Help With Growing Seeds

Hello everyone I am very new to this forum and this is my very first post. So hello to my new gardening friends and hope this will be one of many posts. so lets grow together!

The reason why I joined is, that I pretty awful at growing seeds and looking for advice off you guys?

I am based in London and started gardening in lockdown as there was nothing else to do as I was shielding and picked up a pair of secateurs and never looked back.

Unfortunately I do not have a greenhouse but did have a canvas grow house where the zip is now broken, I am going to buy one of those nice plastic grow houses, that retail off Amazon for about £120. I start my seed off in a spare room, where I have heat mats, seed trays, with plastic covers (B&Q) seed plug trays with LED lighting (Amazon) I have 5 bags of B&Q seed mix compost. I also have a bag of vermiculite and perlite.

Last year I put the above seed mix compost in the in the Amazon plug trays with LED lights, I then tried to harden them off too quickly and put them outside during the day and bring them in during the night, I was hoping I could start a seed production line, but this failed, teach me to mess with nature.

I have always had 100% success with Tomato, as I start these late. I have planted other trays of seed and put them in the spare on the bench for nothing to happen, both in trays and plugs.

As you can see I tried to spend money for better results, but still failed ;-( I think I am still making basic elementary mistakes. I have read what is said in the Gardening World magazine/programme and videos online about seed growing and they make it sound simple, but I still making mistakes. But now utterly confused and need help and guidance, hence why this is my first post, so be gentle with me. The problem with gardening media they tell you the dos and not the don'ts, So I was hoping I could post on here from stat to finish and you guys will be gentle and guide me and the end result will be lots of new plants and not going down the nursery where I have failed!

I have had very good success with summer seeds such as Wallflowers and Foxgloves, but struggle with spring seeds, this isn't helped as the season is very short to get it right.

 

I think you have basically answered your own question.
I started growing things from seed more than 50 yrs ago and back then there was no lighting in my price range and bottom heating was a bit iffy, mostly down to building your own propagator with heating cables.
I used the airing cupboard for germination for years, then window sills afer to harden off.

All the techy stuff just gets people to sow too early.

It obviously alter slightly depending on what you are growing, some things are tougher than others.
But in general I would say dont get caught up in the rush, often later sowings are stronger, due to better natural light and much easier to harden off.
I dont harden any tender stuff off until late April and mostly in May.

 

and .

I can't help you with seeds as I am useless but I can welcome you to the Forum.

 

Welcome @GreenFingeredPete ! Like @pete I have been growing seeds a long time (more like 60 years!) - unlike him, I always make mistakes.
It's very hard growing seeds under led lights - they're either too close or too far away. As Pete says, the tech tempts you to sow too early, and then the seedlings struggle. Apart from tomato, what are you trying to grow? If it's food plants, there are plenty of threads on here to help for chillies etc) and if it's flowers, there are people who are good with annuals, and some daft people like @pete and me who try random strange species.
But the key is not to go too soon for most things - you want there to be a bit of natural light and no frost by the time you're pricking out seedlings.
Keep at it - it's so worthwhile.

 

I never start my tomatoes until about the beginning of April. I don't have a greenhouse and it's not warm enough here to put them outside until mid-May at the earliest (and some years end of May) so it's no use having them outgrow the available windowsill space before then.

 

Thank you for all the replies so far, much appreciated!!!

Tomatoes are my last seed to go in, perhaps that is why they’re my most successful or are they a particular easy seed to grow? I never have success with petunias no matter how late I start them, I’m well aware they need light to germinate.

I wait to mid February to start my seeds for 2 reason, 1, it gives me a dry run to make mistakes and learn from mistakes for when I do a main batch, so not too concerned if these do fail 2, I’m impatient, lol.

So is there any non-tender plants I can start in the next couple of weeks? When is the ideal time to start seed growing? As I said I don’t have a greenhouse.,so therefore I don’t have much space, so it would be nice if I can do 2 lots or maybe 3?

