High Percentage of Seed Germination Failures

by Andrew
(Cambridge)

I know the weather hasn't been too good of late but I'm beginning to see how low soil temperatures is preventing a high percentage of crop seeds from either germinating or growing properly.

As you may have read from my previous blogs/comments, my wife and I planted and had sown cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli peppers, sweet peppers, courgettes, brocolli, cabbage, several types of lettuce and french beans.

The baby corn failed to grow more than a few inches and then died, the lettuce are showing an apathetic attitude to growing and the peppers all seem to be on a 'go slow'

Since Cambridge is further north than Rick's place all I can assume is the growing season is a few weeks behind as even our tomatoes are still only 3 to 4 inches in height.
I found using the heated propagators great for starting off seeds but unless one has a warm greenhouse then placing these seedlings in an unheated greenhouse is risking the health of the plant.

Some of these failures are down to me and my lack of green fingers however I have noticed that many seeds from well known seed retailers/breeders are not viable even when following instructions to the letter - which is a bit of pain in the wallet since seeds aren't cheap.

I compared the price of a packet of cucumber seeds to a ready grown specimen being sold in the same retailer and the healthy looking plant that was already trying to climb out of the pot was in fact cheaper than the pack of seeds which considering they have factored in their greenhouse heating, watering and plant feeding costs is very good.

Having seen on this site and You Tube how successful Rick's hydroponic set up is and how little space it takes up, I'm convinced this is the way forward to efficient growing. I'm now reading up on every 'how to grow fruit and veg' book that I can get my compost covered hands on in an effort to stem the losses. Having said that, my Cherry seedlings are growing well and the red onions are poking through the soil.