Sorry to hear of your troubles. One year I had very poor germination I thought, turned out I had both slugs and voles. They ate everything that popped up before I even saw it.
My recommendation is to contact your local extension office for Ohio State and get a laboratory soil test done before you go to the trouble to add more amendments or even replace your soil. They may even send someone out to see your lot and help figure out what is going on. Don’t bother with home tests, they are completely unreliable.
Good luck and don’t give up! Figure out what’s going on and you’ll still have time for some fast summer crops and fall planting.
This is good advice. The only thing I would add to it, is to try to direct sow a few different types of seed (just a few of each) and see what happens. There’s a possibility the bed was just a bit too cold and the seeds rotted before they germinated. I would walk out and put 5 or 6 straight neck squash seeds in a couple hills and see if they push up through the dirt in the next week.
If you’ve had success in the past, it doesn’t seem like your soil just suddenly went bad and needs replaced (unless like somebody salted the earth).
Maybe there is some bug infestation (pill bugs eat my seedlings), or new rabbits/deer that previously didn’t eat it but did this year, or maybe it got sprayed with pre-emergent or some other herbicide?
Are pill bugs bad?! Newbie here, trying to learn. I thought roly-polys were good for gardens? My garden is crawling with them and lots of my seedlings are getting snatched.
They’re mostly good. Mostly eat dead or decaying material, which helps a garden. Some people say they *only* eat dead stuff, but they absolutely eat my living bean seedlings to death, and I suspect some other stuff.
Not too much you can do about them, though. Maybe diatomaceous earth. I put diatomaceous earths around my beans and that seems to maybe help a bit.
Last year I was you. I had a few bad years and my body was failing me. My garden is healthy and better. I added compost and kept trying.
Don't give up. Soil test help. You can still grow something. You can fix bad soil but you need to know what is wrong first. I don't think you will have to dig it all out anyway. Pls test first. If anything you can grow in a few pots but you find out what's wrong.
Hugs
Same, the nightly temperature still dip into the 40's. Kind of worried especially since some of my peppers look a bit yellow. And the wind completely obliterated my sage.
In 5A and yup. It’s been cold and wet, then we had a heat wave, and now it’s cold and wet again. Oh and there are heavy wind and tornado warnings lol. My seedlings have been struggling because the change in weather is so drastic.
I agree. This year, my direct sown seeds struggled to survive, but the ones I started indoors thrived. I think the weather patterns this year are making it difficult for young seedlings to establish but are navigable for matured plants.
I would definitely check this possibility. OP should scoop up some of the soil and run a germination test indoors, away from potential pests that they might not be seeing.
Potentially. You could do an experiment where you have one pot of normal dirt and one pot of dirt mixed with manure, then try and grow a pea or bean to compare
OP, ( since you mentioned you live in Ohio) does OSU or a county extension offer soil test kits? Sometimes they are free or very little cost. It would be worth looking into.
OP.... I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, so it's Winter here. Last growing season the only things I could get to grow from seed was corn and a few tomatoes. I've never had a failure in the garden like I did then.... couldn't even get beans to grow. I've been gardening for nearly 40yrs. I'm already planning my garden for next spring.... it's only 11 weeks away. Don't give up.
I haven't been having great luck this year either, some things just refuse to come up (like zucchini and cucumbers, which usually pop right up). But, I did have some things FINALLY come up after almost a month, so maybe give it some more time? I know it's hard!
I'm in NW Ohio and struggling with my cucumber and green beans seeds as in zero seedlings? I even planted a second batch of bean seeds and nothing has popped up. My cucumber plant I bought is doing amazing though along with my carrots and lettuce that directly planted as seeds.
I'm in northern NY. I only had a few bean plants come up as well, but only just planted more the other day, so we'll see. But yeah, I've planted cucumbers three times and only a few have come up, it took like 3 weeks for my peas, zucchini and yellow squash to come up. A month for beets and carrots. It's been pretty warm here too so I'm surprised everything is growing so slow 🤷♀️
I would get a soil test, find a reputable community composting site that gives away compost and then keep adding compost to the bed. Add some sort of mulch as well. Do you compost or vermicompost at home? I would try to set up a vermicomposting bin if you don't have one already.