 

Welcome GF Pete,
How did last years fail;ie how/what did they die from/of ?
This may help to help you this time.
Have a look at this thread recently where 'the collective' addressed similar issues for Laura:
Advice and tips on heat mats in green house
I caution regarding the growhouse kits; in my recent experience, they do not last beyond two seasons due to the poly covers degrading in sunlight.Consider a second hand greenhouse via Gumtree , friday-ad etc. Often can be found from ' free-' to your budget figure if you can do the dismantle-move-reassemble bit yourself. Have done five in 30 years, for various moves.
Are you looking to grow flowers or edible crops ?

 

I did have a poly grow house, but the zip is broken, so going to invest in a more substantial one, a nice wooden one, with plastic windows. I would post a link to the one I am thinking of on Amazon, but think this violates forum rules.

I want to grow both veg and flowers, but mainly interested in flowers.

As I say I only have a spare room with limited space.

I have made plenty of mistakes with the planting medium. Would I be correct in saying if planting in a B&Q basic seed compost, that these will always need to be pricked out? The soil is not good enough to grow a plant from seed to fully developed plug?

I have done every mistake possible from using normal Jack’s compost with added vermiculite to trying to start petunias in John Innes compost. Last year I think I used normal seed compost and tried to grow these as plugs.

The thing with vegetables seeds is that they are generally large, so the gardener has complete control over these, where flower seeds are finer and the gardener has less control. Another factor is time, where the spring bedding season is short, so if I make a mistake there is no time to recover, by which I mean May and June is too late to sow seeds and February and early March is too early.

So do all the experienced gardeners always get 100% success with every seed tray?

 

In general smaller seed do need more care in the early stages.
Is it that they are not germinating or a case of not being able to grow them on.

I think everyone will have had a fair amount of failures over the years, it's not always down to mistakes, there can be lots of other reasons, even bad seed on some occasions.
I think it's a case of just being persistent and not giving up.

The compost problems are mostly, imo, just preferences and not mistakes, you find what works for you.
Growing plants is not an exact science and in general there is no "right" way to do it, you will get lots of varying advice all of which can be right.

 

I've only been doing it a few years and I probably have more failures than successes, especially with the tiny seeds. But I'm not letting it put me off!

This time of year you can sow sweet peas, they don't need heat and it will give them time to build up plenty of root rather than lanky green growth.
There was an article in the Guardian yesterday which said that now is a good time to sow cup and saucer plant - Cobaea scandens. I've got some seed so I'm going to try a few of those.

Can’t wait for spring to get growing? Try the versatile, fast-growing cup and saucer plant

 

Definately don't get 100% Nobody does. If one did, where would the fun be ? A bigger problem is housing all you do get !
However, there are things one might do to improve performance.
1) use quality seed compost, which may not be from B&Q .Use fresh seed, its not expensive !
2) water compost before* you fill trays/modules/pots
3)level and firm compost before sowing. Put sufficient so that the surface is not in shadow of sides.
4)sow seeds thinly, easier in module trays, just count them in.@
5)bulk small seeds with fine dry sand so as to make seperation easier
6)when covering seeds, use the diameter of the seed as a guide to the covering depth of compost.It should be equal. ie 6mm for pea, dust for begonia.Not all seeds need cover, see instructions on packet
7)Place in constant temperature of # according to variety
8)Water* only after seeds seen to germinate.
9) Move to cooler area in good light to grow on.
10)Decide how best to thin for fuller development, either by pricking out, pinching out or pulling out surplus.
*greatest failure from overwatering, especially with peatfree compost or poor drainage. Maybe enlarge holes in trays before filling and support on slats rather than flat shelves.
@3-4 seeds,reduce to 1 before 4 leaf stage, unless planting as clusters (such as onion)
# research germination temperatures online, many varieties have a wide range of temperatures that will support germination but there is an optimum.
Onion for example will germinate at 8 deg C but take 72 days to appear, but only 8 days at 22deg C . If using heat, sow in batches that require similar temperatures and timings

 

Some seeds benefit from a period of cold stratification
Take a look at the attached RHS guide for general seed germination requirements,..........

https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...8QFnoECAwQAg&usg=AOvVaw2ZuoOsNGxPr4VtotPyYM5V

 

It seems a bit early to me for that, they grow fast and you often end up with a plant too big to accommodate around April but too cold to put outside.
My experience is they are pretty rampant once they get going so how she grows them and sweet peas in the same container is a mystery.
Maybe the container is skip sized.