6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
In zone 5, probably not as your season usually isn't long enough. Normally perennials in your zone would be started much earlier indoors (January). But you might luck out if the weather cooperates so it is still well worth doing and give you even greater performance next year.
Hi Dave,
Since the problem started as soon as the plants emerged I think call rule out nutrients or root rot, heat however may be the problem. I've fed them since the primary leave emerged with Maxigro diluted according ti the directions. I'm not totally for certain yet but I think cutting back the duration of the lighting is making a difference. As always I will soon be putting a fan on them to help stimulate the stem resiliency.
Thanks very much for your help.
I too find it unusual for it to be lighting. Heat, maybe. Put your hand under the lights, are you feeling heat? Get some fans going to help with that. 8 hours is not very long to have lights on the plant, you should be aiming for more hours than that. Additionally, I checked out the link you provided. The system comes with T5 bulbs, which will run a little warmer than T8's but would no way burn seedlings. I really don't see a light problem causing your issues, I agree with digdirt2 above, either overwatering/drainage issues and/or fert issues. Maybe too much fertilizer is compounded by a wet medium. Any way to post a pic?
Yeah me too, getting Dixondale onions and leeks first week of April. We lost about 50% of the snow cover in the last few days.
I remember eggplants growing a lot faster than peppers, but Johnny's and other sources says 8-10 weeks before transplanting. Should I start them at the same time as the peppers? (maybe this weekend)
I will agree with most of the advice, but reinforce the caveat that any projection is just that and not anywhere close to a hard and fast rule. I live in Northwest Arkansas and so am a bit cooler than Tulsa but a bit warmer than most of Missouri. The entire central part of this country is so highly variable from week to week this time of year that averages just aren't all that useful. In 2011 I had tomatoes in the ground April 1 because March had been dry and very warm, I was glad I did because that summer was brutal and all that grew well was okra and eggplant even with drip irrigation. Last year I didn't put them in the ground until mid May and even that may have been too early, okra and eggplant never really produced all summer. I had watermelon that I planted as seed May 15 get going and then just stall late in the month as temps dropped at the END of May. This year I plan to use low tunnels with Agribon and plant out the end of April, but that plan is just a plan...might not even need it but might need to keep it on until Memorial Day...who knows.
So , do like the other suggest and play it by ear. Hope for the best but plan for the worst and staggered planting never hurt any home grower.
Planting Tomatoes mid May and Peppers end of May is a pretty good plan regardless of your exact last frost date, which is really a crapshoot. Peppers and Eggplants should not go out until nighttime temps are stable, staying above 55. Tomatoes are a little hardier. No way to predict the weather 8+ weeks in advance. End of May is pretty safe for most (in the average US weather conditions) Planting 2 weeks after last frost is a bare minimum that is sure to hurt heat loving plants.
Surface sown and not heavily covered is all you need, not intensity of a grow light. Some light may be beneficial for germination. Lavender in general can have low germination percentages. Slightly oversowing, and giving the seeds a brief moist chill of 2-4 weeks before bringing back to warm may be helpful to increase percentages.
Sorry for the delayed response. I was specifically thinking of some sunflower seeds that I bought/planted last year. I got good germination rates and wondered if the seeds had been scarified prior to purchase. Based on the answers above it sounds like that is very unlikely. I wondered if I would have to scarify this year to expect germination rates as good as last year. Apparently not. In fact, I found some people online saying sunflower seeds don't need scarified anyway.
Also, for what it's worth I think there is truth in what both theforgottenone1013 and brandon7 TN_zone are saying. The reason to initiate a forum post is to answer the OP's specific question. But the reason so many people search forums is that we are usually not the first one to ask a certain question. I couldn't find anyone else who had asked this question so I asked it myself. I tried to word the question so it would be useful to others, but if I did not get my specific question answered satisfactorily I would consider that a fail.
stainsor, you are correct in assuming sunflowers don't need to be scarified. You will likely have your same good results as last year if your weather cooperates. You could speed up germination slightly if you soaked the seeds a few hours before planting to begin to soften the seed coat, permit water to reach the embryo but all in all sunflowers are not very demanding and its not required.
In my climate with plentiful rain, soaking isn't necessary. Protecting the sown seeds from chipmunks may be. I find little clumps of sunflowers sprouting in my beds all Spring and Summer long, just about as many seedlings as seeds in a chipmunks cheek full...someone's bird feeder I'm sure :)
A drop of spit (saliva) is a common recommendation for helmet heads. The enzymes quickly soften the helmet and you can then easily remove it.
For future reference, it is often an indication that the seeds were not planted deep enough or in too dry soil.
Dave
New England Aster (asternovae-angliae), Sow at 68F, germination slow - you could start these now. Showy Aster (aster spectabilis) will germinate more reliably if you can give it a moist cold period of 6 weeks, then should germinate in 2-3 weeks once brought back to warm.
