[A Reyt Tayty]

Well. I'm truly baffled with mine. Five different types of tom, all in new compost, all doing nowt much. They get to about 1" high, just forming 1st true leaves. Then they seem to stop and the seed leaves fall off. Now the first true leaves on some are starting to look a bit rough round the edges. Here's a piccy of a Garden Pearl which has been in three weeks. (2 weeks on from first showing through soil. The other plants are all the same (or worse). All plants have been in a constant temp of about 20 degrees and moved off the window ledge at night.

I don't know if it's just the phot - but the compost looks very wet, unless you'd only just watered when you took the pic 

I think it looks wetter than it actually is. I only watered as recommended on here. Water from underneath, leave for an hour, take out and bobs yer wotsit. Leave until top compost becomes dry to the touch, then repeat.

[LilacSandy]

Have you checked for white fly? little beggars got a lot of mine this year on one windowsill.

[A Reyt Tayty]

Have you checked for white fly? little beggars got a lot of mine this year on one windowsill.

Nah. No whitefly.

[bappelbe]

To update my experiment results
a third seed has germinated from my seeds - still only 1 from my mothers.

This puts the result of blaming the compost in doubt as 3 out of 5 seeds germinating, while poor is not a major failure.

It might be the seeds.

[JayG]

If I've followed this correctly and the seeds were more than a year old it's possible they could have lost viability if stored in anything other than ideal conditions - steady cool temperatures, dark, and dry (but especially dry.)

I've only had about 10% germination from my Red Alert seeds this year which previously germinated near enough 100%, although admittedly they are 5 years old now!

[bappelbe]

yes, the seeds are more than a year old - though they have a best before 2013 date on them.
the seeds that germinated were also a year old - though they were kept at my house while the ones that had a very high failure rate were kept at my mothers house.

It looks like the seeds are the problem - the storage over winter might be the problem

[A Reyt Tayty]

Well. I'm truly baffled with mine. Five different types of tom, all in new compost, all doing nowt much. They get to about 1" high, just forming 1st true leaves. Then they seem to stop and the seed leaves fall off. Now the first true leaves on some are starting to look a bit rough round the edges. Here's a piccy of a Garden Pearl which has been in three weeks. (2 weeks on from first showing through soil. The other plants are all the same (or worse). All plants have been in a constant temp of about 20 degrees and moved off the window ledge at night.

Update:

'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This tommy is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the tomato bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-TOMMY!!

[A Reyt Tayty]

Well. I'm truly baffled with mine. Five different types of tom, all in new compost, all doing nowt much. They get to about 1" high, just forming 1st true leaves. Then they seem to stop and the seed leaves fall off. Now the first true leaves on some are starting to look a bit rough round the edges. Here's a piccy of a Garden Pearl which has been in three weeks. (2 weeks on from first showing through soil. The other plants are all the same (or worse). All plants have been in a constant temp of about 20 degrees and moved off the window ledge at night.

Plants are still looking healthy enough (apart from seed leaver dropping off very early), but still not putting any timber on.  On the bright side though: Some tom seed set in the unheated greenhouse some 4 to 6 weeks ago are having a real good go at it. They look like little Russian shotputters.

[bappelbe]

An update on the original post

The room that my mother was using to grow her plants had heating not working properly - only noticed it recently - this would have led to temps dropping at night time which would have affected the seeds germination and seedlings.

It looks like we found the source of the problem

thanks

Bill