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.

@whataboutbob blooming lovely! I never used to like raw tomatoes and had to “train” myself to like them on a tour of Cuba where there wasn’t really enough food and I wanted to pad out a sandwich. The were lovely and when I asked why, I was told that this is how tomatoes should taste, when not grown under polythene and pumped full of fertilisers. So I tried the constoluto at home and basically ate them all summer every lunchtime with fresh mozzarella!

Gosh @SweatyChamoisPad that sounds like a dream to me. Looking forward to them arriving, I’m setting up a system of big pots in my back yard to try and beat the blight, as it’s usually rampant at the allotment. Fingers crossed! Hope you get a good tomato season too this year.

Also long germination here. Cucumbers took 4 weeks and aren’t doing well at all, sweet peas the same. I think compost has also really gone down in quality this year. I bought some peat free from Dobbies that was twiggy and smelled like manure and had lots of white spores in. It went mouldy after a few weeks of waiting for seeds to germinate and I had to start again. I went for low peat compost instead and it’s done much better..

Yes I’ve bought reduced peat stuff and am re sowing / potting on. Fingers crossed!

Yes OP! Mine are so shit and I've been struggling to work out why? Usually on a windowsill they'd be 4 times higher than they are now, whereas loads have barely germinated and it's so frustrating.

My guess is poor quality seeds due to disruption in production and distribution caused by Covid , plus the more widespread use of peat free compost, I get it’s environmentally the right thing to do, but peat substitutes just aren’t as good.

I’m a first time grower this year because the kids bought a £5 set from home bargains and wanted to plant more.

Our tomatoes and cucumbers seem to be tiny when compared with other peoples.

My SIL gave us a strawberry plant in a pot, it has tiny green strawberries on, but when we visited on Friday the kids were able to pick loads off the ones in her garden.

Maybe we’ll have better luck next year, I’ve mostly put it down to the weather not being very warm.

Yes. We had the same conversation at work. I've done seeds in the conservatory so it's not frost!

I've noticed this too. Salads and spinach - barely any came up indoors (have had more luck outdoors). Squash and pumpkin- I planted 12, only 5 germinated. I re-planted the 7 failures and convinced that it was the lack of heat that was the issue, I take the tray of seeds and chase the sun round the house with it. I even tried putting them in the car!
No idea about the compost, I just dig out what was In the veg trig from last year, so probably not the best.
I've added electric heated propagator to Christmas list for next year.
Relieved to hear it's not just me.