It Is Cold 2021

Frost on the plants means it is cold 2021!

I have gotten more than the usual amount of complaints about seeds not germinating this year. When I get one of these complaints, the first thing I do is look up the order to see what and where they are growing. 100% of the time, so far, it has been a gardener (and they will claim they have been gardening for years) who is trying to germinate warm/hot weather seeds in a cold environment. This will not work.

A customer emailed me to say that their cucumber seeds did not germinate. They had been in the ground for three weeks. This was in Ohio. They had purchased four different types from us. Three had germinated and the cucumber had not, so they assumed the problem was with the seeds.

Looking at their order, the other three seeds were cold weather seeds. With temps down to 17° Fahrenheit at night, I was surprised that they had germinated but they had. But he absolutely refused to believe that it was too cold for the cucumber seeds. I think he just wanted his money back which we do not give back when you do not follow the instructions and plant the seeds correctly at the correct time.

Just to be sure, I had the crew plant a pack of them and they are germinating right now in the Texas warmth.

It Is Cold 2021 in Texas
It Is Too Cold!

I had another customer who planted some watermelon seeds around the Austin, Texas area. He was complaining that some of them did not come up. The problem in Texas, this year is it is about 15 to 20 degrees colder this spring than it has been in the past. It has been years since we have had a spring this chilly. 

What happened was it warmed up for a few days and nights so all of us Texas gardeners went out and planted our seeds thinking that spring was here and so was the warm weather. This has been the way it has been for years.

Well, guess what? Cooler weather returned. It has not been warm enough at night to maintain a soil temperature of 70 degrees or more which is what is needed to germinate most warm/hot weather seeds. It is looking like we will have to replant some stuff or we must just wait and see what happens once it warms up. 

We have had temps down into the 40s at night late into April. We are in zone 8 which means that by now it is usually pretty warm. I have seen fields of corn, but the corn is only about half as tall as it usually is this time of year.

You need to pay attention to what the weather is in your area. It is probably colder than it was last year. You may need to hold off on planting some of your warm/hot weather crops until later in the season.

Greenhouse Planting

One customer wrote and said that the seeds were not germinating even though they were in the greenhouse. I asked how they were heating the greenhouse. We are not. I asked what the temp was showing on the gauge. They said they do not have one.

A greenhouse is usually only a degree or two warmer than the outside temperature unless you are heating it somehow. So if it is 34° outside it is probably 34 to 36 inside the greenhouse. Seeds will not germinate in the greenhouse just because they are in a greenhouse if the temps are not correct.

I guess when someone calls into a regular seed company and says the seeds did not grow, then the seed company just refunds or re-sends another packet. Why do they re-send another packet? The customer is going to have the same problem. Or they don't want to be bothered and just refund the seeds.

Here at David's Garden Seeds®, we ask questions to see what the problem is because our seeds grow when planted correctly. If you are following our germination tips, your seeds that you buy from us, will grow, every time.

Our seeds are designed for growing in soil. They may grow in a hydroponic system. But nowhere do we talk about growing our seeds in a wet paper towel, soaking them overnight or using a UV, ultra purple light to grow them with. You can try these things. They may work but we do not promise they will.

And when we say soil, we mean a good garden soil and not potting soil. Once your plants are growing, you can put them in or add potting soil to them. But they need to be growing first.

I hope this explains some of what is happening here in 2021. It is cold 2021!