6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Definitely don't leave multiple plants per pot then. If you decide to thin them without saving the extras, don't pull out the seedlings -- just snip them off so that you don't damage the root system of the remaining plant.
I always divide and save extra tomato and pepper seedlings.... it never hurts to have extra plants in case of some catastrophe, and they're always easy to give away if you don't need them in the end.
No experience with T5HO lights, but white mold does sound like you're over-watering. I don't use "seed starting mix" because it tends to be mostly vermiculite. I use Pro-Mix potting mix and usually add extra perlite. I prefer to water from the top because I have better control.... I give it water until I see water coming from the bottom of the pot. To judge if it needs water, I go by the color of the potting mix and the weight of the pots (it's lighter in both color and weight when it's dry). HTH.
I've not had great luck with jiffy pots which tend to dry out quickly. Despite package claims they do not decompose in the ground but instead hamper root development. You might do better with red drink party cups with holes poked in the bottoms until you plant in ground.
This link will cover Shirley Poppies. Shirley Poppies
This will do California Poppies Eschscholzia californica
Iceland Poppies are recommended for Fall sowing.
I winter sow poppies. There is also a Winter Sowing Forum here that you should check out.
Rodney
On Epic-Fails I go a good one. I bought some chestnuts (from Italy!) at Wal-Mart when they were in season last year. Well I sprouted them in the frig over the winter and set them by the window and they were growing splendidly until I put them outside for the first time.
I did not know that squirrels would eat sprouted nuts. Well they do! They made off with every single one of them and they ate the entire plant, not just the nut. The trees were at a point where they could have lived without the nut had the squirrel just ate that but nooooooo!!!!
Live and learn! The one I got left I thought I killed because of under-watering. The leaves all died and I was meaning to throw it out. Well it has come back to life and is growing new leaves. Its staying inside until the nut is completely exploited by the tree.
And I was doing all this for the damn tree rats too. I was to put the new trees in the woods to grow and produce nuts someday -- for them.
Most of my failures this year have been perennials that I lazily didn't properly stratify beyond letting them sit in a 50 degree dark basement until they sprouted.
I tried to grow some Hardy Gloxinia from seed for my mom, but none of the seeds took. Meanwhile, my not-so-hardy Purple Spotted Gloxinia seeds did well. My Blue Himalayan Poppies (my nemesis as far as seeds go) sprouted, but withered soon afterwards. I also tried a type of skullflower and some pasqueflowers, but no go.
I will say that I've gotten primrose seed starting down to an art, after many years. This is the first year I couldn't plant any, since we had an abundance of them happily come back this year.
I'm not sure how much it can help at this point, but try running an osculating fan over them. This will help strengthen the stalks, as well as help circulate air around.
All the seeds you've planted are perennials, so I don't think it's worth it to chuck them out by any means. If they're leggy this year, next year they'll come back right as rain.
Side a sidenote- watch out for columbines. If they really like you, they'll spread around. Unlike other potentially invasive species, however, they really space themselves out, so it's more a funny game of 'where will they pop up now' and 'what color will they be' since my family planted more than one variety. I have one healthy plant that grows from a crevice in a stone wall!
You use heat to germinate, not grow, and you use light to grow, not germinate. That's the gist of it but there are endless degrees of overlap between the two modes.
You can supply warmth in any of a hundred ways and a heat mat is just one. You could also site the setup in a warm spot like a utility closet or the like, and move the little things to bright light after they have officially become photosynthesizing plants. There are very few germinating and growing scenarios that require anything to be bought, however heat mats and grow lights are great tools if you need them.
Peat has a few advantages and a few disadvantages, as does every other method. One is they are very good for germinating but please don't leave seedlings to depend solely on the peat pellets for growth. Once you get the second or third set of leaves, move the plant and pellet to some sort of pot with more room. Don't peel off that netting as the roots will ignore it unless they're already growing through it and for some reason (depending on the plant species) you WANT to disturb the roots. This pic shows sweet peppers that are overdue by a few days for transplanting into pots or cups. 
The "greenhouse" part means there's a clear plastic cover that holds in heat a bit and that holds in moisture a lot. Unless you have problems, you probably won't need it and at the same time it probably won't hurt. If not using it, watch the peat watering. Pellets can be flood watered if you then let them drip off, and you can get away with not watering until they're NEARLY dry. Completely dry is a no-no. Long term soaking is a no-no. They drain very well and unless they sit in water it's hard to over-water in peat.
As always, since all gardening is local and all techniques are what they are, my suggestion is to wing it, never putting all your eggs in one basket, and split up your germinating into smaller batches that you treat differently.
"Don't peel off that netting as the roots will ignore it "
Many have found that not to be the case:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1397733/peat-pellet-users-you-might-want-to-look-pics
Well, I am continuing to let them be, but now I have another question....
In one of my cups that have two plants growing, one of them is growing roots along the stem...
