Everyone likes to share the pictures and stories of their success. I'm not here to show off, I'm here to share my experience. That means there's going to be some failure on the feed. This post will feature failure on a couple levels.
As you can see below, my lettuce has largely failed to germinate. This was started at the same time as the tomatoes I just thinned, and I've already tried reseeding this tray once. Even the one that did germinate is about 1/4 the size that it should be at this point. There are several possible reasons, the most likely being that my seeds are simply too old and no longer viable.
This spinach was started at the same time, but had a better germination rate. I also reseeded the empty spots in this tray, and you can see here and in the picture above that they have begun to germinate. This means that one of my other possible failures, problems with the soil, is less likely.
I also had no starts on my cabbage, and this is definitely due to old seeds. I didn't have any extras to reseed these, so I will likely just fill these spaces in the garden with something else that I have extras of. We don't eat a whole lot of cabbage, so I will probably just buy or barter whatever cabbage I need this season. If I happen to find a deal on cabbage plants, I'll buy some to plant.
My bunching onions and leeks did just fine, but the big beautiful onions that I REALLY want have not fared so well. The shallots next to them didn't go so great either, but those seeds are around 5 years old. The Countrywide onions were a new seed purchase last season, and did not have a good germination rate then either. I should have gotten some more this spring, but other things were more important. I'll grow these out, and try to collect seeds from one or two this fall.
My green peppers here are my biggest failure, and this is entirely my fault. The seeds were too damp when I bagged them, and developed mold. I was hoping they might be okay, because I've had other seeds survive this problem in the past. Another part of my failure here was not taking pictures of the seeds before I put them all in the dirt. You could see that they were darker than normal, and bit too papery. Each space in these cells has at least 20 seeds in it at this point, and it has been on a warming mat. At this point, it is safe to say that I'm going to have 0% germination. We eat a LOT of green peppers, so I'll definitely be buying some this year. I'll try to get some local heirloom varieties from local farmers, so I'll be able to get viable seeds from them. I will also definitely be seeking plants to put in the ground, but I will probably only find those at local big box stores, which usually only have hybrids. You can collect seeds from these hybrids, but they can be unpredictable in germination rate and variety.
Finally, we come to my poor celery seedlings. The ones towards the back that did okay are Chinese pink celery. We don't really eat a lot of this, but the local rodents leave it alone, so I wanted to border my brassica bed with them this year. The ones that we actually eat are Tall Utah celery, and as you can see, germination was very spotty. I have absolutely no idea why some of these pods seemed to germinate fine, and others not at all, except that these trays were planted by some inexperienced help who may not have dropped seeds in every space. Because we do eat a lot of this celery, in a future post I will show you how to separate the ones that did germinate and replant them. Hopefully, that will go better than germination did.
They say we learn the most from our failures, so I hope everybody got to learn something useful from mine. If nothing else, I hope my own failures can help you feel less down about whatever failures of your own you may have experienced this season. Good luck, and we hope to see you back for more!