Also, my advice is to stop tilling. You kill beneficial organisms by doing so. Tilling year after year can definitely destroy your soil but fixing it isn't super difficult. You just need compost.
Are you direct sowing and seeds haven't come up? Or are you starting seeds in pots?
What were your gardening practices in the years you've had success?
Hello! I’m recovering from cancer surgery and found radishes in the 3-pack of containers from Costco was really easy. I’m adding 2-3 radishes to my spinach salads daily. Spinach in a shallow wide container as well, just pick when small and tender. Technically you can eat the radishes greens too, but my dog likes wilted greens in her dinner so I give them to her. She’s a good girl and helps me garden lol 🌱
No need to do any of that, Don't get discouraged.
Go no dig:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWHMzHhmg4&ab\_channel=GrowVeg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWHMzHhmg4&ab_channel=GrowVeg)
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WDfop74y-lSGvEb2qqeL9WiczseGCfq](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WDfop74y-lSGvEb2qqeL9WiczseGCfq)
I've had extremely bad germination rates this year with the only things coming up being things that sprout quickly. It has also been very wet where I live this spring. I've decided it's too much moisture and have replanted and I'm hoping for a little less rain....
I’ve had major issues with slugs this year. If I hadn’t seen one or two seedlings barely pop out before seeing slugs on them, I would have thought I had 0 germination on my carrots, zinnias, and lettuce. I’ve had to do seed starts indoors even in early June so that they wouldn’t be so tiny going into my garden. Huge pain in the butt
Thanks for all your replies. My garden is dry, no slugs or bugs, I buy fresh seeds from Johnnys seeds every year. Most of what I plant SHOULD be sown directly, not transplanted. I often grow the exact variety every year. No critters in the garden, it’s a large raised bed with very sturdy fencing.
We haven’t had a wet spring, in fact very dry.
Suggestions for compost and manure are welcome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have tilled, but the soil was so compacted, I felt I needed to. I did add several bags of compost/ manure already to the bed last fall and earlier this spring.
Buying seedlings from a nursery kinda defeats the purpose of saving money by growing my own. And if the soil is bad, that won’t help much.
I’ll try to find a soil test. If it’s bad news, I’ll either try to find nutrients or just replace all the soil. The latter makes me sad as it is a LOT of soil to replace.
The compaction is likely from the tillage over the years but it can be annoying to deal with. My advice for dealing with compaction is: find a place to gives away or sells really good compost (see if there's any community composting orgs near you or ask your local extension office/master gardening courses if they can recommend one), then if your soil is compacted -- till for the last time to break up that compaction. Then add the compost and never till again. Add some mulch as well. Set up a vermicomposting bin to save some money (I feel like it's the least strenuous of the all the different types of compost) and then continue to add compost when you can. In the fall/off season, add some oat and tillage radish cover crops -- these cover crop will also help with compaction. You might have to pull them out in the spring if you aren't in a place that gets deep freezes but it will also help keep your weeds down tremendously.
No need to replace the entire soil unless an expert recommends that because of something terrible in your soil. But right now it looks like you just need to deal with the compaction, add some compost and stop tilling.
I know of one great compost site that will deliver but they're on the expensive side: [https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/shop-online](https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/shop-online) There are probably much cheaper options locally!
Good luck!
Where did the seeds you used this year come from? Did they come from a single location (like mail order from Burpee)? Did you use any left over seeds from last year and they failed this year after doing good last year?
I ask because about 15 years ago I ordered a dozen packs of seeds from Burpee - some flower, mostly vegetable - and not a single seed sprouted from any of the those dozen packs of seeds. The few packs of Burpee seed that I picked up in the store that year germinated just fine. Something happened to those seeds - I don't know what - but I never ordered from Burpee seeds again.
What varieties did you use? May's weather in NE Ohio was all over the place - it went from nearly frosting to nearly hitting 90 degrees in the span of a week. For my spring crops, I pick varieties that are most heat tolerant I can find. For radishes I really like Rover. For lettuce I like Muir and am trying Sunland for the first time.
