Low Germination Rates
Cottage Compost
Posts: 496
Is anybody else suffering low germination rates of seeds this year especially beans?
French and Runner Bean seeds this year especially bad.
I have always waited and planted my bean seeds straight into the ground and I get a near 100% success rate.
This year only 10 to 20% of both my French & Runner beans have germinated. I planted what I have left in pots in the green house and I've suffered the same loss.
Other seeds sown into the ground, Parsnips, Carrots and Chard not doing very well either this year, low germination rate and not moving on very well.
And yet the Radish are the best ever, the Onions are doing well, in fact everything else is doing very well, oh except the Croquettes, still looking a little yellow but quite normal for now.
Oh the Sweet Corn seeds are an almost total disaster, 30 seeds and I only have 2 plants! All the seeds were full of worms even though they were supposed to be coated with a special coating to give 100% success!
The Broad Beans have all germinated but the plants are half there normal size but laden heavily with flowers.
Posts
Runner beans very slow this year, used Firestorm which gave a really good crop last year, always sow in pots, those grey paper mache types. First lot grown in April, in cold greenhouse, nothing seemed to be happening, then once they burst through the compost (always John Innes, no; 2) they would grow 3 inches overnight. Have got my third lot in now, just peeping through. I was told by local nurseries, mild winter was the problem!!! Anyone else grown soya beans, I bought a variety special bred for UK, says heated propagater, 25d, two germinated, a couple of inches high, then went transparent, and keeled over, no more have come up, says late June, you can direct sow, might as well, as I have the seeds. Also sown coffee, nothing happening so far, but says up to 90 days germination.
May was cold. I have had very good germination of almost all seeds. Leeks were a bit slow though. Sounds like your seeds are not so fresh, or you planted tender plants directly in soil.
I always sow into pots in my cold greenhouse in Sheffield, I've had 100% germination rates of french beans from a new packet this year and ~90% from runner beans from a packet from last year. I sowed these 5-6 weeks ago and they are now ready to go out. Greenhouse temperature has been very variable during that time though, so I'm surprised how well they have done. Other seeds have also germinated well, but I've learnt not to sow too early so things don't rot off in cold and damp conditions.
Are you using your own collected bean seeds? If so, perhaps it's a storage issue?
Oh I had some of those coated sweetcorn seeds, "Sure to grow" or whatever the brand. "Sure to rot" is more like it, but I did get ~7 plants. I am told sweetcorn is not an easy one to germinate. My one year old dwarf french beans planted last weekend are not popping up, the ones in pots outside planted 2-3 weeks ago are also popping up.
Paulk2 not sure if you were "talking" to me, I bought brand new seed this year, for everything, only used mixed salad, and toms seeds from last year they are still in date and good germination. Alan Titchmarsh says you should get an average of 80% germination from your seeds
Thank you to all for your replies and input, my seeds are a mixture I have to admit.
Some are my own seeds from last years crop and some are seeds that I bought year before last.
I've always used a mixture of the two though and I've always waited until mid / late May before placing the seeds directly into the ground. Never had a problem in past years doing this.
Reading through some of the posts here and thinking about the weather, I think May was cooler than average and very much up and down. Some warm days but cold nights too but not so cold to get a frost. So perhaps this is my problem this year and i'll have to accept that I won't get much in the way of French and Runner Beans this year.
The loss of a good crop this year now means that I'm going to have to buy fresh seeds for next year, not such a bad idea though to do this every few years.
Its not too late to buy and grow now Mark Feather
May was cold. I have had very good germination of almost all seeds. Leeks were a bit slow though. Sounds like your seeds are not so fresh, or you planted tender plants directly in soil.
I've given up sowing directly as weather, soil temps, charging dogs, indiscrilinate weeding OH and so on are so hit and miss so I sow in trays or modules, prick out and grow on and then plant out. Works exceptionally well for brassicas as they get a good root system and I've only once had problems with club root on bought plugs.
I even planted onion sets in modules and they're doing really well and this year I have beetroot and Swiss chard which have failed for the last three years when direct sown. Just need to crack carrots now.