[Lardman]

Having had 0/24 sweetpeas germinate from my first sowing I tried another 20, Whilst I was at it I also put in 20 seeds of a different variety. Im pretty convinced it's not me !

Sweetpea Early Multifloral : 0 /44
Sweetpea High Heaven Scent : 17/20

Not mice, not the compost, not keeping them to wet, nor too hot or cold - just dead seed.

Stuff like that makes me a grumpy Lardy.

edit. Correct variety

[madcat]

Nothing at all ....  that is just so disappointing!

I have the reverse problem.  I thought I would save some seed from last year, but when I got to clearing the vines last autumn everything was mouldy.  I chucked the pods I could rescue on a tray, put them on a high shelf in OH's den and forgot them.  A fortnight or so ago I found them, podded them and in despair put all of them onto seed compost expecting a complete failure and making a note to pick up some commercial seeds.  Well - what do I do with 100 plus seedlings? 

[hightide]

Grumpy you have touched a sensitive spot!
Mr Fothergills 'Flagship' and 'Oxford Blue' mixed two packets out of 43 sown 17 have taken.
Unwins 'Old Fashioned Mix' packet said not to soak or chit, followed instructions 37 sown 21 taken
Thompson & Morgan 'Scent Infusion' packet said to soak overnight, followed instructions 26 sown 25 taken. Interestingly theT&M and Unwins were sown on the same day, the soaked seeds came through first and have had their first haircut, the unsoaked seeds have not yet reached that stage. I think I now have enough Sweet Peas, but what a palaver and expense!
 

[Growster...]

It's happened to me with Unwins leeks this year!

Their 'Growsure Winter Giant 2' variety are pretty feeble, with germination at about 50%! Won't use those again.

Going to sow some Musselburgh although it's a bit late. Will have to allow for more smaller plants now!

[Lardman]

2 Years back it was spring onion White Lisbon, those with good memories will remember me purchasing new seed from several suppliers to run tests and getting nothing, sowing from a very old packet in the seed parcel gave good results as did different varieties from the same suppliers.

I assume they all get seed from the same place - makes sense that if there's a bad batch everyone suffers. It's not the compost or seed cost that bothers me (unless it's the silly 5 in a pack F1 types) but the lost time waiting to find out the seed is dead.

Im fast coming to the conclusion it's safer to sow less seed but more varieties to ensure there's at least something to plant out when the time comes.

[miggs]

I have had the same with most of my pepper's, sweet pea's and chilli's this year, very few have taken. Just have to start again.

[Eblana]

I had the same problem with Sweet Pea, two sowings of 40 each and only 10 plants to show for it (first lot were seeds I got at Chelsea last year and second lot were fresh seed I bought).  I found a packet of 3 year old saved seed in the bottom of my seed box at the weekend and chucked them on wet tissue to chit and low and behold every single one of them has chitted.  Off out to plant them in root trainers.

[sunshineband]

I had the same with Sweet Sunshine chillies, sown alongside several other varieties which gave 100% germination... zero % from the SSs, which I was very annoyed about as you can imagine!

[JayG]

Last year I sowed the remainder of the previous year's packet of Lidl sweet peas and none came up so I had to buy a fresh packet (all of 25p IIRC!) which all came up.

This year I sowed the remainder of that packet with just a little trepidation, and they all germinated - in record time too! 

Storage conditions can make a lot of difference, not just yours but the shop you bought them from too - I don't buy from glass-roofed GC displays where the packets may have been alternately frozen and baked, especially if  the front packets look sun bleached compared to the ones behind (I don't buy any of them.)

I have often wondered whether it's safe to assume that 'packed in year xxxx' is the same thing as 'harvested and packed in year xxxx' but at the end of the day there's no real alternative but to try them - a test germination isn't a bad idea if you have any reason to doubt them.