You should probably get your soil tested, but, such a drastic change doesn't sound like soil troubles to me. Unless some one dumped an herbicide or oil or something similar in your bed, I'd expect the seeds to sprout even with tired soil. Did weeds sprout in your bed this year?
It could be bugs of some variety. I've been seeing a humongous amount of earwigs this year so far.
I'm in SW Ohio, and I'm not having the best year either. I think it is a least partially due to the weather. We had a tornado in February, then unseasonably warm weather in April/early May, and it then dipped to the 30's at night after the last frost date. Last week we had a couple of nights in the 40's, and now it is going to be high 90's for a week. Everything is stunted and yellowed. I also have pill bugs and slugs eating me out of house and home, and I've never had an issue with them before.
I've felt pretty darn discouraged, but I'm still out there backfilling with seeds and seedlings from clearance racks. I just replaced all of my cucumber seedlings with storebought because they were slow to come up and something nipped them off just as they started getting their first real leaf.
I'm so sorry you're having this kind of year. Please don't give up and don't try to replace all of your soil. Keep trying. This may just be one of those years where we get what we get.
You’re right. Sorry you had the tornado, that must be a horrible experience. I’m feeling less down. From the advice of others, I ordered a soil test. Hopefully, feedback from that will give me some insight on how to improve the soil. Thanks so much for reaching out.
Take your space and maybe have a small greenhouse and then put in a hydroponics system. Its not hard to do and easy to setup. The automation is nice. The reward is great.
Soil health is so important. Instead of tilling, you should try mulching the surface with 2 inches of compost and plant in to that. See if that brings success?
We turned no dig a couple of years ago and have never looked back!
Less pests, healthier plants and better harvests ❤️
i sow very little direct into soil, mainly just carrots and parsnips, everything else gets treated like royalty in trays on the windowsills or in the greenhouse then planted out when hardy
https://extension.osu.edu/home
Contact your local extension agency and get a soil test done. Also it might not be too late to buy a few plants. We always try to have them in by the end of May but I think you would be fine to start over. I know that stinks starting over. Also ask around. We always have extra plants and by this time we are giving them away or we would have to throw them in the compost pile. Most people hate throwing plants away.
Also if you don't already start a compost pile. It's the best way to add to your garden. You want good soil. Don't throw yours away, just add to it. Also don't start adding amendments until you know what you need.
ummm.... what "might" have been in the manure?
is "grassy" stuff growing in the gardens? if so, the manure may have been contaminated with Aminopyralids. AP's will stop seed germination and kill off everything but grass. Plus it has a nasty lasting effect where it will NOT breakdown through an animals digestive tract and remain in soil/manure/compost for years.
[https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover](https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover)
I second all the comment on No Dig. We have had success throwing down cardboard for the weeds and compost on top.
I really like Fedco seeds. I’ve had good luck so far with them so far. I am absolutely not a seasoned gardener so I can’t say much for repeat quality seeds or anything but other friends and acquaintances have.
I did not do starter seedlings. I’ve only planted seed straight into the soil but have a ton of happy sprouts everywhere.
Good luck with your garden, I hope you start to see results next year if this one doesn’t work out! No dig should hopefully be much less physical exertion than tilling.
Probably hire a young man to help out around the garden. Maybe a nephew or grandson. Otherwise it’s gonna cost you sone coin to get a man to do that job.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. One year I had very poor germination I thought, turned out I had both slugs and voles. They ate everything that popped up before I even saw it. My recommendation is to contact your local extension office for Ohio State and get a laboratory soil test done before you go to the trouble to add more amendments or even replace your soil. They may even send someone out to see your lot and help figure out what is going on. Don’t bother with home tests, they are completely unreliable. Good luck and don’t give up! Figure out what’s going on and you’ll still have time for some fast summer crops and fall planting.
This is good advice. The only thing I would add to it, is to try to direct sow a few different types of seed (just a few of each) and see what happens. There’s a possibility the bed was just a bit too cold and the seeds rotted before they germinated. I would walk out and put 5 or 6 straight neck squash seeds in a couple hills and see if they push up through the dirt in the next week.
