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Gary350
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Beet seeds, must be several seeds stuck together.

Since it has not rained in 2 months I can not get any seeds to grow in the garden so I planted beet seeds in plant trays. I was very careful to plant only 1 seed in each section, trays all have 4 sections to grow 4 plants. There are 1 to 5 plants coming up in each section with 3 to 4 plants being the most common. Seeds come in all sizes I assume the larger seeds must be several seeds all stuck together. It was 88 degrees here yesterday we sure are having some hot weather for this time of the year it might be too late to plant beets sun light is 4 hours less but I am doing it anyway.

pepperhead212
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I don't grow beets, but Swiss chard (same species) does the same for me. Some clumps of seeds are much larger, so I break them up, but still get several seedlings from each small clump of seeds, and have to thin them.

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applestar
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Yep -- those "seeds" are capsules containing multiple seeds. But since they dry up into shriveled shells, it's near impossible to break them up without damaging the individual seeds inside. I tried soaking/softening then prying them apart when pre-germinating once -- just to see how that would work, but it was too tedious.

Much easier to let them germinate together, then thin later as necessary. Beets/chards are pretty sturdy as seedlings and can tolerate handling.

pepperhead212
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I don't try to break them totally apart - just those large clumps, which I press against each other between my fingers, which breaks them up into clumps of three or four, which seem to germinate a little faster. It may damage some of the seeds, but there are still a bunch that germinate.

I have also found chard seedlings to be sturdy, and have had varieties with very low germination %, so I moved some from other pots to the empty ones, and they would have no problems.

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jal_ut
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Just plant and then thin. If you wait till the plants have some good leaves on them, then you can eat the thinnings.

gumbo2176
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Like applestar pointed out, they can be thinned pretty easily as they are able to stand a good bit of handling if done gently. I have also found that salad green seedlings in lettuces, kale, chard, etc. can be thinned aggressively since they do transplant well with a surprisingly high survival rate if kept watered until their roots take hold in their new spot.

I've got all my salad greens except black seeded simpson and spinach up and growing right now. I think those seeds were too old to use but I tried them anyway, but have since gotten new packets to put in this Saturday.

I do have a good crop of pole beans coming in and picked a gallon container full of them yesterday with the vines loaded with smaller ones and tons of flowers. I also am picking pickling and slicing cucumbers and got 8 off the vines yesterday, along with a nice container of habanero peppers. My tomato plants are thriving now and there are several small tomatoes on them, so if we don't get any frost until December, I should be able to pick a good bunch by Thanksgiving and beyond.

Love gardening this time of year.

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Gary350
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It finally rained 1/2" but it is hard to tell it rained the soil is still dry. There is a drastic change in temperature 89 one day and today's high was 61 degrees.

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Gary350
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Wow what an amazing drastic change in the weather. 88 degrees one day then frost warning the next night. High tomorrow 61 but warming up to 75 Sunday and in the 70s all next week with low in the 50s. It was 38 degrees last night. Going to be 78 Wed and 55 at night. Out summer was 5 months long this year.

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jal_ut
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That thing we call a beet seed, is actually a capsule with several seeds in it. Yes, beets always require thinning if you are going for large roots. Let them get up till they have some good leaves on them then you can have some greens for eating when you thin.



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