I had the same experience! The "Jiffy" was unavailable so I got the next one down the amazon page. Shoot, they were difficult to rehydrate and I could feel tough hard disks stuck in the middle that would not soften. I was able to break them up by hand and get the whole thing soft. Definitely had some failed germination for a few weeks there. I could not figure out the problem. Finally got a small box of the name brand Jiffys and bang, back in business.