Black oak can mean more than one tree. Going by your zone, maybe Eastern Black Oak?Quercus velutina - "Seed can quickly lose viability if allowed to dry and if stored, is best sown fresh in Fall outdoors." You could try giving them 2 months moist chill of 35-40F then bringing back to warm. Suggestions are approximately the same for Scarlet Oak ( quercus coccinea). Fall sowing best and may be better than artificial stratification (the cold moist period). Since its too late to Fall sow, you'd have nothing to lose by trying. Consider soaking overnight before providing the moist chill period.
As the others say your planting mix is too wet. If you are going to add anything to your mix it should be perlite for drainage. I never have this problem but I only use pro mix for seed starting and transplanting and I make sure it is moist but not wet. I mix my soil with warm water before filling my pots and I squeeze a handful and only a small trickle of water comes out. If it's more than that I add more of the mix
I may be way out but I'm wondering from the spelling and the vocabulary if the OP may be in the UK. In which case the Seed and Cuttings mix would probably be labelled 'compost'. If so it's soilless and the right thing to use. So I'd suspect a watering issue. Some pictures would be helpful. If they were droopy after only one day it sounds more like under than over-watering. Exactly how and when are you doing the watering, brandywhisky?
I have to agree with floral. Around here in my cooler zone, squash and cukes are regularly started in pots and transplanted... and do really well. I've started my own, and bought them from local nurseries too. It is usually better to plant them in a bit younger rather than older though. I've lost late season/overly mature seedlings picked up from a nursery way more often than planting in younger seedlings.
But more to the OP. If you pot them up well and give them good light, nutes, and water, they should grow fine. After all, people do regularly container grow squash and cukes with success. However, I would advise to just pot them up in a larger container and keep them in the container rather than trying to transplant them again into the ground. Trying to transplant them when they are too mature can make them go kapooie.
I did this last year not knowing what I was doing... don't waste your time, just pop some fresh seeds in the ground in May, and they will grow like crazy, much faster than any attempted save at the seedlings. Started in February, they will be weak, spindly, rootbound plants, flowering in the pots, that are unlikely to transition well to the garden. Squash family are fast growing. They will also go through crazy amounts of water and will be difficult to keep alive.
Re transplanting, I did buy one Zuke transplant at the store, and it transplanted fine. But it was small. Then again, the seeds I planted in the ground next to it caught right up and even maybe grew a little faster.
Snapdragons germinate best if they are given a period of freezing. I stick my seed packages in the freezer for 3 or 4 days before planting. Snaps grow very slowly at first and do take a bit of time before plants are ready to flower. When to start depends on the variety. I start my dwarf snaps at the end of march and the taller ones a couple of weeks earlier for planting outside at the end of May. They are very frost tolerant--in fact they are a tender perennial--so as long as the ground is warm don't worry about them freezing. If the ground is not warm they will just sit there and may whither away. My snaps were still green at the end of November peeking above the snow and even in my zone 3 I have had some winter over.
Be careful of the germination temperature and light. Snaps germinate at 70-75 degrees and need light to germinate so don't cover them with soil
If you have a sunny protected area that warms up fast try gathering some seed in the fall and sprinkle it on the ground. I often have snaps reseed in my back south facing flowerbed by the house. If you stick a clear bottle with the bottom cut out and the lid removed over them it acts like a mini green house. Just make sure no leaves are touching the sides
Row covers raise the temperature by 2 to 3 degrees. Although broccoli and cauliflower do not freeze easily I think pushing it by a month is not good. I think I'd wait a couple of weeks. The temperature of the soil is most important when transplanting or planting seeds outside. If the soil is still cold seeds or plants won't grow and may rot. Use that 2 weeks to warm the soil. Put plastic over your raised bed or put your row cover on 2 weeks early. Both will help to warm the soil
<I was planning to give the broccoli and cauliflower 5 weeks, though the packet says 6-8.>
Agree with what dowlinggram said above. In most cases those guidelines on seed packs are for direct seeding in the garden rather than for growing transplants indoors. In zone 5b your plant out date is mid to late May (plant out dates are an average of 2 weeks past last frost date) so while you may be able to get away with planting the broccoli and cauliflower late Apr to early may (with protection as needed) the tomatoes wouldn't normally go out until the 2nd or 3rd week of May depending on the weather and the peppers would go out approx. 2 weeks later.
So you have a lot of things started way early. Broccoli, celery, and cauliflower, if you can keep them going and healthy that long, will likely need more than one transplant over that time so just work your way up the sizes of cell packs you have. Transplant the peppers into the 18s and since they are slow growing hopefully they will do ok in them until plant out time. Tomatoes, started at the proper time, normally go from 72s to 36s to or into solo cups or larger.
All this depends on several variables - lights, leggy plants, nutrients, ambient air temps maintained, etc. etc.
Hope this helps But next year plan to start much later in your zone.
Dave
What would you recommend for seedling containers, for plants which dislike their roots to be disturbed?
Pot of your choice...just gently pop the plant out of it, root mass and soil, don't disturb roots...all is well.