6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

There are a couple here -

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Site, Celosia

Thanks! I have a lot of little seedling probably a few weeks old emerging. If anyone has pictures of seedlings less than 1 month old, please post or send them. Thanks!

It's usually a real bad idea to use any fertilizer on a seedling. Try to just water it normally, if you have a water softener, use rain water instead, it could be salts building up in the soil. Might want to repot it or plant it outside, just get it used to being outside slowly if you live in a hot climate.

I'm no expert in this area. . . . but we too are averaging in the 40's at night and the 60's during the day.

Yesterday, I started some domed trays of wildflower seeds outside. They will not be moved into the garage unless we have a frost warning.

I am thinking this will be okay. My thoughts are that they will be stronger if they start outside w/ limited protections.

You'll need to be very careful about introducing them to direct sunlight or they'll burn. Just a little bit more every day. I'd not use any plastic during the day, which may heat up too much. All of the plants that you mention can take cool temperatures just fine.

I am no expert but I grew shasta daisies from seed a few years ago. I knew less then than I do now... and I managed to keep them alive! From what I recall, I didn't use any lights so they just grew in natural light. If your seem spindly and too weak in the stem, I wonder of adding a small mound of soil around the stem would help? I had them in small pots and I'd put them outside on warm sunny days so they could get some real sunlight. I also put them in the ground as soon as the temps stayed away from low 30's at night. They survived very well...I may have killed a few but honestly I found them to be quite hardy and forgiving of my knowledge deficit! Good luck.
Lori

I had problems with those, they didn't take transplanting well at all, and they were fussy about growing in miracle gro potting soil (maybe too much fertilizer for them or something). I'm not sure what's wrong with yours, but if any do make it, let them get good and rootbound before you try transplanting them, they will take it better if the root ball doesn't get disturbed in the process.

you can direct sow them .mine are supposed to be an anual here in zone 6a but they reseed for me like crazy and are coming up right now. or you can start them in paper pots and then just slit the pots slightly before directly planting in garden so the roots can grow out. thats what I did yrs ago and they reseed like mad. no fertilizer for them and they like drought conditions with full sun.

Yes can start in pots now, No roots will normally not be deformed

Thanks George, I will give it a try.

In my experience, overwatering looks very similar to chlorosis and is very much more likely if you are watering daily. That's what has caused the mold growth. Are you really fertilizing every single day in potting soil with organic matter? I would only do a weak Miracle Grow solution once at about the two true leaf stage.

I find that the green algae grows mostly in cells where the seeds have not yet germinated (and maybe never will)I've been carefully dabbing the green areas with a clean paper towel and the algae pretty much stick to the towel and brown soil is once again visible. I had cells that looked a lot more heavily covered than yours and they are now doing fine.

Hope this helps,
Amna

Things to check , good light, water damp not wet, pH 5.8-6.2 temperature 65 F day.
Time from sow to transplant 4-6 weeks time to set outside another 6 weeks. a fungicidal drench helpful at transplant time.

The above photo is too small...so here is a link to the WS forum where I posted originally with a larger photo. I can't get tinypic to give me the larger photo for some reason

Here is a link that might be useful: larger photo