Morrisons Kits

[robfosters]

I have had a pepper growing kit and a herb garden set for a while now and nothing is happening.

The seeds seem OK, but lets face it, you cant really tell a good seed, but the compost feels rubbish. It's more like sand, it barely holds any moisture.

Have I made a beginners mistake in using it? Would I have been better off just turfing it out and using my John Innes instead?

[piskieinboots]

I was given a present at Christmas (by a non-gardener) of a windowsill herb planter set - the pots has no drainage holes in them!

Herbs hate to be too wet, so how the heck did they (manufacturers) think the water would drain? Answer is they (often) don't care and just want to sell their products to new gardeners and when the produce fails the new gardener thinks 'I'm no good at this gardening lark'

ggrrrrr Everyone is 'good' at gardening, it is in our genes to sow, plant and grow and it is in the plant's genes to want to grow.

Sorry, I wittering on - back to your kit, I've never bought anything from Morrisons, so it's hard to comment on the quality of it. But it most likely wasn't anything you did 'wrong'.

Make your own kits - way cheaper and pretty much guaranteed success

[chilliking]

i grow a lot of chillies (hot peppers) and find they are pretty resilient and grow in pretty poor compost so long as they are kept warm and not too dry.

peppers can take a long time to germinate so stick with it for a bit.

as piskie says though its cheaper to buy good quality seed from a reputable seed company and use your own compost. for peppers i usually use regular potting compost with a bit of vermiculite mixed in (no essential).