Kitchen Garden Forum

This is the first year (in 12 years owning an allotment) that we have had a terrible germination with loads of seeds. Our broad beans are usually three feet high by now, they are one foot high. They have flowers but are not doing well at all. Our butternut squash seeds only germinated one seed out of three, courgettes the same really disappointed with general germination. French beans took three weeks to germinate.

All to do with the compost I think. I have always used B&Q multipurpose compost and have never had any problems but this year they have changed the mix. I also used Arthur J Bowers General purpose compost, I will never use that again too lumpy, I am now using AJB seed and potting compost. Has anyone else had problems.

Evening Catherine, i use Arther J Bowers, and found out that you have to be very careful not to over water. I water well once sown, then just keep the top slightly damp and no more.

Maybe this could have been part of the cause!

I've had bad germination and slow growth - I use the same compost as last year but I'm wondering whether it isn't the compost but more the weird weather both this year and last year which would have given us this years seeds to sow. I've never had poor germination with squash but they (and other) seemed slow to take off then kind of hit a plateau and didn't grow. They didn't die just froze at the growth they had put on.

Glad it's not my first year as would have been very dispondent!

Westi

I'm sure it's not the compost. I've had some really odd results with germination this year. Every bean seed I've sown has germinated but peas have been terrible; carrots slow and patchy but beetroot fantastic; brassicas good but lettuce very poor; tomatoes good but cucumbers a total disaster so I won't be growing any this year. I could go on but you get the idea and, as Westi says, we've had some weird weather for a few years which may well have affected the viability of seed. I've been sowing and growing for years so I know it's nothing I've done wrong but there are some things totally beyond our control.

The odd weather certainly has a lot to do with it, but iffy-quality compost doesn't help! Elsewhere on the forum I was grumbling about general purpose compost not holding water very well - the answer probably being that I should have thoroughly soaked it at the outset. That was to do with tomatoes, but I've also got broad bean The Sutton growing in similar stuff (all my veg here has to be in containers). I thought the broad beans were terribly slow this year: they are flowering now, but are shorter than usual even for this short-growing variety. But then a week ago I swapped notes with my daughter, who sows her broad beans in the autumn. Apparently one of her plants flowered in March, but the rest went to sleep and are only flowering now, the same time as mine. So, yes, odd weather conditions.

Our broad beans are small this year and slow to gorw and what is more they are being devastated by pea and bean weevils. The weather has been as much to blame as anything - although we have struggled to find a half decent compost and have settled on New Horizon. Even then we think it does run out of nutrients quicker than compost used to and so are feeding yound plants with a seaweed feed too.