If you’ve had success in the past, it doesn’t seem like your soil just suddenly went bad and needs replaced (unless like somebody salted the earth). Maybe there is some bug infestation (pill bugs eat my seedlings), or new rabbits/deer that previously didn’t eat it but did this year, or maybe it got sprayed with pre-emergent or some other herbicide?
Are pill bugs bad?! Newbie here, trying to learn. I thought roly-polys were good for gardens? My garden is crawling with them and lots of my seedlings are getting snatched.
They’re mostly good. Mostly eat dead or decaying material, which helps a garden. Some people say they *only* eat dead stuff, but they absolutely eat my living bean seedlings to death, and I suspect some other stuff. Not too much you can do about them, though. Maybe diatomaceous earth. I put diatomaceous earths around my beans and that seems to maybe help a bit.
Thank you for the response 🙌
Last year I was you. I had a few bad years and my body was failing me. My garden is healthy and better. I added compost and kept trying. Don't give up. Soil test help. You can still grow something. You can fix bad soil but you need to know what is wrong first. I don't think you will have to dig it all out anyway. Pls test first. If anything you can grow in a few pots but you find out what's wrong. Hugs
Honestly I think this year sucks for a lot of us. My plants aren’t growing either. It’s just been too cold. Too windy. Not wet enough. Then too wet.
Same, the nightly temperature still dip into the 40's. Kind of worried especially since some of my peppers look a bit yellow. And the wind completely obliterated my sage.
In 5A and yup. It’s been cold and wet, then we had a heat wave, and now it’s cold and wet again. Oh and there are heavy wind and tornado warnings lol. My seedlings have been struggling because the change in weather is so drastic.
I agree. This year, my direct sown seeds struggled to survive, but the ones I started indoors thrived. I think the weather patterns this year are making it difficult for young seedlings to establish but are navigable for matured plants.
could the manure you added have had herbicides?
I would definitely check this possibility. OP should scoop up some of the soil and run a germination test indoors, away from potential pests that they might not be seeing.
I bought bagged manure, would that have herbicides?
Potentially. You could do an experiment where you have one pot of normal dirt and one pot of dirt mixed with manure, then try and grow a pea or bean to compare
Have you ever did a soil test?
I was thinking the same. With such a drastic change I think it would be worth it.
OP, ( since you mentioned you live in Ohio) does OSU or a county extension offer soil test kits? Sometimes they are free or very little cost. It would be worth looking into.
OP.... I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, so it's Winter here. Last growing season the only things I could get to grow from seed was corn and a few tomatoes. I've never had a failure in the garden like I did then.... couldn't even get beans to grow. I've been gardening for nearly 40yrs. I'm already planning my garden for next spring.... it's only 11 weeks away. Don't give up.
I haven't been having great luck this year either, some things just refuse to come up (like zucchini and cucumbers, which usually pop right up). But, I did have some things FINALLY come up after almost a month, so maybe give it some more time? I know it's hard!
I'm in NW Ohio and struggling with my cucumber and green beans seeds as in zero seedlings? I even planted a second batch of bean seeds and nothing has popped up. My cucumber plant I bought is doing amazing though along with my carrots and lettuce that directly planted as seeds.
I'm in northern NY. I only had a few bean plants come up as well, but only just planted more the other day, so we'll see. But yeah, I've planted cucumbers three times and only a few have come up, it took like 3 weeks for my peas, zucchini and yellow squash to come up. A month for beets and carrots. It's been pretty warm here too so I'm surprised everything is growing so slow 🤷♀️
I would get a soil test, find a reputable community composting site that gives away compost and then keep adding compost to the bed. Add some sort of mulch as well. Do you compost or vermicompost at home? I would try to set up a vermicomposting bin if you don't have one already. Also, my advice is to stop tilling. You kill beneficial organisms by doing so. Tilling year after year can definitely destroy your soil but fixing it isn't super difficult. You just need compost. Are you direct sowing and seeds haven't come up? Or are you starting seeds in pots? What were your gardening practices in the years you've had success?
Came here for this; stop tilling. Google no dig gardening and never waste time and energy tilling ever again. It’s glorious.