Would I be able to cut it at its lowest point (without disturbing the other plant) and re-plant it???
Here is a picture... It's the one that is curving towards your left shoulder... You can see the little roots starting to poke out... If I could do this, should I wait a little longer???
I don't know about the grass you're using or your growing conditions, but I can tell you my experience w/ growing grass. First, if possible, soak the grass seed in water overnight before planting -- it makes it sprout so much quicker! but it is a pain dealing with the wet seed. :) Otherwise, be sure to keep it well-watered until it gets growing. Up here that means to water it every day. In your location you may need to water more frequently...
A few years ago I had a patch of lawn dug up by the water company, leaving me a big bare spot. I went to a local hardware store and bought a roll of bulk burlap. I seeded the area then cut the burlap to roughly fit the spot and laid it over the seed and watered it in. The burlap helped keep the birds away, helped keep the seed moist and in place, and once the grass got growing it was hard to find. No need to remove the burlap -- it just composts away! The water company guys came back to repair the bare spot long after I already had the new grass growing and they were fascinated by my burlap fix. :) Just make sure you get natural burlap and not some synthetic knockoff.
Here's a link to the stuff I used: Natural burlap.
What is your germination medium? Perhaps you are leaving it in too long or they medium is absorbing and retaining too much water for the seedlings.
I would recommend you pour your used tea somewhere outside. There must be a plant or pot that could use it. Keep the indoor water reservoir (not to mention that it isn't regularly emptied, just topped up) clean with just water.
Thanks purselanegarden. I think my medium is draining okay...I'm betting that as opposed to new damping off issues, I was just seeing some plants succumbing more slowly than others. They were already doomed and just took a while to show it. So far things seem to be going okay again. I appreciate your feedback :)
My two cents : ditch the peat/vermicompost/perilite/vermiculite combo that you make. I have a feeling the ratio you are using is holding too much water or not letting water flow consistently through the mix (your vermicompost can do that). Pick up some Sungro, Promix, Fafards, or some other soilless mix. Have a soft touch with watering, let your fans blow around a bit ( I run mine at night when the lights are off), and don't worry about using chamomile, vinegar, or other 'stuff'. R-E-L-A-X, as Aaron Rodgers would say :)
Thanks Mitch :) I haven't been using any vermicompost and the water seems to drain plenty well through my equal parts peat/perlite/vermiculite mix. I had been adding a bit more peat this season and went back to the old ratio after all the issues. Fans are on 24/7 and I'm letting everything dry out way more than I think I should haha, but so far so good. (I've been home most days lately so I can water midday if needed). I've also replanted most of what I lost into smaller cells that dry out faster anyway, just since the seedlings won't need as much room now that they'll be late going into the garden anyway. I am guilty of using chamomile, but that may just be helping my paranoia more than anything else, and I can live with that ;)
I live in the north-central area of the USofA, and am a huge zinnia lover. May I suggest buying lilliput zinnia seed, or dwarf zinnia seed. I start my zinnia's in Jiffy 7's about 8 weeks before last frost date. The dwarf zinnias are slow to germinate, some of the best colours are the slowest to germinate, so I take that into consideration. When planting out time comes I crowd them in my plantings, and have spectacular results. It is as if they support each other while stretchinig out for more sunlight. Zinnias do need fertile soil and full sun, but the rewards are great. Mine always are lanky, but crowded together they produce long stemmed flowers. I also plant some of the California Giant Zinnia's, and they truly are giants of my garden. Fortunately the seed is available by the ounce or part of ounce at the garden center near me. A fungicide of natural or chemical nature is almost always needed to keep the plants healthy. Like mentioned by others..topping off and deadheading is worth the effort. Yes, zinnias are a great cut flower, and last in bouquets a long time.
@floral: Yes, I'm referring to cut flowers, but we're also thinking of selling a few starter plants as well. How would you approach either?
@ThinMan: I'll look into the pricing of it and see if we can make it work to buy a bunch of 72 cell trays. We're lucky right now to have free access to basically as many 200 cell trays as we want, but if we have to transplant to something bigger as a result, it makes more sense to spring for the 72 cell trays if we can afford it.
I like 72 count or 50 count cell trays. I think the 50's give better space for root development, but they take more work putting into the ground, and of course take up more room on the growing bench . If I had to choose one, it would be the 50 count. If I was growing starter plants for people, it would really depend on the type of plants I would be growing. Starting in small cell trays (certainly less than 72 counts) and bumping up to 3 1/2" to 4" pots would be ok.
Could be the quality of the seeds maybe too old try new ones fresh soil or coconut coir and organic fertilizer such ad biobizz bio grow made from dutch sugarbeet
Thanks sun forum! Seeds were new, but I question their quality.......... very poor germination........ With seed origin being China & Japan, ya can't hope for much...... There is an outside chance I fertilized a bit too much as well, since NG Imps are very light feeders.... Seedlings have slow to no growth..........