Seeds not germinating in allotment

[Frostynight]

Half lighthearted, but I've taken on an allotment plot this year, after previously growing in raised beds.

Not a single seed that I have direct sowed has turned into a plant. Nothing. Not even the packets of wildflower seeds I sowed to fill a couple of beds near the fence until I can afford some fruit trees next year.

Instead, the weeds multiply as I watch. I swear I can weed a bed, walk down the plot and back, and there a new weeds.

And don't even get me started on the rabbits!

Sounds like my allotment. It was cursed.

There are some allotments near us. I like that some plots are more popular than others because some really suffer with shade.

A fellow allotment holder told me the mice eat the pea seeds and I should soak them in something (which I can’t remember but might have been petrol). I didn’t fancy that. The pigeons ate the first shoots on my runner beans.

in the end I stated lots of things off at home, (and would dash up if there was a sudden frost reported to cover everything up). I have since given it up 😂

I've had a really rubbish year for germination this year, the annual seeds I planted last year in the autumn, some OK some struggled and then eaten by slugs and snails. Seeds I then planted in the gaps have been so slow, I think it's been too wet and cold. My borders are very patchy.

I don't sow direct. The pigeons/slugs /snails would chomp the growth before I ever saw it. So I too sow at home and carry over as small plants.

Maybe if I used row covers more, but I don't. And seeds dry out so quickly, so direct sowing only works if you don't have too many pests, and/or you cover, AND you're over there all the time to ensure the seed bed is moist enough.

Take heart in the fact that this year has been a shocker! Combo of it being wet for too long (I think a lot of seeds rotted before they germinated), and then because it's been so wet there have been a gazillion slugs and snails.

I'm heading back to my allotment tomorrow with holly trimmings, as having put in my third batch of bean seeds, I am determined to not let these ones feed the slippery little buggers.

I start everything off in modules at home, in good sieved compost, indoors where I can see what they are up to. They only go to the allotment when they are a bit grown up. This year has been truly terrible for everyone, slugs everywhere and a cold spring.

They probably did germinate, they just got eaten by the bastard slugs. It's been so wet for so long, they're everywhere.

Yep! My garden has heavy clay soil which seeds struggle to get going in. I've improved it massively with home made compost but I can't get it hot enough to kill weed seeds and it's also infested with slugs.

I grow everything big indoors before planting out. This usually works half the time but this year it's more like 10 percent of the time. Everything eaten to tatters by killer slugs and the odd greedy pigeon.

Fruit trees and do well for me though. You just have to have immense patience because they will be rubbish for at least 2-5 years before they properly get going.

If you give up on direct sowing you can mulch your beds thickly and that will help with everything but especially the weed situation.

Rain and slugs have been awful this year - it's been a washout 🐌. The only things growing and thriving are weeds because I hate gardening in the rain and have had little chance to keep things under control. I've just had to buy more tomato plants as they keep getting saturated/nibbled. Blasted Mr Spikey the hedgehog is not pulling his weight and I daren't use slug pellets

Thanks all. I like the idea of mulching next year. It's a very wild site, which is wonderful, but constantly invaded by animals and plants.

I've just been up there for an hour, and picked 30 slugs off the onions!

Sugar snap peas are my superheroes, the seeds actually came up from direct sowing when nothing else did last year. Oh actually I tell a lie, the nasturtiums did and flowered a bit. And chard but they got to about 5cm and stopped growing so completely useless.
My Dutch irises flowered beautifully, I’ll get more of those. The daffodils all got eaten by slugs/snails. My lovingly nurtured sweet pea plants planted out this spring have all been wrecked too. And I’m expecting all my bean plants to have been eaten when I go back this weekend. Meh. I do like having an allotment really but it’s a good job I wasn’t expecting basketfuls of produce!

It’s a double whammy - the soil was cold for longer than normal, and then All The Slugs ate anything that managed to produce a shoot. I normally have relative success direct sowing but this year everything’s been started under cover.