6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

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.

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

If it is damp-off then you are over-watering even if you don't think so. It is the most common problem in seedling germination. Damp-off is caused by excess moisture and inadequate air circulation. Cut back on the water and set-up a fan.

Dave

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I would think that as long as you are willing to pot up, feed, and provide adequate light & space for larger plants that there would be little disadvantage to starting a month to 6 weeks earlier than late March for probably most annual and perennial flowers. I have tended to start a bit too early with my seeds just because I need something "gardeny" to do to help alleviate the winter blahs. Last yr I had to repot my snapdragons that I started a few weeks too early, and wasn't able to extract them from the larger clay pot I had thrown them all into (about 4 plants that were too large and entangled to try to separate by the time I planned to plant them out) and ended up enjoying them in that pot for the rest of the summer. Which was fine, but not my original plan and not ideal for the snapdragons. You just don't want to end up with leggy root-bound plants and the timing for it all can be a trick. This year I tried starting some daylily seeds about a month ago, and they're now a couple inches tall with at least another month to go until I plant them out. So, I think it would have been easier to wait a few more weeks for those.

There are some varieties of seeds that you can start earlier than others, especially a lot of perennials. I generally research when to start which seeds (ie 'ten/eight/six weeks before last frost') and put reminders in my calender on when to start which seeds.

Seed storage is my basement in a dark location. We definitely do not have a humidity problem in there right now. Plus, the pelleted seeds were shipped in a little sealable vial, so they're even more protected. The vial is inside the seed envelope as well.

I generally store my seeds in a plastic bag in the fridge.

I float plastic trays in water with a fish tank heater submerged in it. Advantage 1: you can dial in any reasonable temperature within a degree or two. Advantage 2: tanks are BUILT for lights!

I also grow flowers from seed in a basement, though it's furnished so it's generally not too cold. I used to use heating pads (like you use for relaxing muscles), but it actually heated the seedlings too much. Now I just allow them to gain heat from the lights underneath, which are strapped to the wire frame of the shelves with velcro. If they need a heated environment to germinate, I put a plastic top on them, then take it off when they've sprouted.

I'm not sure that all potting mixes are created equally. We bought some 'organic' potting mix at a locally owned store and we are having much better results so far. The texture of the mix is also much softer and drains well, yet retains moisture. No large sticks of pieces of bark either.

I don't know what is put into miracle grow potting mix, but maybe it inhibits germination.

The temperature is the same, we start everything in the same room each year. Upper 60's and low 70's for soil temp.

I think the problem is that potting mix is generally meant for grown plants in pots, not seedlings. As plants in pots have less soil to gain nutrients from, a lot of brands infuse it with things like fertilizer and water-retaining ingredients. It's also more dense in texture to pack more into a small space (ie, a pot), which can make it difficult for little seedlings to poke through. So it may not be the brand that's the problem, but the fact that you're using potting soil.

The organic potting mix you have, on top of being softer and more fine in texture, may have less additives, or the ones they have are more agreeable with seedlings. I myself sometimes get bags of a brand of organic potting mix instead if the local store's run out of seed starting mix, though I mix it in with what I have.

Bees, tall and falling over sounds like inadequate light. What kind of light do you have your seedings in?

They are getting inadequate light- or at least they are getting no artificial light. I lost my indoor grow setup space when I moved some family in, so I'm just using my south facing bay window. I've used this window in the past for other seedlings with no problems for late March starts- But I think with how early I started the asparagus and with the weather and day length not being up to snuff in Feb, that helped made a light difference that's inadequate.

But there's no help for that now, and they are tall. That's why I was wondering if I could transplant them deep like tomatoes or use stakes to stabilize them till I can get them outdoors.

A friend bought me some in the US so I hope I can get them to flower and maybe have viable seed to save!

Wow, I love them too but 5 dollars for shipping, that's almost $10 for 100 seeds.

yes there's less risk of damping off. In a pot the moisture is contained by the pot. In the ground the moisture can spread.

Agree. Assuming you don't over-water there is less risk than in containers. Of course if you do over-water and you allow stagnant heated air to build up in the frame then all that advantage is loss. When the fungus is present and the conditions are right damp-off can develop in even an open air garden bed.

Thanks for the feedback you two I've still got plenty of time to start peppers for my June planting out date so I'll find a better source for these seed varieties.

I've "collected" seed from the bags of dried peppers at Walmart. The bags have holes and well, the seeds kinda fell out...
Anyway I grew out some Japones just fine. Beautiful upright pods with some good heat. That was in 2012. I just ground the last of them for powder...they were starting to fade a bit. I might try them again this season if I have room.