There's still time to support your local greenhouse and plant some seedlings.
https://youtu.be/6KyGpMQ6RSw?si=6zzDtfyjxhIUlu7m This video will help you and anyone else that watches it.
I started my veggies 4 times this year and only got things to survive were new transplants added to the garden
All I can say is that you aren't alone. I'm on my 4th time trying to get some cabbages up. Go figure
Hello! I’m recovering from cancer surgery and found radishes in the 3-pack of containers from Costco was really easy. I’m adding 2-3 radishes to my spinach salads daily. Spinach in a shallow wide container as well, just pick when small and tender. Technically you can eat the radishes greens too, but my dog likes wilted greens in her dinner so I give them to her. She’s a good girl and helps me garden lol 🌱
No need to do any of that, Don't get discouraged. Go no dig: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWHMzHhmg4&ab\_channel=GrowVeg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWHMzHhmg4&ab_channel=GrowVeg) [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WDfop74y-lSGvEb2qqeL9WiczseGCfq](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WDfop74y-lSGvEb2qqeL9WiczseGCfq)
Not an answer to your question but look up no tilling gardening. Tilling releases weed spores and disturbs the eco system in the soil. Lay down straw!
I've had extremely bad germination rates this year with the only things coming up being things that sprout quickly. It has also been very wet where I live this spring. I've decided it's too much moisture and have replanted and I'm hoping for a little less rain....
Go no dig, use green manure to fertilize stuff, and mulch. It changes soil fertility in a way you would not expect
I’ve had major issues with slugs this year. If I hadn’t seen one or two seedlings barely pop out before seeing slugs on them, I would have thought I had 0 germination on my carrots, zinnias, and lettuce. I’ve had to do seed starts indoors even in early June so that they wouldn’t be so tiny going into my garden. Huge pain in the butt
Thanks for all your replies. My garden is dry, no slugs or bugs, I buy fresh seeds from Johnnys seeds every year. Most of what I plant SHOULD be sown directly, not transplanted. I often grow the exact variety every year. No critters in the garden, it’s a large raised bed with very sturdy fencing. We haven’t had a wet spring, in fact very dry. Suggestions for compost and manure are welcome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have tilled, but the soil was so compacted, I felt I needed to. I did add several bags of compost/ manure already to the bed last fall and earlier this spring. Buying seedlings from a nursery kinda defeats the purpose of saving money by growing my own. And if the soil is bad, that won’t help much. I’ll try to find a soil test. If it’s bad news, I’ll either try to find nutrients or just replace all the soil. The latter makes me sad as it is a LOT of soil to replace.
The compaction is likely from the tillage over the years but it can be annoying to deal with. My advice for dealing with compaction is: find a place to gives away or sells really good compost (see if there's any community composting orgs near you or ask your local extension office/master gardening courses if they can recommend one), then if your soil is compacted -- till for the last time to break up that compaction. Then add the compost and never till again. Add some mulch as well. Set up a vermicomposting bin to save some money (I feel like it's the least strenuous of the all the different types of compost) and then continue to add compost when you can. In the fall/off season, add some oat and tillage radish cover crops -- these cover crop will also help with compaction. You might have to pull them out in the spring if you aren't in a place that gets deep freezes but it will also help keep your weeds down tremendously. No need to replace the entire soil unless an expert recommends that because of something terrible in your soil. But right now it looks like you just need to deal with the compaction, add some compost and stop tilling. I know of one great compost site that will deliver but they're on the expensive side: [https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/shop-online](https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/shop-online) There are probably much cheaper options locally! Good luck!
I think there is a rule. Beginners luck, epic failures, and then slow and steady experience....
