David Hare-Scott wrote:
It could be one (or more) of these problems:

- ants carrying them away
- rodents eating them
- seeds drying out and not germinating correctly
- something, eg snails, eating the new shoots off
- soil too cold for germination (probably not in Brisbane)
- warm damp conditions encouraging fungus diseases (quite possible in
summer)

A couple more that I've run into:

- Too hot/dry in direct sunlight - needs covering with mulch, paper,
etc. until seedlings emerge. Most common problem with eg carrots
here in mid-summer. I thought the problem was ants, but turned out
wrong.

- Too tamped down and then too wet when watered.

Otherwise I usually get 90% germination or better.

It varies with the plant. Sweetcorn hate cold soil for example.
Beans and peas have trouble if the soil's too wet for the first 2-3
days.

Andrew
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Andrew Gabb
email: Adelaide, South Australia
phone: +61 8 8342-1021, fax: +61 8 8269-3280
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