Growing from seed - advice please

Hello, I'm attempting to grow from seed for the first time. I have the following:

Blue grass
Salvia
Cosmos
Verbena rigida
Verbena buenos aires

Some of these have slightly different growing requirements but to make things easy on myself I'm using the same conditions for all.

I have them growing indoors on a table about 2 metres away from a window. Temperature is around 20.5 degrees.

I noticed some of the Cosmos stems are getting leggy and falling over. Anything I can do to fix/avoid that?

I can see evidence of the Salvias coming up.

Does my compost look too dry? It's difficult to know how often I should be spraying water into these pots.

 

I'm a beginner too... so I'm not a lot of help! But I had a problem of over watering so I bought a soil tester for a tenner from Amazon and it's pretty accurate at telling you whether the soil is wet, moist or dry. Also, I water all seedlings from the bottom... I stick them in a tray of water when they need it. Here's a link to the tester... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dooppa-Tes...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

They need as much light as possible Sandhun, window ledges are a good place but not in direct sunlight if possible. They are growing leggy because they are reaching for light.

If they aren't too leggy it's possible to re-plant them lower in the pot. But with what I can see with yours it might be better to start some new seed off, it's not to late.

 

You really need to be much closer to a light source, a windowsill is a must. The compost appears to be bone dry, you need to water it not spray it, it should feel damp to the touch. Also your compost does not look great for seed growing what is it?

 

John Innes seed sowing compost bought from Wilko.

OK, I will drag the table closer to the window to get more light and give them a good watering. The cosmos have pretty much died.

 

You can use the seed compost again. Cosmos germinate easily in 3 to 6 days. I would wet the seed compost before you sow the seeds. If you squeeze it, the compost should hold together with only on odd drip coming from it. Sow the Cosmos seeds on the surface and then cover with 3mm of compost. Then, warmth - Light - moisture. Forget your mister when compost is getting dry just water it from a little pourer Hope this helps.
Remember Warmth - Light - Moisture. Try and commandeer a windowsill, and follow instructions on the seed packets.

 

Well, I've tried a different approach this year - which has so far been quite successful.

Every morning I look at the surface of the compost - if it is dry - which is usually is - I use a sprayer on the surface of the compost - to avoid disturbing the seedlings. Not much water, just enough to dampen the compost.

As a guy from the allotments said - "More plants are killed by over watering than under watering" - he is a retired nurseryman - so I listen to what he says.