Kitchen Garden Forum

For the first time this year I have been growing things normally unheard of in this household, eg. celery , fennel, cabbage, brussels, etc. etc.
So how come if I can get all these new things to sprout and grow, and even be ready to crop in some cases, I can't get the standards to do anything at all. By this I mean things like sunflowers, canary creeper, nasturtiums.
I have sown twice so far and zilch, nada, nothing.
Any suggestions

I have had zero germination for my french marigolds this year. A puzzle indeed!! They normally can't wait to sprout!

I've had all sorts of problems. My garlic appears to have rust for the first time ever, 3 lots of parsley have failed to germinate, and I had 2 goes at most of my brassicas sown in pots. And my broad beans sown last November have got beans low down which are big enough to eat, but no new flowers in the top half.
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Granny

I sowed a packet of flax seed. It states on the summary that it's the easiest of all flowers to grow. Only 3 have germinated!

My winter squashes have failed miserably - only one seed germinated, my courgettes had 50% failure and my climbing French Beans have also been rather mixed although the latter seeds were two years old. My one success was my tomatoes but I've come to the conclusion that these generally germinate so easily that they would almost start growing in the packet if it was placed near a source of water !

I wonder if it is to do with the extreme dry heat at the end of last summer which affected the quality of the seed that was gathered by the seed companies, maybe one of our experts on germination and seed collection could comment........it's just a thought.

Compo

I think the heat may have got to one seed company last year.??!!

I have not had any dealings with Fennel before..but was a bit surprised to find that the seed looked like Radish..well it did in the packet I bought.

Anyway I have sown some and up has come what would appear to be Radish.??.

...another packet was bought with seed that looks like large carrot seed that smells of aniseed... hopefully I'm on a winner this time.??!!..unless I get large carrots. ....that would be a first

So own up....who has set Radish and got my Fennel come up.

Clive.

I have also had the same germination problems with french marigolds. Naughty Maritia from wilkies normaly a rampant germinater. after 3 sowings in different composts still no decent germination When I get some time I think I will return the empty packet and ask for a refund . Any thoughts
Regards brenjon

Strange to read all your comments as I too have has some seed packet contents failing to perform

e.g....I had a free packet of Marketmore cucumbers curtesy of one of the magazines...nil germination...I purchased a packet from a local garden centre, put eight seeds in pots and have eight healthy plants

Similarly with carrot seed,this time bought from a garden centre I planted out the seed with extremely poor germination results I subsequently bought some carrot seed from HDRA at Ryton about a month ago and seem to have 100% germination....plus there was a heck of a lot more seed in their packet

I doubt it could be our climate Compo as I think very little seed is raised in this country. I've failed with sunflowers this year. When I looked they were still hard so I have dug some up and chipped them.

Didn't know that Geoff, what countries do the seeds come from then, generally speaking??

Compo

My tomatoes have been sown 4 times now and not germinated. I've given up and got some plants off friends. Sweet peppers haven't germinated so have re-sown for the 3rd time. Marigolds not germinated either. Herbs are diabolicle so have sown for the 2nd time.

I think it's just one of those years

I thought it was just me having an 'off year' Am on my 3rd sowing of runners - 1st no show at all, 2nd sporadic and 3rd just getting going. 1 packet of 'sunburst' squash was zero gernination, spring onions also zilch, leeks - ended up asking around friends for speares. Even the nastuium, usually complete thugs, are slow and spindly - only things doing better than usual are the brasicca but some kale ran to seen in the pot before I got chance to get them out.

Like you Lizzie , my marigolds haven`t germinated at all and my sweet peppers have only given me two plants from a second sowing Whats going on?

Seedling

I think there must be some duff compost going around or something. Sometimes it's too good at holding water and the seeds just rot off. Totally amazed at your not being able to germinate tomatoes, Lizzie. They grow like weeds those plants.
The only thing I've failed with is some anagellis (I think it's called that). An annual I'm trying for the first time this year, so I'm probably doing something wrong. Germination's been poor for leeks, though.