Topic: tomato seed failure

[cambourne7]

Frustrated with getting seeds started it’s seams to be either all or nothing tomatoes, peppers and chillis are new seed and zero growth. Sweetcorn in same soil has all germinated.

Anyone else having issues with tomatoes ?

cam

[galina]

Where and how are you sowing? In order to maybe help we would need to know quite a bit more. I would say it is too late for peppers and chili and only just about in time for tomatoes.  You may have to consider buying plants 

[cudsey]

I am having trouble germinating peppers this year I have sown seeds 3 seperate times at 2 week intervals  and have ended up with just 2 peppers dont usually have this problem

[Tee Gee]

Tomatoes perfect all from old seed or self saved seeds!

Peppers took quite a while to germinate and have hardly moved since, very doubtful if I will get any peppers from these plants! (again from old seed!)


Has anyone else ever considered the effects of the previous years weather on seeds?

As I have mentioned before I know it is certainly having an effect on my Spring produce could it also be affecting other 'seed forming' plant?


I am noticing that composts are in my opinion not  up to the quality they used be, and I am thinking this might be having an effect on the growth of seedlings.

In previous posts I have mentioned I lost a lot of plants in the hot weather we had in April through drying out!  It would appear this was not quite true.
 
On emptying the plant pots I have found that the bottom half of the pot in many cases was saturated with water!


Or dare I say' it is the compost recipes that are not up to scratch' e, g,

Is the pH right?

Is the fertiliser content lower?


In other words are the producers cost-cutting?

Are they are hiding behind the fact that they do not need to display the N.P.K etc at say the time of packaging, as they do when they show the quantity in the bag!


Then again: could this be an age thing, and it is simply a case of I am not using these composts properly, or it is simply, I am becoming a bit paranoid in my old age?

[ancellsfarmer]

I have in previous years found that my single tray electric propagator is not sufficiently big for the number of trays that I choose to plant at the critical Jan-March period. Also the temperature within is too low especially during the night.So what to do?
Well I researched online and discovered that for Euro 8k one can buy a germinator cabinet. Very fancy and silly expensive. Essentially it is an insulated box, with electronic controls, lights etc. If one was at Kew  Gardens , just the ticket. After thought and reflection, I sourced a scrap refrigerator, next purchase , an Inkbird 308b temp controller* (Ebay) and found that by placing the same Sankey propagator at the bottom, I could maintain 15 deg C. 24/7 It will hold 8 half trays.
 Better ,but barely enough for many varieties. I bought a infra red radiator 14w from the pet shop, normally warms a snake or gecko. Now my 'fridge ' can exceed 30 deg C-too hot!
.*Now able to control the heaters (total 30w) at any temp. Humidity is maintained by the fridge door seal.
Problem solved.
 Well ,not quite, in these super -germinating conditions, the seedlings grow -fast.Its dark in there. They don't know they are 'up', ang grow furiously. Needs checking 4 times a day to avoid triffid appearance. Courgette Diamante from  packet to 50mm in 48 hours! Tomato Marmande (2 year old seed) Packet to 25mm in 72hours. 100% germination.
The Mark 2 is under design for next year ,with Gro-light ?

[Deb P]

I’ve been lucky this year, really good germination of all veg, only a few failures so far, and they are where no seeds have germinated at all of some new flower seeds I purchased this year so I’m putting that down to the seeds themselves.
 I think waiting until the second week of March when night temperatures are higher than earlier in the year has helped, I avoided the temptation to sow too early, watching with interest my allotment neighbours who already have sweetcorn and courgettes planted out while mine are only sown yesterday!
I also used a greater amount of perlite/vermiculite in my seed compost mix as I couldn’t get hold of much good quality compost, and used my Vitapod propagator to start everything off in which is thermostat controlled so I could give the peppers and chillies the extra heat they needed. They all take big longer than tomatoes, mine were all up in about 8 -10 days compared to tomatoes which were up in 3 days.
 I think being around at home more has helped as I have had the time to check on seedlings much more than usual and they get moved around and pricked out and potted on promptly and get rotated outdoors depending on the weather rather than when I’m available to do it!
Like TeeGee I use mostly saved tomato and pepper seeds so they are fresh which I think helps too, my lottie bush tomatoes are kept from year to year and have done better each year as they seem to have acclimatised to my local conditions.

[Vinlander]

a) Most seeds need low levels of fertiliser - the main exceptions are cucurbits, runner beans and sweetcorn - but I would say tomatoes are probably more tolerant than most (I've seen plenty volunteering from cracked sewer pipes in the past - mostly abroad). So it's possible but unlikely that growbag compost was labelled as seed compost.

b) A bad batch of compost is entirely possible.

You can avoid both these problems by using spent compost for seedlings - you just need to sterilise it first. Before microwave ovens became so cheap you can find working ones dumped in the street ("Gomi" in Japan) we used to steam it, but it's a lot easier to buy the biggest microwave container in 'pound cosmos' etc. that fits inside and give the (damp) compost 4 or 5 min per litre on full power. When it's done it will be very hot for some time - at that point I always plunge an old tablespoon in mine so the implement is sterilised too.

