Quit while I still have time?

@Kristen - I too only use seed compost for sowing, however I have not necessarily been picky about the type (until now); most of the sowing this year has been in Westland stuff, which seemed pretty good, however the texture of the soil based stuff that I handled yesterday just felt better? Time will tell how good it is when stuff germinates.

I never re-use seed compost either - once stuff is pricked out, the remaining compost gets heaved onto the garden to break down into the soil. With regard to the tray that went mouldy, I can only lay it at the door of the seeds - Johnson's Livingstone Daisy seeds to be exact. My reasoning behind this is that it was one of a number of trays of various seeds sown on the same day, and the compost was from the same bag as the other trays - - - not one of the others had had an issue. Indeed, Mrs C was blaming herself (as it was her who sowed the seeds for me) however my regular prattling on about seeds and plants appears to have rubbed off as she did a good job of them, right down to using vermiculite where required

We are very careful about watering and humidity, either using propagators, propagator type lids for the trays or even a covering of cling film if we are running short, to ensure that things don't dry out. If additional watering is required at any stage, the heaviest that will be used is a 300ml watering can with very fine rose, and more often than not I use a mist spray so as not to disturb anything.

The more I think this through, the more I can see a pattern emerging, and for the most part it doesn't seem to be technique. Last year, part of my disappointment with T&M was the complete failure of Pansy Padparadja seeds (T&M direct) - - not one germinated, despite following the instructions to the letter; another was asarina scandens (T&M direct) - again, complete failure. Yet, I managed to get trailing petunias to be fairly successful (Suttons, retail) as is borne out by the picture below:


Indeed, everything it the picture above flower wise was home grown from seed, as was everything in the following two pictures:







Now, whilst I would be the first to admit that I am no expert, I think I have a reasonable understanding, and a reasonable success rate.

I never expect a 100% success rate, that would be clearly unreasonable - indeed, that is part of the reason that I ended up with the thick end of 400 extra tomato, pepper and chilli seedlings that were mostly given away to neighbours and friends.

EDIT - be back after dinner with more....

 

Aster Red Ribbon - T&M (retail)



Dwarf annual Hollyhocks - T&M (retail)


Geranium F2 - T&M (retail)


Hungarian Hot Wax Chillies - Suttons (retail)


Capsicum - seeds harvested from red and yellow supermarket peppers. Despite concerns when the seed was harvested last year, nearly 100% hit rate (I'll be giving these away again this year)

Dichondra Silver Falls - T&M (direct) - four out of 30+ seeds germinated.

Begonia Boliviensis - T&M (direct) - hard to put a figure on the seedlings, but I would guesstimate a germination rate of around 20% at best

Begonia Rose Peticoat Non-stop - T&M (direct) - total failure

Now, it seems to me that if you buy T&M seed packets from your local garden centre, you will have a fairly reasonable chance of them germinating within the bounds of reasonableness; buy them direct from T&M, and it would appear you are destined to fail.

And having checked all the seed packets I had, none of the T&M ones had any form of dates on them, yet every other supplier has theirs dated.

 

That's the Westland Growsure seed compost, which did have a lumpier texture than the soil based stuff I used yesterday; and yes, the layer of vermiculite could have been better - however, the germination rate has been really good, and all the wee seedlings look really happy and healthy.

I have a tray of antirrhinum seedlings (you can just see them on the shelf below the hollyhocks), and they too have had a fantastic germination rate; I just hope the stuff sown yesterday does as well.

I sowed the petunias, Livingstone daisies and nicotiana yesterday by mixing the seed in with some silver sand in an old pepper pot which I then sprinkled over dampened compost, so hopefully that will save me having huge clumps at one end of the trays.

 

Fair point @longk - - I do often wonder if there is a bit of fate involved too, and that we all have plants that we are just destined to fail with no matter what we do. For example, I have never had any luck with delphiniums, even when given them as well established plants in pots; sweet peas will germinate, produce quite healthy looking seedlings that then never come to anything in the garden.

Yet some other stuff, I always seem to end up with millions - tomatoes (I know they are easy), peppers, chillies, cucumbers, courgettes, anything from the mallow family, hollyhocks, geraniums, petunias, dahlias etc all seem to germinate extremely well for me.

I take your point about the begonias though - lesson learned there I think, just buy them as tubers or plugs in future.

 

No need to apologise @noisette47 - that is the joy of threads for me, they develop into a wider conversation; I'm not one of those who seems to think they 'own' a thread just because they posted it.