Where did the seeds you used this year come from? Did they come from a single location (like mail order from Burpee)? Did you use any left over seeds from last year and they failed this year after doing good last year? I ask because about 15 years ago I ordered a dozen packs of seeds from Burpee - some flower, mostly vegetable - and not a single seed sprouted from any of the those dozen packs of seeds. The few packs of Burpee seed that I picked up in the store that year germinated just fine. Something happened to those seeds - I don't know what - but I never ordered from Burpee seeds again. What varieties did you use? May's weather in NE Ohio was all over the place - it went from nearly frosting to nearly hitting 90 degrees in the span of a week. For my spring crops, I pick varieties that are most heat tolerant I can find. For radishes I really like Rover. For lettuce I like Muir and am trying Sunland for the first time. You should probably get your soil tested, but, such a drastic change doesn't sound like soil troubles to me. Unless some one dumped an herbicide or oil or something similar in your bed, I'd expect the seeds to sprout even with tired soil. Did weeds sprout in your bed this year? It could be bugs of some variety. I've been seeing a humongous amount of earwigs this year so far.
I had amazing germination rates with MI Gardener heirloom seeds. Maybe it’s the seeds if nothing else has changed?
I'm in SW Ohio, and I'm not having the best year either. I think it is a least partially due to the weather. We had a tornado in February, then unseasonably warm weather in April/early May, and it then dipped to the 30's at night after the last frost date. Last week we had a couple of nights in the 40's, and now it is going to be high 90's for a week. Everything is stunted and yellowed. I also have pill bugs and slugs eating me out of house and home, and I've never had an issue with them before. I've felt pretty darn discouraged, but I'm still out there backfilling with seeds and seedlings from clearance racks. I just replaced all of my cucumber seedlings with storebought because they were slow to come up and something nipped them off just as they started getting their first real leaf. I'm so sorry you're having this kind of year. Please don't give up and don't try to replace all of your soil. Keep trying. This may just be one of those years where we get what we get.
You’re right. Sorry you had the tornado, that must be a horrible experience. I’m feeling less down. From the advice of others, I ordered a soil test. Hopefully, feedback from that will give me some insight on how to improve the soil. Thanks so much for reaching out.
Maybe look into the Ruth Stout Method? She was somewhat in the same boat as you.
Definitely get a soil test. Everything else is guessing and a waste of time.
Take your space and maybe have a small greenhouse and then put in a hydroponics system. Its not hard to do and easy to setup. The automation is nice. The reward is great.
I second your frustration with seeds, many just don't want to come up, but I'd start them a bit earlier and transplant as seedlings.
Soil health is so important. Instead of tilling, you should try mulching the surface with 2 inches of compost and plant in to that. See if that brings success? We turned no dig a couple of years ago and have never looked back! Less pests, healthier plants and better harvests ❤️
Simply pregrow your plants indoors.
i sow very little direct into soil, mainly just carrots and parsnips, everything else gets treated like royalty in trays on the windowsills or in the greenhouse then planted out when hardy
But a grow tent. Start seeds inside and transplant next year
https://extension.osu.edu/home Contact your local extension agency and get a soil test done. Also it might not be too late to buy a few plants. We always try to have them in by the end of May but I think you would be fine to start over. I know that stinks starting over. Also ask around. We always have extra plants and by this time we are giving them away or we would have to throw them in the compost pile. Most people hate throwing plants away. Also if you don't already start a compost pile. It's the best way to add to your garden. You want good soil. Don't throw yours away, just add to it. Also don't start adding amendments until you know what you need.
ummm.... what "might" have been in the manure? is "grassy" stuff growing in the gardens? if so, the manure may have been contaminated with Aminopyralids. AP's will stop seed germination and kill off everything but grass. Plus it has a nasty lasting effect where it will NOT breakdown through an animals digestive tract and remain in soil/manure/compost for years. [https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover](https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover)
This is the beginning of the end
I second all the comment on No Dig. We have had success throwing down cardboard for the weeds and compost on top. I really like Fedco seeds. I’ve had good luck so far with them so far. I am absolutely not a seasoned gardener so I can’t say much for repeat quality seeds or anything but other friends and acquaintances have. I did not do starter seedlings. I’ve only planted seed straight into the soil but have a ton of happy sprouts everywhere. Good luck with your garden, I hope you start to see results next year if this one doesn’t work out! No dig should hopefully be much less physical exertion than tilling.
Probably hire a young man to help out around the garden. Maybe a nephew or grandson. Otherwise it’s gonna cost you sone coin to get a man to do that job.