Soil-less compost is absolutely fine in the microwave (don't believe anyone who says otherwise) but soil based compost can stink the place out - either do it when you are alone in the house or keep an eye out for Gomi like I did - so now the shed has its own microwave - quite handy all-round.

I also use a bit of perlite/vermiculite to combat the slight claggyness that develops in old compost as the materials break down and lose structure. Batches from previous years still have it so it's pretty much a one-off investment.

I also microwave the compost for potting on ~10cm seedlings to interim pots (why not?) - best to add some chicken pellets first (I like to call it cockapoo - I'm not much of a dog lover).

Same goes for sowing peas & beans in guttering (though I prefer the taller bottomless rectangles you can make from juice bricks or 6 pint milk containers -  4 or 5 can fit in a standard tray - enough for a metre of row).

Cheers.

[small]

My first tomato sowing, in mid-feb, all germinated and are beginning to set fruit. My second sowing, mid-march, all germinated but are not growing on so well. The third sowing, beginning of April, absolutely nothing! Same packet of Alicante seeds from last year. So I put a few on kitchen roll in a sunny window, nothing. How can seeds become unviable so quickly? They were kept as always in an airtight box in the cool and dark. It's a mystery, I'm relying on rooted sideshoots now for my late crop.
Most other seeds have been fine except parsley, both sorts, but then parsley is always questionable for me.
I hope you can get some plants instead, Cam, that's not going to be so easy this year.

[Jeannine]

I made a pledge a couple of years ago not to buy anymore seeds until mine were gone or barren. I might add I still have hundreds of tomato varieties, so I need a very long life LOL

My oldest seed I tried this year was one that I took to the Uk.(I went in 2000)grew there and brought the remains of the packet back. I expected nothing of course, but fiddled with solution to drench them, used all the  seeds in the packet, there was about 30 and I got 6 germinated.

Galina, you sent me peas when I first came back. It was to the address we first went to in 2009, we left there in 2011.I found I still had some of them so  I have sown all your seeds that were left.They went outside in big pots.At first nothing, pots remained empty, I even thought the mice had got them as there was no sign of seeds when I had a little dig,I figured it was hopeless .A couple of weeks ago, I sowed a medley of what was left into another outside very large pot. These are up about 2 inches.I don't even know what they are now as I didn't write it in my journal but I know there were three varieties and they are all tall growing.I think one was Preens.

One thing I have discovered using old seeds , or perhaps even slow seed is that we need extra patience.. I start them in a jiffy pods,pre soaked in wake up soluion, in a regular clear domed propagator which is on a   germinating pad. As the tomatoes popped I took them off the heat and under lights. This year it was sort of an experiment so I left the jiffy pots in the  propagater, some tomato seeds took more than month but I managed to get a few plants from all 12 varieties I sowed although the germination was low.All bar 2 were at least 12 years old. Usually I would have chucked them but I didn't and it paid off. I have heard that the plants may be weak but they were transplanted to the greenhose yesterday after spending the last week in there in their pots, and they look fine, strong and deep green.

It may be coincidence but waiting longer certainly paid off.

I grew old seed last year too,  a bit better germination but still old.

I am wondering now wether to sow the 8 year old broadies that I never used up.. I had a bit of a collection of them, so again maybe a mixed bunch to see what happens.

Just my twopence worth .

XX Jeannine

[gray1720]

Interesting. I've had no problems with tomatoes (including with seed stored on kitchen roll in an envelope!), but my leeks were very slow, celeriac likewise, and my brassicas all germinated, then stopped growing. I wonder if it's the up and down temperatures we've had - though the brassicas are now picking up having been pricked out, they were all very wet - maybe the bright weather has dried stuff out on top but not below, and we've over-watered to compensate?

Adrian
 

[Deb P]

Interesting. I've had no problems with tomatoes (including with seed stored on kitchen roll in an envelope!), but my leeks were very slow, celeriac likewise, and my brassicas all germinated, then stopped growing. I wonder if it's the up and down temperatures we've had - though the brassicas are now picking up having been pricked out, they were all very wet - maybe the bright weather has dried stuff out on top but not below, and we've over-watered to compensate?

Adrian

I wouldn't be surprised if the fluctuating day/night temps are a factor, in my barely frost free greenhouse I try to keep above 10 degrees minimum using a thermostatically controlled electric fan, but last month my min / max thermometer was showing an average of 22, a low of 5 and a high of 37 degrees!
 

[Paulh]

What I've not killed with over-watering, I've lost to heat stroke.

[gray1720]

I think we've all had years like that.

[boydzfish]

My tomatoes from seed didn't seem to be doing anything so I ordered some grafted plants. A couple of days after that they started to show so it looks like it will be tomatoes all round this year!!

[galina]

Jeannine yes 11 year old pea seeds kept cool and dry stand a good chance of germinating, especially the darker seeded varieties.  Can't remember what I sent you unfortunately.  Good luck with them.

What do you soak them in before sowing?  I guess many could do with a secret wake up old seeds potion this year 

[saddad]

Tomatoes no real problem, but like TeeGee peppers are slow. I've also found that the compost seems to waterlog much easier this year but am prepared to think the hot, dry April meant I was too regular with the watering.