Challenge of poor herb germination

VermontCathy

I planted a variety of herbs a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, hardly any of them came up.

A packet of broad-leafed sage produced a single large plant.

Cinnamon basil was slow to sprout, but produced several tiny plants.

Orange thyme doesn't seem to have sprouted at all. I was disappointed at the tiny size of the seeds and the small number of seeds in the packet.

Even herbs that have done well here in past years don't appear to have sprouted. That includes curly leaf parsley and elephant dill.

Boston Pickling cucumbers also refused to sprout, though another cucumber variety did just fine in a different bed.

Tall telephone peas had low initial germination rates, so I reseeded, and the second wave appears to be doing okay.

I will replant the ones for which I have seed remaining, and cross my fingers. :-)

Weather, water, who knows?

Has anyone else had unusually poor germination this year?

Torey

We have had very poor germination rate on our beets. Same thing last year which we blamed on a lack of water during our heat dome. This year it could be too cold and wet. We may have jumped the gun a bit on our planting but we have planted beets in early May before with good results.

Similarly, Swiss chard is not doing well, although the lettuce that we planted at the same time is up and progressing along normally.

VermontCathy

I just replanted my pickles. Boston Pickling planted 5/17 produced nothing. That area has been reseeded with National Pickling.

My lettuce is doing fine, but it was planted May 11 and is still tiny. I did the first thinning of it yesterday. Greens planted in April this year did little or nothing.

I agree that the strange mix of heat, drought, and too much rain is challenging for many plants. We should all be looking at varieties that tolerate a wide range of conditions.

Spring in Vermont is so short, we really need varieties of peas and greens with significant heat tolerance. The season between ground thawing and summer heat is too short for crops to mature. This is true even in a normal year.

nicksamanda11

I have been dealing with low germination rate too, and when they do sprout they just aren't growing. It's super frustrating. And a bunch of the ones i got to sprout and was so excited about - well they have just died. And it doesn't appear to be wilt- they just kinda disappear. And they are still in containers on an outdoor table so it's not slugs. I'm puzzled in general this year.