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Chris
I have used Klaasman -Deilmann compost, except for tomatoes (which do grow as fast as Charles’plants), where I use JI seed/1/2 during potting up. germination has been very rapid, much quicker than with other composts. It is what happens after that seems slower.
Quite a few plants have heating underneath for germination (especially onions). All seedlings sown before April live indoors at 20C for two weeks at least. The peas I sowed April 6th live in a lean-to (tmax 18-24, tmin 8-12) and are 50% germinated after 9 days.
The things which have been most noticeably slower (lettuce, beetroot, cabbage, spinach): some sown later than Charles (lettuce and back up beetroot), some maybe same time or earlier (spinach, cabbage, first beetroot sowing).
As for watering, many earlier plants simply had rainfall (which was plentiful until early March) once living outside during the day. Lately, with no rainfall it is watering every 3 days as Charles has suggested, except when we had the hot days when daily watering happened.
As an aside, watering the 31st March carrot sowing daily just to keep the surface damp has seen very good germination within two weeks. Watering only happens if surface is drying and is just one back and forward using the finest rose I have.