Kitchen Garden Forum

Is it worth alerting the seed producer/sellers regarding this & your trail which provides evidence? If they are importing, or using new growers to provide seeds they might be interested, especially as it is them that will get the reputation & lose buyers? Just a thought & I expect at the very least they could send you replacements - hopefully not from the same batch!

Could it be the compost you're using?

Our Allotment Association has found that the peat-free composts are somewhat variable, we can't get peat based composts any more.
Principally when sowing seeds, some things that people never had problems with were not germinating well and in some cases not at all, in the peat-free.
One particular product we stocked had members coming back complaining that, when opened, the compost was full of fungi, in strong growth throughout.
Looks like whatever organic matter they'd put in hadn't been properly composted, our resident expert said leave it alone for a while and it'll self compost, just wait for an absence of "mushrooms".

I will be using Levington no3 which is loam based for most of my potting on in future.

Just an update, they taste delicious, eating the ones from outside now as the ones from the greenhouse are long eaten.

Picked another basket full, Onward, quite a generous cropper too.

I wonder if sally is alright seems strange not to have heard from her I so long or have I missed her posts

I always sow peas outdoors and most years have had good results. This year I bought some new seed, 1/2 Kg of Kelvedon Wonder from by local supplier Mole Valley Farmers. I always sow Kelvedon Wonder and soak the seeds in paraffin prior to planting to repel rodents and this year my results were miserable, I then found some old seeds I had from the same supplier and sowed them some weeks later very thickly and the results are wonderful. I think the ground was too dry and cold for my earlier sowing. My early sowing of runner beans (Enorma) again had poor results from the ground being too cold, luckily I had sowed some back up plants in the greenhouse and was able to plant them out. When I plant broad beans I always firm the ground down well to help prevent the crows and others from getting to the seeds.

Keep sowing

Barney

I don’t think Sally has been on the forum since February, Robo…..she always answered any question in such detail….

Morning Barney, I think most people have struggled with one thing or another this year, some seeds have germinated really well, while others have been really bad…..same with plants that have been planted out, while some have romped away, others have just sat there and sulked for weeks.
I bet it’s put a lot of new veg growers off, what is a huge shame….

Broad beans and carrots look to be my disappointing crops this season.

I'm with you with the carrots tiger, complete no show from first 2 sows so I thought I must have slugs or something in the soil & actually dug & sifted all the soil in the repurposed cold frame I use. Not a slimy thing found, but it wasn't a wasted exercise as quite a lot of small stones had worked their way up from the true soil under my couple of feet of sifted compost. I got about 50% on the next sow & all the gap fillers came up. I am now sowing late carrots in spud sacks at the back, which I'm hoping will keep them protected & a little warmer until more mature to stand well in early winter.

I'm just glad that all the sulkers (just about every other thing planted out), eventually woke up & started growing as I really wouldn't have been happy to rely on supermarket veg, from both price & taste. I note my FB memories page pops up every day with pics of my previous years harvests at this time just to rub my nose in how bad this year has been!

I have three raised beds, two produce good carrots one doesn't. it's too close to a beech hedge, funnily enough this bed produces great beans and peas, a re think is on the cards, can't move the bed now. it's too heavy.

Pea experiment conclusions, firstly Onward produce a decent crop that taste nice, secondly sowing direct in the ground this far north is not very productive. Starting the peas in a heated propagator produced about 20 percent more viable plants than sowing in the greenhouse with no heat. To me it disproves the often quoted theory that seeds have been eaten, I think this is a myth in my garden. pea seeds need a bit of care just like any others.