6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I started mine under lights about 1.5 months ago, they are outside in hte garden in my flower box already! Mine had NO prob. germinating with just reg. planting soil!! I put them in 1 gallon milk plastic jug cut in 1/2 and they all came up! I used Morgan and Thompson seeds! They are now like......8 leaves and the leaves are like 5-6" each.
I dumped a big bag of manure in my front flower bed, Didn't mix it in, just spread it evenly over the top. Kept it nice and moist for a couple weeks. My neighbors cat didn't like it and found a new place to go. Then just before I was ready to plant in the bed I mixed it in real good.
Pam
Sounds like damping off, which is a fungus that attacks young seedlings, usually ones started indoors. Mine started to do that too, but mine were wintersown. My solution was plant them out immediately, that way the microscopic "good guys" could take care of it. It worked for me. All of the ones planted out made it just fine. Cosmos is a full sun annual. As long as there is a good root system, and you keep them watered at first, they should recover from the transplant, as you have already somewhat hardened them off. Once they are established, they are pretty drought tolerant.
My morning glories have been out for 3 weeks!!! I was covering them at night for the first week or so and now they are vined about 5 feet up my trellis already! I am zone 4....so yes...your mg can get into the ground if you ask me!!!My marigolds have been out for a week and are doing fab,.....I would say to get your plants outside, they are prob. in need of some sun, wind, rain, and real soil!!!!
Thank you so much! I didn't knick the Moonflower seeds, so that may be the problem there. I tried to with the castor beans, but I don't know if I suceeded or not. I saw some suggestions on knicking seeds, so I'll have to try that.
Thanks again! :)
Alicia
Actually, no....not like a bonsai mix. At least not the bonsai medium that I am familiar with. Though bonsai medium does have bark fines, it also has inorganic particles such as Turface MPV, granite grit, etc. Mine has no peat whatsoever.
A nursery mix is intended for the growing of woody plants in the nursery setting....in containers. The medium must drain rapidly but still be organic (as in once living) based. Nursery mixes have two primary ingredients. Bark fines and peat. Some are mostly bark.
You can improve any average potting medium by adding plenty of perlite and bark fines to it.
Your seedlings are extremely lacking in sufficient sunlight. Stems should be short and stocky. Those seedlings will be difficult to transplant into individual containers. If you are going to try to expose them to some proper light, you will need to do so very slowly. Acclimation for plants such as these could take several days or weeks. Overdoing it (as in placing them in the direct sun all day) will kill them in a very short time.
Here is a link that might be useful: 
oh my god... mine looks terrible! :(
thanks for the link. it helps a lot to have something to try and compare with. they're at the balcony now, with at least a few hours of direct sunlight. maybe they need more. going to try the windowsill next.
thanks again!
I don't understand what you sliced. Taro is available in large bulb form this time of year. If you have an existing Taro in your garden you may dig it up and divide a large mass of roots into several divisions and replant in the soil. What you are doing I have never heard of. Al
thanks for the reassurances! :)
i'll leave them alone for now, and hope for the best. they're the cockscomb variety, and i am super-super excited to see them flower. don't think i've come across them before. hope to post back to this link when they have grown up ;)
not sure if you're still following this thread, but i took your advice and transplanted the celosia when the pot got a bit crowded (mixture of soil, some peat and vermiculite).
now i have three long flower boxes full of healthy, happy celosia seedlings. hope they grow out strong! :)
It's sugar making them sticky, wash them in water with some dish soap and rinse.
Keep in mind too that many of the melons we buy at the grocery store are hybrids - your melons may not be like the one you ate.
hmm... good to know, on both accounts. Thanks for the tip and the advice.