know if they'll grow but we'll see in a few weeks. Have planted peas kept from last year, they're in cardboard toilet roll centres in the green house (they can then be planted straight in to the garden without disturbing the roots), but the germination seems pretty poor this year
In general, when saving seeds, it is my understanding that it is mostly the temperature swings that reduce the germination rate not the temperature they were stored at. Of course you want to avoid freezing them but you also want to avoid cycling the seeds down near freezing and then getting them warm again. One consistent temperature (even if it is warmish) is reputedly better than cold with repeated hot spells.
If that is true, (and I believe it to be so, but have not run any tests on it myself) it would imply that storing seeds in a greenhouse is just about the worst place possible given the range of temperatures a greenhouse will move through each day. IMHO to maximize the germination rate you would be better off storing seeds in a shoebox in your closet where it is dry, dark and a consistent temperature.
the garlic i planted on the shortest day of last year year was from bulbs i first bought from tesco's 4 years ago ! what i first did was to buy the biggest bulbs and then seperate them into individual cloves making sure none of them had any thin sliver cloves attached to them, then simply plant them just under the surface right way up ,lol.
when they are readt to harvest i just lift them all up and peel all the loose yellowing leaves offthem until you just have the central round stalk with the cloves attached to it, i then lie them all out on a slatted bench in the greenhouse to cure for a week or so or until the central stalk starts to go floppy.i then pull off every clove separately and trimming off any miss coloured or mouldy skins, i then place the cloves in a net bag and hang them in the sunny lol greenhouse for another two weeks, then i sort through them again throwing out any rotton or mouldy ones and put the good cloves in the net bag bag in a cool pantry or cupboard. i have never lost any garlic storing this way yet , and have never bought a garlic bulb since the first one 4 years ago.ps. i also save tom,chilli and sweetpepper seeds,the real seed company gives you great tips on how to save most seeds.
