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A few weeks ago I impulsively bought one of those vegetable growing magazines and it had some free tomato seeds with it, so I thought I might as well try them. I planted them - about three different varieties - and none of them has germinated. I followed the instructions on the packet but I guess they missed something out... Is there anything important about growing tomatoes that I should know? And is it too late to try some more now?

Did you put them in a heated propagator or somewhere the temperature was pretty stable. I would think it is a bit late now to sow from seed, why not put an ask out on a free site for plants, lots of gardeners have spare plants usually

I'd give it another bash, even though it is a bit late. Last year we sowed an old packet of Marmande about this time, with no expectation of any success. They caught up with all our other tomatoes quite quickly and were (if memory serves) the second best cropper of the year.

We sow ours in modules (three seeds in each) with a very thin layer of compost or vermiculite on top and put a lid on until you've got the first pair of seed leaves. Just keep the compost damp, not too wet.

And keep them warm - mind they don't appear in a hurry quite often.

Could this also be a compost problem? One year I had trouble getting anything to germinate, and I suspect it was the compost. (Shouldn't have gone for the cheap stuff.)

Try doing a germination test, those "free" packets of seeds in magazines are usually left over stock from previous years.
Easy to do (if you have some seeds left), put a damp piece of kitchen towel in a sealable container (like a margarine tub) and sprinkle a few seeds on the towel. If you place it in a warm place like an airing cupboard you should see sprouted seeds within a week.
That's how I grow all my tomatoes, sprout them first and then carefully pot up. It's a bit fiddly, but I can be fairly sure each one potted will grow.
It's getting a bit late, but not too late to sow some more. With the hopefully warmer temperatures from now onwards they will grow quickly. I had to sow another batch 2 weeks ago due to the first lot having problems (see my post) and the seedlings are growing fast now and will soon catch up.

It's also possible that the seeds are just not good. I had that problem when I stored my seeds in the greenhouse one year. The next year I had a real problem with germination. I had to toss all my seeds and start again. A shame cause I had quite a collection.

Thank you all for the excellent advice! I think I'll try both approaches: I'll start some more of my own seeds off again, but in case they don't work I'll also ask around to try to get some that are already started. I don't *think* it would have been my compost as I other things have started coming up ok.