Anyone else getting poor germination rates this year?

[whataboutbob]

I grow mostly veg for my allotment. This year my tomatoes, which are usually my pride and joy, are small and stunted. Same with the cucumbers, beetroot, parsley. Only the sweetcorn and to an extent beans are doing ok. I’m wondering whether 1) it’s poorer seed quality, I notice many seeds form the big brands are originally from China and I wonder whether covid last year affected production 2) I’ve used peat free compost and I have to report it really isn’t good. I paid top dollar for Incredipeatfree from Thompson and Morgan and it’s dry, full of twigs and bark. I’d be interested to hear how others have been getting in this year.

Germination has not been too bad for both flowers and veg, but the seedlings seem to take an age to grow big enough to pot on. I am now starting to plant some things out and they are really taking off once they get into the soil.

A flower growing group I'm a member of have been reporting problems too

Ive been using Silvagrow compost as recommended by the RHS, which looks quite good, but it doesn't half dry out quickly.

I direct sow veg into containers and hardly anything is even sprouting. New compost in all containers. What ARE growing well are weed seedlings in the brand new compost and I don't know why as we are on a slated garden with no flowerbeds. Even peas shoots are crap and the courgette Gold Rush so reliable last year hasn't germinated at all.

It’s weird isn’t it. The other allotment holders are finding the same. I think my beans did ok because there’s a good amount of nutrition in the seed, but for little seeds it’s been near hopeless this year. I just hope they catch up when planted out .

Broad beans and peas germinated and grew well this year here in the SE of England (much better than last where the cold and wet rotted them) but struggling with everything else. It's slow growth rates as well as poor germination; sweet peas are especially stunted.

I'm using mostly peat free shop bought compost with organic rotted down kitchen waste and last autumn's leaf mulch and the waste from last year's peat compost. Using the latter seems to help lots but I'm not about to buy more of it
...so hoping my compost bin generates lots this year!

My germination has been close to 100% this year, and I'm using incredipeatfree, mixed with a bit of sharp sand and chicken pellets. I like the compost... although so far i have probably been using bags left over from last year. Last year i used coir and germination was terrible. Is it warm enough? Mine were above a radiator.

A lot of my direct sowing of flowers nigella, calendula, oriental poppies haven't done that well. I'm on my 3rd round of 18 squash seeds and only 3 have popped up.

My tomatoes actually germinated better this year than last. Cucumbers germinated well but seem to be taking an age to get going, same for courgettes. Runner beans and sweet peas were a disaster, two batches of each sown inside just didn't germinate at all. I eventually direct sowed them outside and that's been fine, they've all germinated.

I'm using peat free compost too and finding it isn't always rotted down well. Lots of twigs and one bag had what looked like sheep fleece in it that hadn't rotted at all. It also seems to dry out far quicker than peat compost. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it, but it is annoying.

Ditto OP.
I am on my third sowing of zinnia and sunflower have just bought garden centre cosmos, pumpkin and courgette seedlings because my home grown germination has been so poor.

Yep awful germination

black eyed Susan which are like weeds, every year I have to thin them out, this year only 50% germination

courgettes - 8 seeds - 3 have germinated

cucumber - 6 seeds - 3 have germinated

and so on… usual years it’s a massively higher rate.

it’s the compost I can’t think what else it can be.

The only thing I'm having luck with is my avocado plants. Everything else is taking an age to germinate and then gets eaten by something!

whataboutbob are your plants normal-shapex and just small, or have they grown funny?

(shaped not shapex)

Interesting - my tomatoes are excellent this year. But, and this might be the key, they're all seeds from last year or earlier. So from @whataboutbob 's OP, I might be succeeding because I'm using both old seed and last year's bags of compost.

Having the same problem too! Maybe it's the compost which is really chunky and full of bark.

My tomatoes have done really well this year, as have the cucumbers, sweetcorn and beans. Peas, nope. I had to plant more courgette seeds as none came up the first time and the second pack I have only had a couple germinate. I am using last years compost which I think has peat. Doesn't explain the courgettes or peas doing poorly though. I do need to get more compost for filling big pots outdoors now so it will be interesting to see how everything does when moved to larger pots. I have some beans in the ground, some will go in pots and all the tomatoes will.

yes all very poor here, especially small flower seeds
also, had a lot of perennial plug plants which I potted on and they are all just sitting there sulking
I've been using coir compost
most recently I added chicken manure pellets (for the courgettes and squash) and that seems to have been better

Mine got off to a slow start as we had frost late this year which stunted them. But they’re really taking off now. No issues with germination. In fact find the whole thinning process difficult because I wish I had room to grow everything that sprouts.

I had more germination problems last year than this but things are very slow to get past the two or three leaf stage.

I don't think it's the compost which is the same brand as last year (and a make that does test for herbicide contamination I think). I've used peat free compost for donkeys years and never had a problem with it. Plus I am suffering even more with things grown in the ground. Multiple germination failure on broad beans (never had this before) and everything in the ground very slow to get going.

I think it's mostly down to water stress from the prolonged dry spells we've had and just general problems with hot, very dry and sunny days with comparatively cold nights.

My carrots and leeks hardly germinated. These were direct planted into the garden. The missing carrots could be slugs but leeks usually are ok.

But we had a long dry spell in April and some really hot full sunny days. I think that did for them. And chilly nights.

The slugs have been having a party with my direct-sown French beans in the same raised beds I grew sweetcorn into last year. I think last year's compost was full of slug eggs; I can't think where else the baby slugs are coming from.

I’m not having a problem, but I’m using my own garden compost

some of my house seedlings have been really slow - not sure if it’s because I turned the central heating off earlier than usual. I did sow some costoluto fiorentino tomatoes from Suttons that were really slow. A fortnight later I then planted some from Sarah Raven that I used last year and they’ve massively overtaken the Suttons ones. Nasturtiums have also been very slow. I have switched to peat free but I wish they’d tell you what kind on the bag - I have little to no luck with coir compost.

Interesting, my feeling is that maybe the 2020/2021 produced seeds are not as good as previous years, plus the variable (I’ll stick my head out here) and often poorer quality peat free compost. I’ve had an allotment for 11 years and this has been the poorest in terms of getting healthy seedlings going .

@SweatyChamoisPad what’s the flavour or Costoluto Fiorentino? I’ve ordered some plantlets from Sarah Raven.

I've used peat free for ten years and had some pretty ropey looking stuff sometimes but the plants have grown fine in it.